I'll be honest. My two main motivations for checking out this movie were the great Tommy Lee Jones and a bunch of hot cheerleaders. I expected a fluffy, predictable comedy, and that's what I got. But it works. There are few "laugh-out-loud" moments, but it's charming and fun the whole way through. Of course, I have to give much of the credit to Tommy Lee Jones. When you're dealing with a broad comedy of this sort, it's good to have a talented veteran actor at its center to give it some validity. John Cleese once said that watching a crazy person is not nearly as funny as watching someone reacting to a crazy person. Well, Jones does a great job at reacting to this group of wacky cheerleaders, and helps make the film even more amusing. I'm sure real-life cheerleaders hate the way they're almost always portrayed as ditsy morons in movies. Well, this movie isn't any different, so cheerleaders may be offended by much of the humor. I didn't think it was necessary for "Harold and Kumar's" Paula Garces to play a stereotypical Latina, phony accent and all. But unfortunately, it's hard to be of Latin descent of Hollywood without getting those degrading roles. Just look at Lupe Ontiveros, who was born in the U.S., yet has been stuck playing the typical Spanish maid throughout most of her career. But with all that aside, I think one of the reasons why the movie succeeds is because it doesn't often resort to crude and low-brow humor. There's one joke involving Jones sticking his hand up a cow's behind, but other than that, there isn't any real bathroom humor. And on top of it all, we have a nice action subplot, including an exciting finale. "Man of the House" is good, light-hearted fun, as long as you're not expecting too much.
