Man of the House (1995)

I can remember loving this movie back in the '90s. I recently rewatched it and still thought it was a pretty good movie. The cast had some really big names (for the time), a number of jokes seemed like it pushed the "Disney limits", and well....Chevy Chase. Going back after all these years to watch Man of the House, you notice how '90s the film really is. From video games, to clothing, and hairstyles, it's full of nostalgia. Man of the House is right in the mix of Disney's mid-90s push for live action movies like Heavyweights, Mighty Ducks, and The Santa Clause.

* Join my journey of watching every Walt Disney Studios film. All videos selected at random from the official D23 film list. (Included: Muppets, Pixar, Star Wars) (Excluded: Marvel, Touchstone, Fox, and Other Studios)

Fmovies: I love this movie. It's been a favorite of mine since I was a little kid, and I love it to this day. Jonathan Taylor Thomas is hysterical as Ben, Chevy Chase truly embodies Jack, and Farrah Fawcett is great as Sandy. I love the Indian Guides characters; the kids and their fathers have great chemistry. For anyone who doesn't like this movie, I have to wonder if you were watching the same one I was.

If you're ever looking for a funny, heartfelt family comedy, then this movie is definitely for you. I highly recommend it to everyone.

P.S. I actually learned the rain dance. What does that tell you (apart from me being slightly obsessed)?

Chevy Chase in very good performance, serious, responsible prospect for step father but fun, most of all fun winning the people. Mr. Wendt my very favorite funny guy excellent again!. Scenes full of good taste and detail, very well informed on Indian costumes.

So if you have the time with the children this is an excellent option for the weekend.

By the way I am very surprised by the very good way Mrs. Farrah Fawcett still looks. Beautiful on her 48th birthday celebrated while making the movie. Would you believe she hardly looks 35?, good for her.

Man of the House fmovies. This is a great movie for families to watch together. This is a story about a boy who is trying to stop h is mom form being with her new boyfriend. Of course nothing is ever easy and things never go as planned. To add to everything the new boyfriend has a dark secret. One that he doesn't want the boy or his mother to know. When the secret does get out everything blows up and the story gets very interesting. Jonathan Taylor Thomas does a great job playing a kid who whats to keep things with just himself and his mother. I was really impressed with this movie and was really entertained by it. It is definitely worth watching.

Mind-bogglingly bad Disney comedy pits middle-aged sweethearts Chevy Chase and Farrah Fawcett against Fawcett's prankish pre-teen son Jonathan Taylor Thomas (that smug Keebler elf from the TV sitcom "Home Improvement"). After single mom Farrah brings new love-interest Chevy home to meet her kid, Taylor resorts to juvenile tomfoolery to scare the suitor away...sound familiar? Taking its cue from "The Parent Trap", but blessedly giving us only one child at the helm, this lame-duck script has nowhere to go after the initial set-up. Nice to see Chase and Fawcett together (the original choices for "Foul Play"), but the comic chaos which erupts here is only for undiscriminating viewers. * from ****

There used to be a time when Chevy Chase was regarded to as a funny man. He used to be on an intelligent and extremely hilarious skit show started in 1975 called "Saturday Night Live," but soon left to chase after a film career.

Well, it's about twenty years later, and where is Chevy? Well, after a few hilarious "National Lampoon's Vacation" films, he's basically nowhere. He was funny in the seemingly endless line of movies (in general) for a while, but soon people tired of his smart-@$$ attitude that made him so famous, and they, his humble audience, turned on him, beginning to despise the poor fellow. Well, I can't really find it hard to feel sorry for him, because he probably still has more money than you or I will ever make in our lifetime.

The plot of "Man of the House" is less than a simple and contrived one. It is about 12-year-old Ben Archer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and his efforts to rid his house of the man who wants to marry his mom and become his stepfather. The man? Jack Sturgess (Chevy Chase). The mom? Sandra (Farah Fawcett--whose leakier than a faucet here). Jack is a tie-wearing, U.S. Justice Department lawyer who's got one angry Mafia boss on his tail because of a racketeering case he prosecuted. As the film turns out (big gasp), Ben and Jack work together at the end to save the day, and Ben thinks of Jack as a cool nerd. But what about the in-between process, you ask?

Ben makes an assortment of traps to try and get Jack to leave. He rigs the blender. He makes fun of him. He verbally insults him and makes digs at him. I ask myself what Disney is trying to prove here: That kids are smarter than stupid adults, or that kids have wittier one-liners than adults?

But Jack stays around (much to the disappointment of Ben), who keeps on working at Jack to make him leave. He eventually makes Jack sign into a boy-scout-type program, where he nicknames Jack "Squatting Dog." This is the best laugh in the movie. If you don't find that funny, like me, then you had better run from this movie, because that is one of many unfunny gags that try to be funny and end up in the gutter.

The film is anchored in every way towards children, but I ask myself if children really should be seeing a film like this. In "The Parent Trap," two twins formed together to bring their parents back together. In "Man of the House," a twelve-year-old single-handedly tries to rid a man from his and his mother's life. Choose your pick on which film is morally-harmless and which is morally-harmful. Times are changing, and that means films that were once provocative are not anymore. Divorce in films--especially children's films--used to be a big topic. But nowadays it seems because of the countless divorces out there, kids are immune to such things. But Disney is making it worse. They rub it in and open children's minds to things they need not worry about. If you take your child to see this, the next time you argue with your wife or husband your child could misinterpret this as divorce, because through films like these divorce is shown as arguing between parents who then break up. "Man of the House" isn't about divorce per se, but it is about something worse: The times proceeding a divorce. About parents dating again. Sorry, but I don't find this kind of thing suitable for innocent children. Kids don't need to be thinking about their parents dating people, but yet films manage to squeeze such material