Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

My parents and I have a new Sky Stream puck box for our TV. So, we can watch Disney+, ITVX and Netflix on the TV in our living room. Hopefully, this means we’ll be able to see films easily on the TV when streaming them, especially when watching the Disney+ films.

Let me share with you my thoughts on a film I’ve seen on Disney+ that I used to watch on DVD when it came out in the 2000s. This is the 2003 film ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’, starring Steven Martin. I enjoyed revisiting this film on Disney+, as it’s nice to revisit this nostalgia.

The ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ 2003 film is actually a remake of the 1950 film of the same name and is semi-inspired by the semi-autobiographical book ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. I’ve found the film very entertaining and very funny over the years.

The film focuses on a father and mother who have twelve children. When the mother goes on a book tour, the father has his life turned upside down when he takes care of his twelve children whilst coaching his new football team. The strain become too much for him. 😀

This was my first encounter with Steve Martin as an actor and as a comedian. Over the years, I’ve seen him in an episode of ‘The Muppet Show’ and he was in the 1996 film ‘Sgt. Bilko’. I enjoyed how he balances the comedy and drama with playing the dad in this movie.

Incidentally, the character that Steve Martin plays is called Tom Baker. Tom Baker! I find it so surreal to be watching this film after all these years and find that Steven Martin is playing a Tom Baker. This has me think of the ‘Doctor Who’ Tom Baker every time now. 😀

The film’s director happens to be Shawn Levy. He would go on to direct the three ‘Night at the Museum’ movies (two which I’ve already reviewed) as well as ‘Free Guy’ and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’. Amazing how far he’s come from directing ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’.

The film also features Bonnie Hunt as Kate Baker, the mother of the family. Bonnie Hunt has been in the first two ‘Beethoven’ films, voiced Dolly in ‘Toy Story 3 and 4′, and I saw her recently in ‘Red One’. She’s good in playing opposite Steve Martin in the film.

The twelve children are very good in the film and many of them have gone on to be in other movies over the years. There’s Piper Perabo (who’s been in ‘The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle’) as Nora. There’s also Tom Welling (Clark Kent in ‘Smallville’) as Charlie.

There’s Hilary Duff (well-known for playing ‘Lizzie McGuire’) as Lorraine, Kevin G. Schmidt as Henry, Alyson Stoner as Sarah, Jacob Smith as Jake, Forrest Landis as Mark, Liliana Mumy (who’s been in ‘The Santa Clause 2 and 3′) as Jessica, and Morgan York as Kim.

There’s Blake Woodruff as Mike, and Brent and Shane Kinsman as Nigel and Kyle. There are the Bakers’ neighbours – Alan Ruck (who I’ve seen before in ‘Star Trek: Generations’) as Bill and Paula Marshall as Tina. They have a son – Steven Anthony Lawrence as Dylan.

The film’s cast also includes Richard Jenkins as Shake McGuire, Tom’s best friend; Vanessa Bell Calloway as Diane Phillips, Kate’s publisher, and Dax Shepard (who I’ve seen in the film ‘Zathura: A Space Adventure’) plays a camera crew member in the film. 🙂

The director Shawn Levy plays a reporter in the film, Ashton Kutcher plays Hank, Nora’s ex-boyfriend, and Wayne Knight (who I’ve seen in the first ‘Space Jam’ film) plays Pete, the electrician that repairs the Baker family’s chandelier in the hallway but always falls off. 😀

It’s been good to revisit ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ on Disney+ recently, as I enjoyed seeing the film when it was lent to me on DVD by my best friend Stephen so many years ago. I don’t know if I’ll see ‘Cheaper by the Dozen 2’ next, but I’m happy I saw the first film again.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