Cheaper By The Dozen
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cast: Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Hillary Duff
Extras: Commentary Tracks, Deleted Scenes, Featurette
Rating:
In his latest comedy, Steve Martin is the father of a big family. With 12 children, he and his wife have their hands full every waking minute of their lives. But the opportunity knocks, and he is being offered his dream job – to coach of football team of his dreams. That however requires moving the family from the countryside into the big city, Chicago in this case. But just at the same moment, his wife’s book becomes a run-away success and she has to spend a lot of time on the road. How will they ever handle their 12 children? See and laugh for yourself…
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is presenting ’Cheaper By The Dozen’ in a flawless widescreen presentation on this release that is enhanced for 16×9 TV sets. A fullframe presentation is also included on the disc. The picture is absolutely clean and free of any defects, making for a wonderful presentation. Colors are natural-looking at all times and black are solid, giving the image good visual depth. No edge-enhancement or compression artifacts distract from the great presentation.
The audio on the DVD comes as a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital track that is engaging and makes good use of the surround channels. Aggressive, dynamic and full of sonic surprises, the track is much more active as you would expect form a comedy, and creates a great listening experience. Dialogues are well balanced and always understandable.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has also added a number of extras to the release, such as a commentary track by director Shawn Levy, which is engaging and interesting on many levels. Full of detailed production information and anecdotes it makes for a good listening experience. Even better however is the commentary track by the ’Baker Kids.’ This is not a hard-core commentary, of course, but a highly entertaining and wildly rich commentary that reveals so much about the antics going on during the production as the production tried to handle 12 children at the same time.
Also look out for the deleted and extended scenes on the disc, where you will find some great moments that sadly didn’t make it into the final film.
The DVD is rounded out by a production featurette that shows a little more about the production and is filled with you typical cast and crew interviews. Nothing spectacular but a solid addition.
’Cheaper By The Dozen’ is fun, out of control and wildly entertaining. Steve Martin may be the headliner in this film, but let’s face it, it’s the kids that steal the show – all 12 of them. I had a blast watching this film and if you’re up for some light feel-good entertainment, ’Cheaper By The Dozen’ may just be the ticket.
