Chevy Chase gives an amiable performance as a prosecuting attorney who falls in love with artist Farrah Fawcett (who looks as great as ever). But she already has an 11 year old son (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) whose father ran out on the family. So the kid is wary of letting ANY man into his mothers' life, especially when the mom & child have gotten along perfectly well by themselves for years. Thomas schemes to eliminate Chase from his & Fawcetts' lives, and thinks that when he and Chase join the Indian Guides, Chase will get fed up and quit. But Chase digs in his heels and refuses to do so.

"Man of the House" is an admittedly lightweight, formula-bound family comedy that does at least have good messages in it about learning to have faith in other people. It benefits from some entertainingly quirky characters, like perfectionist Red Sweeney (Art La Fleur) and mute circus performer Lloyd Small (physical comedian David Shiner); both of them and their sons are part of the group.

A major subplot has to do with a mafia goon (Richard Portnow) who wants revenge on Chase since the attorney was able to send his father away for half a century. But being that this IS a Disney family comedy, this material never gets too intense, and Portnows' associates (Peter Appel, Richard Foronjy) are portrayed as bumblers.

In addition to those character actors mentioned, other notable performers such as Chief Leonard George, Ron Canada, John DiSanti, and the ever-endearing George Wendt all put in appearances. The cast is generally good, with young Thomas and his fellow child actors giving appealing performances. The plotting and the gags DO tend to be pretty predictable, but overall the movie works pretty well. Likability and good vibes do help to make up for the formulaic nature of the script, as well as the universal aspect of learning to accept step-parents and step-children in ones' lives.

Six out of 10.

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)

Man of the House is marketed as a comedy film produced during the recess summer period when Home Improvement was between seasons. Jonathan Taylor-Thomas was a principle member of Home Improvement and this is one of the films he made when he wasn't with Tim Allen. As well as Thomas, the film also features Chevy Chase, Gegroe Wendt and the late Farrah Fawcett.

The film is basically boy loses father and (later) meets stepfather, boy hates stepfather, boy tries to drive stepfather away, boy bonds with stepfather and stepfather marries boy's mother with blessing of boy. Okay so it's been done many times before in many different ways in different flavours of sheeps clothing, in this particular case the bonding is done over the Indian Guides.

Throw in some ill-conceived plot involving "bad guys" who want to kill the step-dad, a near obligatory dance-off and the presence of a mute who acts as a throwback to the old days of variety, and there's a semi-decent set of characters and story here.

Thomas behaves throughout the film in practically the same way as he did as Randy Taylor in Home Improvement, the smart-arse know-it-all kid. As a result the film can easily be looked at as either a Home Improvement location transplant or a Randy Taylor spin-off.

Normally these sort of films tend to suffer from any of the following: poor or stereotypical characterisations, irritating kids, a half-baked script in need of a rewrite or any or all of the above. None of the above apply here, except maybe for the kid with the mute and wacky dad, so it's probably excusable in that case :)

The soundtrack is fantastic for this film, as opposed to using regular random pieces of library music, this features Richard Berry, CC Music Factory and the simply fantastic Enigma's Return to Innocence which I absolutely love, cherish and adore.

Not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but as another reviewer says, leave your expectations at the door and you won't be disappointed.