I read the book Cheaper by the Dozen in seventh grade, and it was a fun book. Written by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, it told the true story of the Gilbreth family, headed by Frank and Lillian. Truthfully, the Gilbreth family had twelve children. The book gets its title from attempts made by their father to get a discount on all the children. Frank, Sr. would recognize the nationality of whoever he had to pay to get into something and ask (if the person were, say, Irish), "Are my Irishmen cheaper by the dozen?" Frank was an efficiency expert, and as such, he discovered ways of figuring out how to get twelve kids to do the most amount of work in the least amount of time (for example, when one child had to get his tonsils out, Frank arranged for all the children to have their tonsils out).

The movie is not entertaining. It is based on the book Cheaper by the Dozen in the same way that Stephen King's The Stand is based on the Code of Hammurabi. The only thing even remotely similar between the two is the scenario of twelve kids. The names of the characters, the plot, the occupations, and absolutely everything else have changed. Steve Martin plays Tom Baker, who takes a job as a football coach, but must neglect his twelve children to do so. Frank Gilbreth would never neglect his children. This new film takes the book, a testament to Frank Gilbreth, and spins it so as to make it unrecognizable, destroying the memory of Mr. Gilbreth in the process.

The name Cheaper by the Dozen would entice people from an older generation to go see the film, but only hyperactive kids and football would entice today's hyperactive, sports-crazed kids. That was the key. I pity anyone who spends any money at all on this film. Read the book, instead. This is not the same complaint made by people who think Peter Jackson "destroyed" the Lord of the Rings. Those are recognizable as Tolkien's work; the film Cheaper by the Dozen and the book are related in name only. Everything else has been altered beyond recognition. To go so far as to change the names of the characters and plot lines is akin to writing a separate work altogether that has little or no relationship to the original book. The people who write positive reviews of this trash on IMDb should wise up and base their idea of good films on something other than straight-to-video Disney sequels.