I can already see this quoted in movie ads, taken way out of context. So, let me qualify: This is "compared with."

Those films were broad strokes: insipid, marginally chuckle-worthy airline movies. Director Adam Shankman's "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" is a harmless, inoffensive bit of family programming during the holiday season -- and there's nothing wrong with that. But "harmless" doesn't have to mean dull, and this is where "Dozen" challenges our ability to stay awake in a warm, dark theater.

God bless 'em, they try.

Martin returns as Tom Baker, a college football coach raising 12 rambunctious kids with his wife, Kate (Bonnie Hunt). But with their oldest daughter (Piper Perabo) about to start a family of her own, Tom and Kate see their flesh and blood abandoning them for college, then jobs, then � well, one hopes, better movies.

To have the entire family together one last time, they engineer a vacation on Lake Winnetka, where Tom rekindles an old rivalry with area big shot Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy).

Levy plays a suave, financially successful father of eight with a trophy wife (Carmen Electra, in an actual non-bimbo role). There's a weird bit of competition here, as Tom remarks that his adversary has "only eight" kids.

Only eight?

Big families are wonderful, don't get me wrong. But there's an eerie air of conspicuous consumption (and reproduction) that's just unnerving in "Dozen 2."

Tom Welling ("Smallville's" Clark Kent) and Hilary Duff reprise their roles as brother and sister, though Duff will regret the bangs-back Mohawk she sports in the film.