Cheaper
by the Dozen and
Cheaper by the Dozen 2Find
a Cabin in Gatlinburg
Plot
The main plot is of Tom Baker trying to cope with both his new job and
his kids however there are several sub-plots which get mixed up in between.
Countryside home
The movie begins with scenes showing Tom Baker (Steve Martin)
jogging across the town of Midland where the family resides. Upon his return he
finds his wife Kate (Bonnie Hunt) on the personal computer who is correcting mistakes
to her novel in which she will later send away to be published. Tom returns to
find his children preparing for school and running around the house. A later scene
shows the Bakers preparing breakfast. Mark (Forrest Landis) enters the room looking
for his lost pet frog called Beans. As the family sits down to eat breakfast,
Mark spots Beans on the light above the breakfast table and uses a fishing net
in an attempt to get him down; Beans then jumps and destroys the family's breakfast
food. When Beans is finally caught after the kitchen being almost destroyed, Mark
accidentally smashes his mother's china ornaments. At a later scene, Tom returns
home after being offered a new job and promotion in the urban area of Illinois
with education advantages and a new vehicle; however, although Kate approves,
his children overhear and object to his proposed actions in a family conference
in the living room. Even though the children vote about what they would rather
do, Tom decides to accept the job and move to the city, many miles away from their
current countryside home. After arriving in their new house, an argument ensues
between the Baker children about which room each child will have. Mark is left
only with the option of the small attic room which turns out to be the best room.
Urban
home
They are greeted by the neighbours who take a negative atittude to the
Bakers because of the number of their children and the fact that they "run
wild". After settling into their new home, Tom is asked to speak live for
FOX Sports and rushes out to present his speech live to America. The children
plan to humiliate their older sister Nora's new boyfriend. Meanwhile, Kate is
offered a book tour. The children begin to misbehave and Tom begins to find it
hard to handle the situation. It is made worse when Kate telephones him asking
if he could manage for another two weeks as the book tour has been extended. The
younger children misbehave and Tom has to seek help from his eldest daughter Nora.
Kate ends the book tour and returns home, angry at Tom for not telling her that
he could not handle it.
A news shoot is held in the Baker home, despite the chaotic day they had, just before the shoot starts, Mark enters the room and informs everyone that his frog Beans has died; Sarah Baker then tells him no one cares and calls him FedEx and a large argument and fight ensues, causing the shooting crew to leave. That night, Kate discovers a note on Mark's bed saying Big families stink, with Mark missing. The family begins searching after calling the police, Tom realizes that Mark's favorite place was the Midland house and frantically makes his way to the railway station. He finds Mark, on a train heading towards Midland. They then get off the train the next day after travelling to Midland and greet the family at the Midland railway station and apologize to each other. Tom quits his football career to find a job which would provide more time for him to spend time with his family. While they return to the city and begin to adjust to their new life, Kate's book is published and stays at the number one at the bestseller's list on the book chart for 12 months.
Characters
Tom
Baker Steve Martin The father of the twelve children and husband of Kate Baker.
Tom grew up in a large family and wished that his own family would be the same.
He was a college footballer, beginning his relationship with Kate in his school
years, and developed ambitions to become a professional football coach. He and
Kate had several offspring together and reside with their children in the countryside.
Kate Baker Bonnie Hunt The mother of the twelve children and wife of Tom Baker.
In her childhood, she lost her sister and grew up in a small family. Wishing she
had a bigger family like what her children have now, she had dreams of becoming
a journalist in Illinois and writing for the newspaper; however, she moved to
the countryside with Tom in the early 1990s and began her new life there with
him and their children. Baker appears to have a talent in writing and has had
one of her books published.
Nora Baker Piper Perabo The oldest child of the
Bakers, 22-year old Nora wants to have her own life with her boyfriend but still
helps out her family.
Charlie Baker Tom Welling 17-year old Charlie is a football
player, who had a girlfriend named Beth when the Bakers lived in Midland. Their
relationship became distant upon moving away, but he still keeps regular contact
with her. Charlie notes that the move has ruined his life and becomes angry with
his father.
Lorraine Baker Hilary Duff 15-year old Lorraine is the fashion
queen of the Baker family and is anxious about getting out of big sister Nora's
hand-me-downs. Because of this, she and sister Sarah often bump heads. When Kate
and Nora are gone, she feels uncomfortable about being the woman of the house.
Henry Baker Kevin Schmidt Henry Baker is a player of the clarinet, he bonds
with his older brother, Charlie. He feels hurt when Charlie begins to push him
away.
Jake Baker Jacob Smith Jake is one of the younger children of the house,
he rides a skateboard and regularly always refers to people as dudes. For example,
when he asked his mom for new skates, he quoted, "Dude, two words: need new
skates." To which his mother; Kate Baker replies, "Dude, three words:
paper route."
