You have to admit it's a long way from an Oscar-winning turn as a fed hunting Harrison Ford in The Fugitive to a cheerleading coach buying tampons in a supermarket.

Yet Tommy Lee Jones just about makes the leap in this fluffy comedy that sees him playing Roland Sharp, a Texas Ranger assigned with protecting five cheerleaders.

It was their bad luck to witness the shooting of an informant who would have led the law to an underworld kingpin.

Now they're the prime targets...so Roland's bosses decide to hole him up with the out-of-control co-eds in a frat house on the edge of town.

Don't expect anything different - this is the classic fish-out-of-water routine with Roland - an estranged husband and bad dad - holed up with five sassy, scantily clad teens ready to take advantage at every turn.

Totally out of his depth in a world of tattoos, piercings, rap music, dietary obsessions, he gradually wins their respect through professional discipline and paternal concern.

Jones showed he can do comedy in the Men in Black series and here he often hits the mark with a script that throws up the occasional belting line.

However, the plot is plucked straight from the Hollywood manual and some of the violence - two point-blank head-shootings - sits uneasily with the light comedy tone.

Be warned: one embarrassing scene involving Cedric The Entertainer in a boogie standoff with the cheerleading troupe should have hit the cutting room floor.

That said, it's never less than likeable even if it does elicit the occasional groan - is this really the place to discuss the "duality of man"?. No, didn't think so.

Comforting, in a you-know-exactly-what-you're-gonna-get kind of a way, it's the perfect fare it you don't fancy anything too taxing. Like Legally Blonde.

Tim Evans