Steve Martin reprises his role as hapless dad to a football team of kids in director Adam Shankman’s "dreary sequel" Cheaper By The Dozen 2. American Pie star Eugene Levy plays the head of a rival clan in a pooling of comic talents that got plenty of bums on seats despite a rubbish script. The title of the film could refer to Martin’s recent filmography - selling his soul cheap in the likes of The Pink Panther, Looney Tunes: Back In Action and Sgt Bilko...

Child's Play

Martin attempts to lend the film some weight in Casting Session, describing it as "A clash of the titans on the lake". However, as its title suggests, this featurette is mostly taken up with the matter of casting and specifically finding the right children to play the nemeses of Martin’s brood. It’s hardly an in-depth look at the audition process with just a few words from the casting director and Shankman summing up the search, explaining, "I wanted the new family to look like a Ralph Lauren ad." Surprisingly we don’t hear much from the kids themselves.

Camp Chaos highlights the challenge of having to wrangle 20 children on a confined set. "What’s funny is chaos," says Shankman, "So I wanted chaos all the time and I got it." Again, this featurette only offers a superficial glimpse behind the scenes with snippets of location footage spliced between talking heads. This time the children throw in a few soundbites too, mostly to say that being together on set was ‘just like being part of a real family.’

There’s yet more vacuous sentiment in the final featurette A Comedic Trio where Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt (who plays his wife) and Eugene Levy get to gush over each other. At least Levy keeps his tongue firmly in cheek, saying, "I think I acted just a little bit better than Steve does..."

Talk Is Cheap

Shankman provides scattered commentary for the main feature, occasionally laughing at his own humorous observations. Still, there is one genuinely amusing anecdote where he admits to halting production after deciding to take his mother for a spin on a jet ski. They got hopelessly lost on the lake and were finally rescued by what was apparently the entire police force of Burleigh Falls, Ontario. However, most of the track is concerned with the usual notes on casting and the occasional technical titbit. In summation, it’ll take more than this DVD to keep your own kids out of trouble.

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