Unable to decide whether it wants to be a rambunctious family comedy or a tender romantic comedy, the Dennis Quaid-Rene Russo vehicle strains to be both and ends up falling short of both marks. Timed to get a one-month jump on the pre-Christmas arrival of "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," the Paramount release, which had been developed at MGM, could see some Thanksgiving holiday action from younger viewers who might be too sensitive for the darker "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Taking its cue, but not the winning tone, from the original, which in turn was based on the autobiographical "Who Gets the Drumstick?" by Helen Beardsley, "Yours, Mine & Ours" charts the course taken by Frank Beardsley (Quaid), a Coast Guard admiral and strict, widower father of eight who runs into old high school sweetheart Helen North (Russo), a handbag-designing earth mother of a widowed mom with a wilder brood of 10 of her own.

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