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Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Artificial 'Cheaper' is one 'Dozen' too many
Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt and the ragtag brood are back for a sequel that feels cobbled together by a committee fresh from a marathon of family reunion and summer camp comedies.
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View all photosMartin is back in the generic role of football coach Tom Baker, the try-too-hard dad. Hit hard by empty-nest syndrome, he turns ringmaster of the last family lakeside vacation before his eldest kids (married Piper Perabo, just weeks away from giving birth, and recent high school grad Tom Welling) head their separate ways.
Like Eddie Murphy, another one-time wild man comedian tamed for family fare, Martin seems like he's performing in a straitjacket, playing everything cute and precious. It only gets worse when he locks egos with cocky nemesis Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy), a real-estate mogul and competitive father of eight who crows over his successful kids and proclaims the superiority of disciplinarian parenting over Tom's laissez-faire approach.
Of course, this means war. Martin regresses into an adolescent in a grown-up body (bring on the practical jokes and slapstick pratfalls), and then turns drill sergeant to transform a Labor Day vacation into a boot camp to train for the family Olympics.
Luckily, Mom (Bonnie Hunt) is there to quote from "101 Homilies for Lazy Screenwriters" to calm tensions, reunite conflicted family members and pull the shattered clan together for the obligatory family showdown.
It resembles nothing less than a circa 1970s live-action Disney family comedy minus the gee-whiz innocence. With the exception of Sarah Baker, the spunky tomboy daughter whose bout of first love sends her into a hormonal surge of self-consciousness, the Baker kids are stamped out from factory molds.
So is the film. "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" is all processed sugar and artificial flavor, right down to the sticky but tasteless happy ending.
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