The film stars Tommy Lee Jones as Roland Sharp, a lonesome Texas Ranger who goes undercover as an assistant coach to protect a group of college cheerleaders who have witnessed a murder.

Anne, Teresa, Evie, Heather and Barb are taken to the police station, where they can't identify the shooter.

Cortland reprimands him for not tying up loose ends, so Zane kills the hired sniper and searches for Sharp and the cheerleaders.

With Swanson in the hospital recovering from her near-fatal wound, Sharp and two other Rangers must now protect the girls and secure their sorority house.

He instructs Sharp to get the money from the safe deposit box Ball had given him the key to, neither of them are aware the cheerleaders are listening.

As Sharp wonders what is going on, Heather picks his handcuffs, chasing the bus in a stolen Volkswagen Beetle.

The film, initially written by John J. McLaughlin and Scott Lobdell under the title of Cheer Up, was first acquired by Steven Reuther's Bel-Air Entertainment with Warner Bros. set to distribute.

[9] By August 2002, it was announced Stephen Herek was in final negotiations to direct the film which would feature Tommy Lee Jones as a hardened FBI agent who is forced to live with and protect a group of cheerleaders who witness a murder.

[8] In May 2003, it was reported that Revolution Studios had acquired the project in Turnaround from Warner Bros. and Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone providing rewrites.

The site's critical consensus reads, "A high concept movie that plays out like a mediocre TV sitcom.

[4][better source needed] James Berardinelli of ReelViews panned the film, rating it one star out of four and writing: "The movie is an 'action comedy' in name only – there's nothing in Man of the House that could be considered funny or exciting."

He also said the movie "manages to neuter Cedric the Entertainer's capacity for humor" since "not even he is able to deliver a legitimate laugh" and that Tommy Lee Jones "comes across as taciturn and unlikable.

"[6] Dana Stevens of The New York Times wrote: "Nearly every one of the film's emotional scenes is too predictable to hit its mark, but Mr. Jones's dry delivery has its moments."