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4[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imageedit_16_2509976265.png]]
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6->''"This ''is'' my happy face!"''
7-->-- '''Roland Sharp'''
8
9A 2005 action/comedy film centered around a group of very hot and bubbly University of Texas cheerleaders who inadvertently witness a murder in connection with the shooting of a Texas Ranger. The danger of their situation makes their protection the responsibility of [[TypeCasting gruff, by-the-book Ranger]] Roland Sharp, played by Creator/TommyLeeJones. As a cover for his detail, he [[StrangeCopInAStrangeLand moves into the group's sorority house]] under the guise of being their cheerleading coach. HilarityEnsues.
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11[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] with the 1995 Disney family comedy/drama ''[[Film/ManOfTheHouse1995 Man of the House]]'', starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Chevy Chase, or TheSeventies BritCom ''Series/ManAboutTheHouse''.
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13----
14!!This film provides examples of:
15
16* AcademicAthlete: Evie is a pre-med student with a 4.0 GPA who is also a cheerleader and probably cares more about her classes than her four house mates combined.
17* AdvertisedExtra: An egregious example in terms of [[spoiler:Cedric the Entertainer as Percy]] was heavily featured in TV promos, implying that he had a bigger role in the film than he actually does. The promos made it seem as if [[spoiler: Sharp and Percy were working together to protect the girls]].
18* TheAtoner: Heather, who knows how to hotwire a car and mentions spending some time in juvenile detention, tells Sharp that she views cheerleading as a way to make up for her past rather than as a fun pastime or social status tool.
19* BadassAdorable: [[spoiler: The girls by the end, when they help capture the villain while maintaining their peppy attitudes and nervousness about the situation]].
20* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: Among the cheerleaders' fashion proccupations is how "Navel visibility must be maintained."
21* BreakingTheFourthWall: After starting up the new air conditioner, a blink and miss by Mr. Sharp.
22* BetaCouple: Mr. Sharp walks in on Heather and officer Holt contemplating the vastness of the universe.
23* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Barb at one point asks "couldn't you just shoot the gun out of the bad guy's hand?" to which Sharp explains that it doesn't work in real life. [[spoiler: Near the end of the movie, it [[BeyondTheImpossible does]]. As he did not intend to do that, Sharp was more impressed than anybody else who saw it.]]
24* BrickJoke:
25** Jimmy the drug dealer who introduces himself to an undercover Holt and, [[spoiler: who then "moves" out to jail by the time one of his customers comes by looking for him.]]
26** Barb's hair becomes hot pink due to a dye mishap in one scene. Throughout the rest of the movie her hair's mostly back to normal but still has a few pink streaks leftover.
27** She also asks Roland why can't he just shoot the gun out of a bad guy's hand, to which Roland replies is impossible (TruthInTelevision, since it requires way more accuracy than just aiming at the torso). Guess what he does when he confronts [[spoiler: Zane?]]
28* ByTheBookCop: Played straight in true Tommy Lee Fashion.
29--> '''Sharp''': One thing you'll learn about me is I do not kid, or jest, or joke, or jape, or quip.
30* ClassPrincess: Head cheerleader Anne has a lot of school spirit and says that they have a sense of responsibility to be role models for the community by being cooperating witnesses in Ranger Sharp's investigation. She does act like a BrattyTeenageDaughter around Sharp at first, but this is mainly in response to how stern and unreasonable he comes across in controlling the lives of his teenage charges.
31* TheComicallySerious: It's Tommy Lee Jones, in his usual stone-faced self, surrounded by cheerleaders. Of course this translates to comedy gold!
32* CurbStompBattle: The five girls want to go to party. Sharp thinks they will not. Cue all of the girls ending up ziplocked to the staircase (or handcuffed to a chair in Teresa's case) in the span of under five minutes. When Anne and Teresa sneak out later to a bar to blow off some steam after the latter's boyfirend breaks up with her, we see another, much more traditional {{Curb Stomp Battle}} when Mr. Sharp takes on a trio of teenage sleazebags who won't take 'No' as an answer from the girls.
33* DeadpanSnarker: Sharp needs only one witness. But Evie has her moments too.
34* DecemberDecemberRomance: Not so December, but compared to the girls, it looks like that.
35* DirtyCop: Getting winged in the arm by a conveniently unseen shooter during a hot pursuit is kind of a red-flag, but [[spoiler: Agent Eddie Zane]] is revealed to be this shortly thereafter. Capt. Nichols seems to be [[GenreSavvy appropriately suspicious]], evading his requests for information on the witnesses and asking him pointedly, "How's the arm?"