Sarah Baker Alyson Stoner Sarah is described as the tomboy
of the house. Because of this, she often quarrels with Lorraine. She has been
known to play lacrosse and is said to have a dark gift, as her father Tom has
quoted, being behind several schemes to get rid of Hank, sister Nora's kid-hating
boyfriend. NOTE: Tom almost always addresses her "Sarah Baker" instead
of just Sarah, and she could be his favourite child.
Mark Baker Forrest Landis
His siblings call him FedEx, saying he does not belong to the Baker family and
that he was delivered by FedEx. He likes animals, mostly frogs and snakes. He
owns a frog named Beans which often gets himself into trouble.
Kim and Jessica
Baker Morgan York (Kim)
Liliana Mumy (Jessica) Kim and Jessica are fraternal
twins. They appear to be highly observant and often correct people, including
the teachers.
Mike Baker Blake Woodruff One of the younger children of the
family, shows a particular interest for karate and hockey.
Kyle and Nigel
Baker Shane Kinsman (Kyle)
Brent Kinsman (Nigel) Kyle and Nigel are the youngest
children of the house and are identical twins. They appear to be very energetic
and sometimes nasty such as when they threw toy bricks at their pre-school teacher.
Hank Ashton Kutcher Boyfriend of Nora currently pursuing an acting career.
Hank appears to be very selfish near the end of the movie, resulting in him and
Nora breaking up.
Shake McGuire Richard Jenkins Tom Baker's superior. Described
by Kate as a "hot dog"/"weiner".
Production crew
The
film was directed by Shawn Levy.
Writers
The movie was written by several
people, including one of the writers from the original movie:
Frank B. Gilbreth
Jr. Novel writer
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Novel writer
Craig Titley Screen
story
Sam Harper Screenplay
Joel Cohen Screenplay
Alec Sokolow Screenplay
Awards
Cheaper
By The Dozen has been nominated for several awards. The following is a list of
these:
Result Type of award Category Year
Nominated Blimp award Favorite
Movie actor 2004
Nominated Razzie Award Worst actor 2004
Nominated Teen
Choice Award Choice movie blush, Choice movie hissy fit, Choice breakout movie
star (male), Choice movie liplock 2004
Won Young artist award Several 2004
Nominated Young artist award Best performance in feature film
The film was shot in Toronto and Eugene Levy's hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Plot
The
movie begins with the Baker family arriving late to Lorraine's high school graduation.
Their other daughter, Nora (Piper Perabo) is now married to Bud McNulty and pregnant
and is moving to Houston with Bud because of his new job promotion. Tom says that
the Bakers should have beat the Murtaughs at the Labor Day family competition.
Tom decides that since the family is breaking apart they should all go to Lake
Winnetka for one last family vacation together. So the family goes to the lake
to a very old and rustic cabin which they are not impressed with and are invited
to a family clambake.
At the clambake, the family stands out, as they have come casually dressed while everyone else is smartly dressed. Meanwhile, The Bakers run into the Murtaughs, whose father, Jimmy (Eugene Levy) is an old rival of Tom's and has a wife, Sarina who's so much younger than Jimmy and eight kids. The kids make friends. Mark and Jake bring fireworks to the clambake. Mark puts down the book bag down sending the fireworks shooting everywhere. The next day, Tom wakes everybody up for breakfast and he thinks that having a camp out will bring the family together, so they all put up tents and sit around the campfire. They have a singing match with the Murtaughs around the lake. Then Jimmy comes and invites the Baker family over to their home. When they arrive, Tom is furious by how boastful Jimmy is and asks Sarah to play a trick on Jimmy in return for not being punished. She places meat in Jimmy's seat and releases their dog (who loves meat a lot, as seen in the previous movie). Things don't go exactly as planned, as Tom and Jimmy trade places to sit next to their respective wives. However, Sarah succeeds in destroying Jimmy's priceless crockery, which he claims he got from the King of Thailand. However, Jimmy sarcastically assures the family it's no big deal.
Elliot Murtaugh and Sarah are going knee boarding. Their father goes with wearing a wetsuit and elects to go first. However, he falls over, but does not let go and gets dragged a long way across the lake before being discovered by Sarah, who is angered that he has embarrassed her. Meanwhile, Charlie, and Anne talk about their future. Anne wants to leave Harvard and start painting and Charlie says that he wants to move up here and open a garage. Jimmy challenges Tom to a Labor day Competition, to which Tom agrees, despite promising not to. Meanwhile Sarah is caught shoplifting some makeup from a local store. Through talks with Kate, she admits she doesn't want to be embarrassed being caught buying makeup, so Kate explains all girls purchase makeup eventually and asks Sarah to promise to just buy the makeup instead of shoplifting it. Tom makes a practice schedule for the competition and tells the kids they can no longer associate with the Murtaugh family. Defying this, Sarah and Elliot form a bond. Elliot asks Sarah to go on a date with him and kisses her on the cheek. Tom quickly agrees, but Sarah hogs the bathroom to prepare for the date. Lorraine quickly arrives and helps Sarah put on her makeup. Sarah then leaves for her date. However, Tom goes to the movie they are watching to spy on them and unfortunately gets into a fight with Jimmy (who is also spying on Elliot) about "the move" (Elliot puts his arm around Sarah in the middle of the movie) and as a result, makes himself known to Sarah, so she and Elliot don't even get a chance to kiss. Sarah storms home afterwards in a fit of anger and declares she is not attending the Labor day competition the next day. The entire family, especially Lorraine are shocked at how low their father would sink in prying deep into their private lives. They also announce they will take Sarah's side and not join the Labor Day competition.
