Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
66 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Cheaper by the Dozen

EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Cheaper by the Dozen reviews
46
7.1 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 62 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Family/Kids

Written by: Craig Titley
Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. (book)
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (book)

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 2003
DVD: April 6, 2004

Running Time: 98 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

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)

What The Critics Said

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...

75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Lighthearted fun.

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

Premiere Sara Brady

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

Read Full Review >
63

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."

Read Full Review >
60

Village Voice Ed Park

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

Read Full Review >
60

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

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

Read Full Review >
60

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

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

50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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

Read Full Review >
50

Miami Herald Christine Dolen

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

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

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

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

As synthetic as a plastic Christmas tree.

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

USA Today Claudia Puig

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

Read Full Review >
42

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

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

Read Full Review >
40

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.

Read Full Review >
40

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Generally amusing -- if occasionally overly sentimental.

Read Full Review >
40

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.

Read Full Review >
40

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.

Read Full Review >
38

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.

Read Full Review >
38

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.

Read Full Review >
30

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

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

Read Full Review >
30

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.

Read Full Review >
30

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.

Read Full Review >
25

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.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

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.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use