Man of the House
Y
Feb 28, 2005
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Man of the House."
A high concept that goes nowhere, "Man of the House" tries, but not all that hard, to milk laughs from its ostensibly hilarious setup: A tough, taciturn Texas Ranger is assigned round-the-clock protection of five witnesses to a crime. The quintet just happens to be -- get this! -- a college cheerleading squad. A winningly restrained lead performance by Tommy Lee Jones, who also exec produced, isn't enough to put the film on the boxoffice scoreboard. Hitting every cliche along its well-traveled road, the action comedy, released Friday without press screenings, will have a quick playoff to video.
After they witness the murder of an informant (Curtis Armstrong), the giggly, high-maintenance cheerleaders for the University of Texas Longhorns football team must share a sorority house with lawman Roland Sharp (Jones). Posing, much to his dismay, as the assistant cheerleading coach, the decidedly nonperky Sharp finds himself navigating household matters like the dietary restrictions of the Zone. The girls suffer unspeakable deprivations, like being denied the use of cell phones.
Ditzy Barb (Kelli Garner) has a crush on him, but Sharp's PG-13 interest in the scantily clad girls is strictly professional. He gets them to expose less epidermis and offers minilectures on why plagiarizing a term paper is not a good thing. Predictably, the cheerleaders stop being demanding and horrid and advise him on how to communicate with his teen daughter (Shannon Marie Woodward) and how to comport himself on a date with a fetching professor (Anne Archer).
Director Stephen Herek ("Life or Something Like It") ably orchestrates a few action sequences, but suspense is beside the point. Whatever danger the girls face is as unconvincing as most everything else going on here, from the rote villainy of a corrupt FBI agent (Brian Van Holt) to the obligatory importance-of-good-parenting subplot.
Jones' masterful underplaying is a pleasure, and Cedric the Entertainer lends comic fillips to the role of an ex-con preacher. Among the five actresses playing Sharp's charges, only Vanessa Ferlito gets to suggest anything like a real person, and she shares a very good scene with Jones in which Sharp confesses that "The Sound of Music" is his favorite movie.
Otherwise, the girls are broadly sketched types: There's the boyfriend-obsessed Latina (Paula Garces) and studious premed student (Monica Keena). As the mouthy squad captain, Christina Milian must deliver an ode to cheerleading that invokes the names of important people who once plied the noble art -- Madonna, Cameron Diaz and George W. Bush, among them.
With solid but unexceptional tech support, Herek makes good use of Austin locations, both downtown and on the campus of the University of Texas (his alma mater). But he can't quite breathe life into the clunky script, credited to Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone and John J. McLaughlin.
MAN OF THE HOUSE
Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios/Bel Air Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Stephen Herek
Screenwriters: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, John J. McLaughlin
Producers: Steven Reuther, Todd Garner, Allyn Stewart
Executive producers: Tommy Lee Jones, Marty P. Ewing, Derek Dauchy
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: David Newman
Costume designer: Betsy Heimann
Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Joel Negron
Cast:
Roland Sharp: Tommy Lee Jones
Percy Stevens: Cedric the Entertainer
Molly McCarthy: Anne Archer
Ed Zane: Brian Van Holt
Anne: Christina Milian
Teresa: Paula Garces
Evie: Monica Keena
Barb: Kelli Garner
Heather: Vanessa Ferlito
Emma: Shannon Marie Woodward
Morgan Ball: Curtis Armstrong
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes
A high concept that goes nowhere, "Man of the House" tries, but not all that hard, to milk laughs from its ostensibly hilarious setup: A tough, taciturn Texas Ranger is assigned round-the-clock protection of five witnesses to a crime. The quintet just happens to be -- get this! -- a college cheerleading squad. A winningly restrained lead performance by Tommy Lee Jones, who also exec produced, isn't enough to put the film on the boxoffice scoreboard. Hitting every cliche along its well-traveled road, the action comedy, released Friday without press screenings, will have a quick playoff to video.
After they witness the murder of an informant (Curtis Armstrong), the giggly, high-maintenance cheerleaders for the University of Texas Longhorns football team must share a sorority house with lawman Roland Sharp (Jones). Posing, much to his dismay, as the assistant cheerleading coach, the decidedly nonperky Sharp finds himself navigating household matters like the dietary restrictions of the Zone. The girls suffer unspeakable deprivations, like being denied the use of cell phones.
Ditzy Barb (Kelli Garner) has a crush on him, but Sharp's PG-13 interest in the scantily clad girls is strictly professional. He gets them to expose less epidermis and offers minilectures on why plagiarizing a term paper is not a good thing. Predictably, the cheerleaders stop being demanding and horrid and advise him on how to communicate with his teen daughter (Shannon Marie Woodward) and how to comport himself on a date with a fetching professor (Anne Archer).
Director Stephen Herek ("Life or Something Like It") ably orchestrates a few action sequences, but suspense is beside the point. Whatever danger the girls face is as unconvincing as most everything else going on here, from the rote villainy of a corrupt FBI agent (Brian Van Holt) to the obligatory importance-of-good-parenting subplot.
Jones' masterful underplaying is a pleasure, and Cedric the Entertainer lends comic fillips to the role of an ex-con preacher. Among the five actresses playing Sharp's charges, only Vanessa Ferlito gets to suggest anything like a real person, and she shares a very good scene with Jones in which Sharp confesses that "The Sound of Music" is his favorite movie.
Otherwise, the girls are broadly sketched types: There's the boyfriend-obsessed Latina (Paula Garces) and studious premed student (Monica Keena). As the mouthy squad captain, Christina Milian must deliver an ode to cheerleading that invokes the names of important people who once plied the noble art -- Madonna, Cameron Diaz and George W. Bush, among them.
With solid but unexceptional tech support, Herek makes good use of Austin locations, both downtown and on the campus of the University of Texas (his alma mater). But he can't quite breathe life into the clunky script, credited to Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone and John J. McLaughlin.
MAN OF THE HOUSE
Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios/Bel Air Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Stephen Herek
Screenwriters: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, John J. McLaughlin
Producers: Steven Reuther, Todd Garner, Allyn Stewart
Executive producers: Tommy Lee Jones, Marty P. Ewing, Derek Dauchy
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: David Newman
Costume designer: Betsy Heimann
Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Joel Negron
Cast:
Roland Sharp: Tommy Lee Jones
Percy Stevens: Cedric the Entertainer
Molly McCarthy: Anne Archer
Ed Zane: Brian Van Holt
Anne: Christina Milian
Teresa: Paula Garces
Evie: Monica Keena
Barb: Kelli Garner
Heather: Vanessa Ferlito
Emma: Shannon Marie Woodward
Morgan Ball: Curtis Armstrong
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes
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