Man Of The House (2005)

Texas Ranger Roland Sharp (Tommy Lee Jones) is assigned to protect the only witnesses to the murder of a key figure in the prosecution of a drug kingpin -- a group of University of Texas cheerleaders. Hilarity ensues as Sharp must now go undercover as an assistant cheerleading coach and move in with the young women.

Trivia: This is the first movie to have the permission from the University of Texas to use well-known UT symbols including: the UT tower (lit in orange and white - traditional lighting when a football game is won), Bevo (the longhorn mascot), UT cheerleaders, UT band, UT spirit organizations, and the UT Texas Exes. The Austin GameBreakers of the North American Football League provided the players and Coaches for the roles of the Texas Longhorns and for the Arkansas Razorbacks in the movie. The "meaty" pizza the cheerleader is caught eating was made with all vegetarian meats. This film was originally entitled "Cheer Up". Originally Tommy Lee Jones's character was to be a CIA agent working in Virginia, but Jones thought it would be much better to work as a Ranger in Texas, the state that he lives in. No one involved with the film could think of an appropriate ending until director Stephen Herek came up with one months after the rest of the movie was shot. Heather (Vanessa Ferlito) mentions that Full Metal Jacket is her favorite movie. R. Lee Ermey who plays Captain Nichols in the film also appeared in Full Metal Jacket. The pizza delivered to Sharp is from Mangia Pizza, an actual pizza chain in Austin. Sharp identifies his pizza as "The Carnivore", which is a real item from Mangia's menu. The pistol used by Tommy Lee Jones is not a prop, it is his own Colt 1911 that he brought to the set after refusing to use the prop gun.

Tommy Lee Jones is the best thing to happen to Texas films in a really long time, maybe ever. He lives in Austin and he loves to make films about Texas filmed in Texas. He also grew up in my home town of Midland. How cool is that? Very. I am glad that they decided to use UT as a setting for this movie, if they had picked Texas A&M we would have had to watch a bunch of guy cheerleaders, um, excuse me, yell leaders (and I said "guy" with a "u", get your mind out of the gutter. *grin*). Anyway, where was I, oh yeah, ummm...cheerleaders. It is pretty funny that we get to see TLJ be the foil for these girls, and vice versa. His deadpan delivery really plays into the hilarity ensuing. So, it will never be compared to the masters but it was a fun little movie.

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