Cheaper by the Dozen

The Baker brood moves to Chicago after patriarch Tom gets a job coaching football at Northwestern University, forcing his writer wife, Kate, and the couple's 12 children to make a major adjustment. The transition works well until work demands pull the parents away from home, leaving the kids bored -- and increasingly mischievous.

Critics largely dismissed this Steve Martin family comedy as chaotic without being funny, panning its tonal whiplash between sentimentality and gross-out gags. The disconnect between critical and audience reception is notable — families who saw it in theaters rated it warmly, while reviewers found it a shallow reinvention of its source material. Ebert was a prominent exception among critics, finding it genuinely enjoyable.