The next day is the competition but the only people who are going to help Tom are his younger twins. Kate stays with the rest of the family. In the rat’s hole, and they find the old family flag. They then race to Tom's aid and join him in the nick of time. The competition goes to a tie-break canoe race but Nora goes into labor partway through the race. The Murtaughs try to stop and help, but Jimmy, sensing the opportunity to defeat Tom once and for all, refuses. However his eight kids, for once, defy him and get out of the boat to help the Bakers. Sarina announces to him that his kids like the Bakers, that his rivalry with Tom was before any of them, including herself was born and that he should listen to them, unless he wants to start looking for a new wife. He reluctantly agrees.
Tom waits in the waiting room with his kids and the Murtaugh family. Anne tells her dad that she is leaving Harvard. Jimmy says no she isn’t but Sarina reminds him to listen to their kids. Charlie tells Tom that he is opening a garage here. Both Jimmy and Tom accept these facts when they can go see Nora’s baby. Nora says they are going to name the baby Tom because he has taught them so much that there is no way to be a perfect parent, but 1,000,000 ways to be a good one. Tom sheds a tear as he holds his new grandson. The next day, Bud and Nora decide to move to Lake Winnetka. That night Tom and Kate dance together on the dock.
According to 20th Century Fox, they
are currently producing a third Cheaper by the Dozen.
Characters
Bakers
Tom
Baker (Steve Martin)
Kate Baker (Bonnie Hunt)
Nora Baker-McNulty (Piper
Perabo)
Charlie Baker (Tom Welling)
Lorraine Baker (Hilary Duff)
Henry
Baker (Kevin G. Schmidt)
Sarah Baker (Alyson Stoner)
Jake Baker (Jacob
Smith)
Kim Baker (Morgan York)
Jessica Baker (Liliana Mumy)
Mark Baker
(Forrest Landis)
Mike Baker (Blake Woodruff)
Kyle Baker (Shane Kinsman)
Nigel Baker (Brent Kinsman)
Bud McNulty (Jonathan Bennett)
Murtaughs
Jimmy
Murtaugh (Eugene Levy)
Sarina Murtaugh (Carmen Electra)
Calvin Murtaugh
(Shawn Roberts)
Anne Murtaugh (Jaime King)
Daniel Murtaugh (Robbie Amell)
Becky Murtaugh (Melanie Tonello)
Eliot Murtaugh (Taylor Lautner)
Lisa
Murtaugh (Courtney Fitzpatrick)
Robin Murtaugh (Madison Fitzpatrick)
Kenneth
Murtaugh (Alexander Conti)
Trivia
Although the reviews were
largely negative with a 6% positive review score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film
performed fairly well at the box office, albeit not as well as Cheaper by the
Dozen.
The director of the preceding movie in the series, makes a cameo appearance
on the film as a receptionist in the hospital where Nora delivers her baby.
Steve
Irwin was originally going to make an appearance but declined it because he had
to plan his documentary, Ocean's Deadliest (which, unfortunately, was the same
show he was filming at the time of his death).
Many thought that Bud &
Hank (Nora's husband, and the latter one, her former boyfriend) were the same
person, since the actor playing Bud resembles Ashton Kutcher.
The film Sarah
and Eliot go to on their date is Ice Age. Tom tells Jimmy the film is rated G,
while in fact Ice Age was rated PG by the MPAA. Another fact is "Ice Age"
was released in 2002, while the film is set in 2005. The film, however, says it
takes place in 2002 when the film starts.
The scenes from "Lakeside High
School" where Lorraine graduates, are filmed at St. Andrew's College (Aurora,
Ontario).
Lake Winnetka, a fictional lake, was named after a Chicago suburb
on the North Shore area called Winnetka
This film reunites Steve Martin with
Eugene Levy, who previously performed together in Father of the Bride Part II
and Bringing Down the House.
In this movie, the Baker's van is green. In the
first movie, the van is red.
This film is the second in which Steve Martin's
character's daughter gives birth to a grandson that is eventually named after
him due to him teaching them something. The first was Father of the Bride Part
II
The three cars that the Murtaughs have are a Range Rover, a Jaguar sedan
and a Porsche. Bud drives a 2004 Volvo XC70 in the film.
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