Peter Stranks Steve Martin returns as Tom Baker in "Cheaper by the Dozen 2." Click photo for larger image. 'Cheaper by the Dozen 2' Rating: PG for some crude humor and mild language. Starring: Steve Martin, Eugene Levy. Director: Adam Shankman. "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" Web site

Cheaper by the dozen. Maybe that's how they're buying screenplays in Hollywood these days.

That would explain the proliferation of movies -- comic remakes and silly sequels -- with barely a lick of originality, just a gaggle of giggly or churlish children, a mom and a dad who becomes the prince of pratfalls.

In "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," star Steve Martin falls from a flimsy rope swing, plows through the water face-first behind a motorboat, and has mishaps on the dock, at the brunch table and elsewhere. His best stunt, however, may be rearing a dozen children without visible means of employment.

In the 2003 remake that launched this series, Martin's character, Tom Baker, took a football coaching job at his Chicago alma mater, just as his wife, Kate (Bonnie Hunt), started a tour to publicize her book about raising 12 children.

Neither seems to be working at the moment, which doesn't stop the couple from renting a house at Lake Winnetka, Wis., for one last family fling. Life as the Bakers know it is about to change, and not for the better, as overly protective Tom sees it.

The couple's eldest daughter (Piper Perabo) is pregnant and planning to move away with her husband, while the oldest son (Tom Welling) is working as a mechanic and figuring out what he wants to do with his life. Another girl (Hilary Duff) is bound for an internship in New York, while a tomboy (Alyson Stoner) is on the cusp of dating.

But renting the house puts the Bakers back in the sights of wealthy Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy), who has eight high-achieving children and a young third wife (Carmen Electra). Tom and Jimmy have opposite parenting styles and are longtime rivals whose competition heats up as the vacation winds down.

"Cheaper by the Dozen 2," directed by Adam Shankman ("The Pacifier," "Bringing Down the House"), is rated PG and gets its biggest laugh from a clean joke about a dirty subject: animal waste. It's during an exchange between Shane and Brent Kinsman, who play the twins who regularly wreak havoc in the Scavo home on "Desperate Housewives." They stand out in a household where half of the children might as well be played by seat-fillers.

Written by Sam Harper, who co-wrote the 2003 screenplay, this movie tries for comedy with a few life lessons along the way and maybe a stray tear trickling down an actor's face. The tear looks like it was freshly applied by a makeup artist, and the rest of the movie has a similar artificial feel.

With its PG rating, however, it's safe, harmless entertainment. It's like soup made from a dry mix, stirred into water and heated in the microwave. Sort of looks like the real thing but can't hold a candle to the stuff created from scratch and an old family recipe, and simmered lovingly on the stove for hours.