'BY THE DOZEN' SEQUEL EVEN CHEAPER THAN THE ORIGINAL.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

IF THE 2003 remake of ``Cheaper by the Dozen'' felt like an overstuffed episode of ``The Brady Bunch'' without the emotional resonance, its sequel, the inventively titled ``Cheaper by the Dozen 2,'' takes the idea of ensemble casting to new heights. In addition to the 14 family members returning from the original, the new movie gives us a second brood, this one with eight more kids and two parents. That's 24 characters, not including the family dog and pesky pack rat, who actually have more interesting character arcs than most of their human counterparts.

Like its predecessor, the 94-minute ``Cheaper 2'' mixes slapstick, sub-sitcom-level humor and gooey, synthetic sentiment. It means to remind us that parenthood is a never-ending journey of learning, but the movie is really a lesson in Hollywood economics and hollow manipulation. Even Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, who brought a smidgen of enthusiasm to the first film, look like they'd rather be somewhere (anywhere) else this time.

``Cheaper 2'' takes the Baker family on a lakeside vacation where Martin's dad character, Tom, is pitted against an old childhood rival, Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy). Jimmy, newly married to wife No. 3 (Carmen Electra, on hand, apparently to mollify fathers in the audience with gratuitous cleavage shots), has eight kids, all cheerful and successful, which makes Tom feel like a failure as a father.

As presented by the movie, he is. His children nearly blow up boats, destroy tennis courts, steal from stores. Meanwhile, Levy's Jimmy is set up to be the evil taskmaster, but we never see his kids complain until the end of the movie, when the story requires them to rebel against him. But screenwriter Sam Harper and director Adam Shankman don't think you'll be paying attention to the story - not with the running loop of distractions supplied by the aforementioned wacky dog and mischievous mouse.

So we have a couple of scenes where the dog paws Electra's breasts, two shots of a man in a wheelchair rolling into a lake (because you can't really get enough of a disabled person being tossed into a body of water, can you?), the dog chomping into Martin's crotch, the occasional sighting of an alarmingly gaunt Hilary Duff and the inevitable zany resolution of the oldest daughter's (Piper Perabo) pregnancy.

There is a good movie to be made about the difficulties parents have in letting go of their children. Actually, Ron Howard already made that movie. It was called ``Parenthood'' and it starred Steve Martin. And that tear Martin sheds at the end of this film probably came from remembering a time when he made movies for guys like Ron Howard instead of cashing paychecks for movies like ``Cheaper by the Dozen 2.'' It's almost enough to put a lump in your throat.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2 - Two and one half stars

(PG: crude humor, mild language)

Starring: Steve Martin, Eugene Levy, Bonnie Hunt.

Director: Adam Shankman.

Running time: 1 hr. 34 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Another thick stew of sub-sitcom humor and gooey sentiment, this time with even more characters - and animals!

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The ``Cheaper by the Dozen 2'' offspring have stars Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt surrounded. The remake adds eight kids to the mix.