This sequel to the 2003 release takes us back to the Baker clan, but this time things have changed a bit. Tom Baker (Steve Martin) is presumably still at a small college, while wife Kate Baker (Bonnie Hunt) has still only written the one book (according to comments in the movie) - yet they are still in the massive house in the city that they purchased, so you have to wonder how they make ends meet.
Nonetheless, life moves on, and the third eldest Baker, Lorraine (Hillary Duff) is graduating high school. This is a time of change for Tom, and change isn't always good.
It seems that Lorraine wants to move to New York, and that's probably not sitting well with him, but when eldest daughter Nora (Piper Perabo) and her husband announce at the graduation party that they will be moving to Houston to accept a promotion, it gets worse for Tom.
Then none of the kids want to play football with him in a pick-up game, so he decides that something needs to be done and done quickly so that they can spend some time together, and they decide to rent the lake house one last time. No word on where the money comes for a massive graduation party or a lake house - though later in the movie, Kate remarks that money for the kids goes to food. It's just odd.
When the family gets there, they are naturally disappointed that the lake house where they enjoyed all those family vacations is in such disrepair, and they are amazed at the huge house just across the cove, but Tom is a bit peeved to learn that it's a recent addition to the lake by longtime rival Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy). It seems here that the Bakers and the Murtaughs would compete for the Labor Day Cup in a family competition every year, and every year the Murtaughs would win.
Another oddity here is that the Baker 12 would be defeated by the Murtaugh 8. That in itself isn't a bad thing, but the youngest of the Bakers don't seem to recall being at the lake - so how those numbers worked out is never explained. It just detracts a bit.
In any case, Tom and Jimmy revert to their old competitive ways while Kate and Jimmy's new wife, Sarina (Carmen Electra) do some bonding over how strange their husbands are acting and the kids do some bonding over the trouble that they used to get into. Specifically, at a clam bake where they don't serve any actual clams, a backpack full of fireworks causes all sorts of problems.
Then a runaway golf cart incident wreaks havoc on a tennis court and a couple of young loves blossom among the Bakers and the Murtaughs, which causes no small amount of grief among the dads. Finally, there is only one way to settle things - take it to the cup. So preparations begin for a battle on Labor Day, and Tom succeeds in just one thing - alienating his family, so that he ends up with just two of the kids, and the best line of the movie is delivered when Jimmy tells Tom that with the two kids "he won't beat the Doobners". I guess you have to see it.
Of course, Kate gives the other kids a pep talk and they all show up, resulting in a fierce battle for the cup, and at the end of the day everything is all tied up, so then the two families have to race to the end of the lake and back in canoes, but then Nora decides it's time for her to have her baby, so the Bakers have to quit. But the Murtaugh kids abandon their dad to help their friends, and everyone makes up at the hospital. No word on who was declared a winner.
The movie isn't bad, and it has some laughs, but it doesn't have the charm of the first movie. Where the first one showed the struggles of making it, with the family pitching in around the table in a house that was somewhat run-down, then "hitting it big" and getting in over their head and having to find their roots again, here they seem to have already arrived. It's more standard fare. It's not bad, but the first one was better.
Rated PG for some crude humor and mild language.
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