Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503080050
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK MATHEWS NEWSDAY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But there he is in ``Man of the House,'' looking a little bewildered himself, as Jack Sturges, a U.S. attorney who can stare down the toughest mobsters in Seattle but wilts under the withering glare of an 11-year-old boy whose mother he hopes to marry.
This is an old-fashioned Disney family movie, cute as a ``Love Bug'' if you have a small, non-discriminating child with you - preferably a boy - and a fate worse than death if you don't.
Chase is bad enough when he's playing a character tailored to his particular brand of physical comedy; here, he is reduced to playing a simpering weenie constantly being upstaged by kids and a bunch of middle-aged men dressed up as Indians. They are the fathers and sons of a spectacularly square club called the Indian Guides, whose members wear feathered headbands.
Jack Sturges is talked into joining the Guides by young Ben (``Home Improvement's'' Jonathan Taylor Thomas), who hopes the geekiness of this particular bonding exercise will persuade his mother's lover to hit the road.
Sturges' challenge: To show Ben and his mother (Farrah Fawcett, of the still cascading curls) that he will withstand any humiliation to prove his sincerity, his dependability and his accuracy at hatchet throwing. The question - and don't give it a thought - is whether Ben will come around to Jack's side, and perhaps even help him thwart the mobsters lurking in the background.
Man of the House
A Walt Disney production showing at Salem Valley 8, Valley View Mall 6. Rated PG for mild violence.
by CNB