36* DisappearedDad:
37** Sharp divorced his wife six years ago and even before then had trouble making time for his daughter Emma.
38** Heather's dad ran out on her family a long time ago.
39* DumbBlonde: [[spoiler: Barb]] starts like one, but it's averted by the end when Heather mentions ''she's'' the one who came up with the plan to rescue Emma.
40* EarpieceConversation: The date with Molly.
41* EatingTheEyeCandy: Ranger Riggs keeps eyeing the girls when they first come to the house and repeatedly thanking Sharp for picking him to come on the protection detail past the point of annoyance.
42* FanService: What do we expect from five cheerleaders?
43* FormerTeenRebel: Heather's all but implied to be one. She mentions spending time in juvenile detention where she learned how to pick handcuff locks, correctly identifies the type of bullet Mr. Sharp loads into his gun as SeriousBusiness ammo, and admits her being a cheerleader is her way of making up for her past wrongdoings.
44* IntimateTelecommunications: One of Sharp's first clashes with his bodyguard charges comes when Teresa wants to accept a phone sex call from her boyfriend.
45* MayDecemberRomance: Attempted by [[spoiler: Barb]].
46* NervousWreck: Evie's introduced at the police station worrying over a psychology paper and getting to the library to study while lamenting that the sight of the victim's 'head exploding' is stuck in her head. She's also prone to hyperventilating panic attacks and Roland immediately clocks her when she's lying due to this trope.
47* NeverTrustATrailer: Again, [[spoiler: Percy’s importance to the film is greatly exaggerated, almost to the point of false advertising]].
48* PapaWolf: Roland Sharp. ''Specially'' when [[spoiler: one of the girls is almost killed]], and then [[spoiler: his actual daughter is kidnapped...]]
49* PomPomGirl: The five cheerleaders who witness a murder and require police protection are (initially) shallow but are generally warm-hearted and take cheerleading ''very'' seriously.
50--> '''Anne''': As captain of the squad, it is my duty to inform you that if you wanna stop us from cheerleading, you're gonna have to pry the pom-poms from our cold dead hands.
51* PutOnABus: Texas Ranger Swanson is wounded in the shootout early on and spends most of the remaining movie in the hospital.
52* RealMenCook: After Sharp voices his dislike against the clothes, the underwear, the music, and generally everything the girls do, nobody bats an eye when he cooks up a nice dinner.
53* RealPersonCameo: This was the film debut for Governor Rick Perry, playing himself as the Governor of Texas.
54* ReallyGetsAround: Heavily implied with Barb. While talking with Mr. Sharp across the campus, in less than a minute, Barb exchanges flirtatious greetings with three different boys she's implied to have had sex with.
55* ReformedCriminal: And he became a priest! [[spoiler: But kept some bad friends.]]
56* RunForTheBorder: Deconstructed. [[spoiler:Zane attempts to flee to Mexico, only for the border guards to draw their guns on him before Sharp arrests him. Turns out that it is a bad idea to try and cross at an actual border crossing with the authorities in hot pursuit]].
57* SpicyLatina: Teresa is arguably the most sexually active of the girls and the one who chafes under Sharp the most. She often swears in Spanish, and mocks an AbhorrentAdmirer in a bar before delivering a GroinAttack when he gets rough.
58%%* Subverted with PaloZCE How is it subverted?
59* TemptingFate: Teresa dismissively says there's no one trying to kill them right before Roland discovers a bomb wired to the bottom of their car.
60* TokenMinority: Teresa ([[Creator/PaulaGarces Paula Garcés]]) fills the role of the token Latina character, and Anne (Christina Milian) is the token African-American character.
61* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Emma and Evie.
62** When [[spoiler: Zane]] meets Emma and mentions he's unable to contact her father due to him being undercover, she mentions that she's able to do so by getting her call rerouted through a highly secured private phone line. This gives him the idea to tap the college's personal telephone lines to deduce Roland's whereabouts.
63** This pays off when Evie obtains Emma's phone number from Roland's phone and calls her to gather data for her psychology paper. The OhCrap look on her face says it all when Holt checks the phone records and mentions [[spoiler: Zane]] probably deduced their location from said call.
64* WoundedGazelleGambit: Exaggerated when [[spoiler: Eddie Zane shoots himself in the arm as a cover up for the sniper who inadvertently shot a Texas ranger]].
65* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Eddie Zane kills the sniper Cortland hired to take out the witness after he fails to do so]]
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