Μύ Hollywood's favourite grumpy old man Tommy Lee Jones plays a hardnosed Texas Ranger and reluctant cheerleading coach in Man Of The House. Fellow Texan Stephen Herek, who brought us Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and, um, The Mighty Ducks, called the shots on this "very lowbrow farce" which was predictably slated by the critics and largely shunned by moviegoers.
Cheerleading 101
It's slim pickings on DVD with just two featurettes and a couple of trailers filling out the bonus menu. Cheer Camp goes behind the scenes as the female leads, including Christina Milian, Paula GarcΓ©s and Monica Keena learn to perform such gravity-defying cheerleading stunts as the "double full basket toss". We're reliably informed by one of the film's technical advisors that this is "the most elite toss" in a toss-tastic repertoire. It's hardly compelling stuff but Keena at least offers some comedy value when it turns out she has a fear of heights. With eyes wide and glassy, she bleats, "I cried all the first day. I thought I would die!"
Keeping Up With Jones
As it happens, this film could have been a lot worse except that Tommy Lee Jones insisted that the writers swap their generic FBI agent for a gruff Texas Ranger. Of course this translated as a shorter commute for Jones, but there's no mention of that in a run-of-the-mill Making Of featurette. Instead it becomes a backslapping forum with Herek lauding Jones as "a guy's guy" etc. Even so, the man himself is clearly not averse to sending up his tough guy image and credits Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black) for introducing him to comedy. "I think the secret," he says, "is to stay relaxed and pay attention." Very obligingly, the girls all claim to have crushes on the craggy one while Cedric The Entertainer tries to steal the show with some smooth cheerleading moves. (And fails.)
While Herek and co briefly discuss the sporting backdrop, there's surprisingly little on the subculture that's grown up around the University Of Texas Orangebloods. Arguably this wouldn't be of much interest to a British audience, but then there's very little here to engage anyone's interest. Altogether it's a package that stops well short of the whole nine yards.
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