The release date’s a bit peculiar. It’s the winter season in the States, and it isn’t exactly summer fun time here either, but the movie is set during summer vacation. The Baker family, whose older kids are growing up and moving out, set off for one last trip together as a family.

On the trip, they encounter the Murtaughs. Tom Baker (Steve Martin) has known Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy) since they were young, and the competitive thing that the two have held onto into their middle age becomes the main source of conflict in the film. From this stems issues with the kids, among the kids. Kids who want to do things that their parents don’t approve of (move away, go to art school), kids who are discovering first love, kids who are pulling mischievous pranks.

So that’s the set-up. It’s one set piece after another, with each scene designed to get a few laughs, then move on to the next scene. The plot gets pretty convoluted with all the characters. The Bakers have (haha a Baker’s dozen, who’s the genius who thought up that great stroke of ironic subtlety?) a dozen and the Murtaughs have eight kids. I dare anyone to come out of the movie and remember all their names. And there are tiny subplots that verge away, but they all seem too easily handled and resolved.

Old dogs Steve Martin and Eugene Levy are both very funny guys. But it seems that this film would have been funnier if the two were given more space to go at it. Instead, they are hampered by the family-movie format, and they don’t get enough screen time going at each other.

What’s more is that some sequences are just too wacky to be believable. I understand the thinking of "it’s just so wacky you gotta believe it," but then here it just plain doesn’t work. What also doesn’t work is that everything turns out just so great. Just like a ray of sunshine.

Kids do bad things, parents understand and forgive. Parents act like kids, too, letting their bad habits get the better of them. But, in the end, everyone realizes how much they love everyone else and everyone lives happily ever after. Though it’s not a Disney movie, Cheaper by the Dozen sure feels like one. Also, there’s Disney regular Hilary Duff, who here looks like she just came from the makeup tent of Land of the Dead.

If it were a Saturday afternoon Disney special, I’d have no complaints. This movie is all about family love and bonding and about trying to be better people. It’s filled with these great morals and scenes set up to be grand and heartwarming. And, indeed, if you’re the kind of viewer who still gushes over Hilary Duff shows or laughs at a guy in a wheelchair falling in the water (yes, this movie goes for laughs by doing stuff to a guy in a wheelchair), then this might be your thing.