Joe Scheffer (Tim Allen) is the kind of guy everyone ignores. He's nerdy, smart, and regularly gets stepped on by his coworkers. No one takes him or his deadlines seriously, he's been passed over for a promotion several times, and his thespian wife just divorced him in favor of a spacey New York actor. The one bright spot in his life is his daughter Natalie (Hayden Panettiere), an aspiring writer who would rather spend her time crashing at dad's than enduring the trying ideas of her mother and the most recent live-in boyfriend. Joe is thrilled, therefore, when Bring Your Daughter to Work Day arrives. Little does he know the experience is about to turn into his worst nightmare when a 7-year employee takes his 10-year employee parking space. Stepping out the car to politely ask him to move, Joe underestimates the size of the parking lot bully and is laid flat with a good double-punch to the jaw.

Humiliated, Joe ships his daughter off to her mother's and refuses to return to work. Fearing the ex-employee will sue the company for 'dangerous working conditions,' Joe's jerk boss sends a beautiful coworker (Julie Brown) to cheer him up. Meg is a long-time dreamer; she's always wanted to help people overcome their problems, but is usually sent on these 'pep talk' errands. At first Joe rejects her offers to make everything right at work, but then is brought around by one good question she asks him -- what does he really want? After overcoming the initial hysterics the question provokes, he comes up with the answer: he wants respect. He wants... a rematch!

Calling up the expended coworker who humiliated him in front of everyone, Joe issues the challenge. In three weeks, when Mr. Jerk returns to work, they'll duke it out in the parking lot. Suddenly he's a celebrity; everyone at the company loves him. He's privileged to spend time with the high-class employees playing squash and attending elite parties. But in the meantime, both Meg and his daughter think the rematch is a bad idea, even with his Kung-Fu lessons in self defense from a washed up Martial Arts movie actor. In this respect, Joe Somebody does have a little going for it. Mark eventually realizes it's not always worth fighting about; some things are worth it, others aren't. A parking space isn't. In the meantime he develops self-confidence and comes to realize true friends are the ones who love you even when you're down, not buttering you up when you're famous. He actually learns a lot from both his daughter and Meg.

Unfortunately the rest of the movie falls flat. The acting is pretty good but the comedy promised rarely surfaces. I think I laughed about five times in the entire two hours, but then I've reached a point where I don't find cheap slapstick stunts to be particularly funny, especially when they deal with body parts. Several times men are kicked in the crotch; conversation centers around it, along with crude street slang. (Seeing Tim Allen straddle an ice pack after his first Kung-Fu lesson was moderately funny; when they rehashed the joke later, it wasn't.) There's also an abundance of alcohol; Joe drinks out his sorrows, shares a beer with Meg on their single date, and attends bars with friends. Violence is mostly slapstick except for the emotionally devastating scene when a middle-aged father is socked in the jaw in front of his kid.

Language is unfortunately high -- way too high to recommend this for family viewing. I lost count of the number of times "kick his a**" was thrown around; there are also numerous minor amounts of deity, profanity by a twelve year old, anatomical slang, and one abuse each of Christ and Jesus. There isn't any outright sexual content but it does come up in conversation a few times. Meg's boss is obviously interested in her romantically and when he fails to get her attention, calls her a tramp behind her back. He makes a farce that they slept together, which they didn't. Meg remarks that even if he tied her to a bed, she'd set herself on fire before sleeping with him. He also makes one particularly nasty insult and is punched for it by Joe in return. (The one instance I was rooting for him to be violent.) 

Joe's ex wife is often shown necking with her boyfriend; after "actor-boy" leaves, she feels lonely and tries to take her daughter's keys to Joe's apartment, with the intention of seducing him. (She's shown briefly in a teddy.) Natalie talks her out of it, saying she has no right to "run over his heart" a second time. In addition, Joe's daughter is sweet but also rude to her father, even when she's right. I simply cannot recommend this film for all its flaws. There is a bright spark at the end, but the experience was ultimately unsatisfying.