Full Review

A distinctly different (as in less witty) remake of the 1950 same-titled comedy starring the persnickety Clifton Webb and the unflappable Myrna Loy, this updated version has its laughs as well. Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt will also click with easy-to-please audiences as the harried parents who always wanted a big brood but got more than they asked for -- as in 12 tax deductions. However, predictable pranks and pratfalls predominate where originality and freshness might have lifted it above routine remake status.

The set-up agreeably chronicles how Mom and Dad met, married and started a family as Dad settled for a small-college football coaching job while Mom gave up journalism to be a full-time homemaker.

Twenty-three years later, grown-up Nora (Piper Perabo) has moved in with her airhead model-boyfriend (a very funny Ashton Kutcher), to her parents' dismay, but otherwise the family is thriving. That is, until Dad accepts a job offer at his alma mater, requiring the family to relocate -- under protest from the kids.

No sooner do they move in than Mom's first book gets published and she finds herself off on a national book tour lasting not the anticipated three days but two mighty long weeks, enough time for the Baker family to go into full meltdown.

As directed by Shawn Levy with its positive but hammered-home message about family life requiring sacrifice, Martin and Hunt are well-paired, he in manic mode, she a constant calming influence on all.

The fun for most viewers will be in the predictable chaos usually abetted by a marauding animal -- a frog wrecking family breakfast time, a dog getting up close and very personal with boyfriend Hank, and a snake creating havoc at a birthday party.

For supposed siblings, the child actors look nothing alike (except identical twin brothers Brent and Shane Kinsman). Yet Forrest Landis as lonely little Mark is touching while teen star Hilary Duff makes little impression as a self-aware clothes horse, though "Smallville" star Tom Welling gets a bit more to work with as the oldest son beginning to stand up to Dad. As is clear from frame one, Mom and Dad will recognize that family comes first just as Nora will end her relationship with vacuous Hank.

But, as moral lessons learned are not enough for a flagrantly feel-good movie, the ending assures the audience that, after putting their careers on the back burner, Mom and Dad get success anyway, icing on the cake of this supersweet, family-friendly confection.

Due to a discreetly implied affair, occasional toilet humor and brief slapstick violence, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.