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Cheaper by the Dozen
20th Century Fox Film Corporation


7.1

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 62 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG for language and some thematic elements

Starring Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Piper Perabo, Tom Welling, Hilary Duff, Kevin Schmidt, Alyson Stoner, and Ashton Kutcher

A comedy about family, loyalty and priorities. (20th Century Fox)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Family/Kids
WRITTEN BY:	Craig Titley Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. (book) Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Shawn Levy
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 6, 2004 Video: April 6, 2004 Theatrical: December 25, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	98 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Martin and Hunt are exactly the right lively but not sticky authority figures to keep the house (and the comedy pace) bouncing.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Lighthearted fun.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

It's not just a feel-good holiday movie, though audiences, especially youngsters, will certainly walk out of it feeling good.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Equal parts fantasy and cautionary tale, a film that manages to be uplifting and off-putting simultaneously -- fortunately, more the former than the latter.

Premiere Sara Brady

Cheaper entertains a broad audience by recalling an age of family filmmaking when that term wasn’t synonymous with crap.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Isn't without charm, or laughs. Director Shawn Levy's film features some of the best child actor casting since "The Little Rascals."

Village Voice Ed Park

Solidifying his funnyman rep, Ashton Kutcher appears as oldest child Piper Perabo's model-actor boyfriend, a delightfully brainless narcissist.

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

Be forewarned: this comedy bears only the faintest resemblance to the classic book and film of the same name.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Something of a shambles -- a shambles about a shambles -- but bound for big success and deservedly so.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Soft, sentimental, and as unlike real family life as you can get.

Miami Herald Christine Dolen

If only director Shawn Levy and the screenwriters had gone for cute and interesting instead of dull and cloyingly sentimental.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Much of the film feels like watching "Home Alone" and "Mr. Mom" on 12 different TVs at once.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

An unobjectionable if uninspired updating of a classic family story for the minivan generation.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This is a movie that knows its audience and realizes it doesn't need much of a story to hit that audience, literally, where it lives.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This is a movie that knows its audience and realizes it doesn't need much of a story to hit that audience, literally, where it lives.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Martin puts a thankless gloss on the antic role he played in "Parenthood." As his wife, Hunt is the movie's saving grace.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

As synthetic as a plastic Christmas tree.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Thanks to Martin and Hunt, who both have a seemingly casual flair for mining laughs from even the most generic lines of dialogue, Cheaper by the Dozen works better than it might have in less capable hands, but even they're challenged by some of the picture's forced mood swings.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Much as I adore Martin and Hunt, whose matching tongue-in-cheek delivery and finite patience make them seem more like siblings than spouses, their movie is indistinguishable from an Afterschool Special.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Makes one long for Martin's edgy work in films such as "The Spanish Prisoner."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Resembles nothing more than an overstuffed, undernourished "Brady Bunch" episode, only not as funny.

LA Weekly Jon Strickland

Nobody here, especially Martin, looks as if he's having much fun, apart from a dizzy cameo by Ashton Kutcher as oldest daughter Piper Perabo's model-actor beau, riffing heavy-handedly on his pretty-boy image, and loving it.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Generally amusing -- if occasionally overly sentimental.

Variety Robert Koehler

Unfortunately knows no tone between schmaltzy/gooey and slapstick/gross-out. Pic is as far from the original pic and its autobiographical memoir source as it can be while retaining the same title.

Empire Niall MacPherson

The film works best when it taps into the chaos generated by the kids, and there are a number of suitably anarchic Home Alone-style set-pieces.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

There is not a frame of "Cheaper" that doesn't feel contrived. It fails the most fundamental test of movie logic.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Can be summed up by the fact that Ashton Kutcher, making a glorified cameo as a narcissistic model-slash-actor, is the best thing in it.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Nothing happens. At all. Ever. Remember when Steve Martin was funny? Apparently, neither does he.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A bubbling crockpot of farcical mush to warm the tummies of anyone who really and truly misses "The Brady Bunch," and I mean really and truly.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Everyone learns a lesson by movie’s end: Don’t put work before family. Curiously, no one learns that all this could have been avoided with a good method of birth control.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The same studio has aimed a remake at the same family market. Translation: The once-modest piece has been redesigned as a vehicle (a lumbering SUV) for Steve Martin, stripped of any vestigial charm, and then thrown into neutral, where its manic engine does nothing but roar loudly and pointlessly for the duration.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 62 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brendan gave it a3:
Sure the kids might say "that was so funny!" But trust me when I say it is not. The "funny" scenes in the movie are taken right out of America's Funniest Home Videos but when transfered to the silver screen it leaves you waiting for the unbearable madness to stop. It is a film that everyone is sad and for no reason all of a sudden all the problems are gone and everyone is happy again for no reason. It's pointless and boring and just plain stupid even for kids. Some kids comedies can be smart and actually be enjoyable for the whole family (Bridge to Terrebithia, Big Fat Liar, Shrek). So when your in the theater watching it remember me when I say "I told you so."

Steve gave it a2:
For kids only. Worse than a bad sitcom.

Felicia P. gave it a10:
This movie was amazing! All the actors and actresses did an outstanding job. Jake Smith did one of the best jobs along with Alyson Stoner. Great job everyone.

Alexis A. gave it a10:
I just wish they gave Jacob Smith more lines. He barely said anything at all! And he is the only reason I liked it. Hillary Duff should not have been in the movie! If they took her and replaced her with someone else it would have been alot better. Even though I gave it a ten, it was only because they put Jacob in it.

mary gave it a10:
I liked that movie alot the only reason i liked it was cause of jacob i love you.

Cheyenne S. gave it a10:
I think cheaper by the dozen is the best movie ever i love jacob smith and tom welling i think they were costed perfcetly.

Jessica S. gave it a10:
It was the best movie ever my favorite charecter was Jake. I love Jacob Smith.

Cheaper by the Dozen 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Cheaper by the Dozen
20th Century Fox Film Corporation