Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) should be living the good life. He's working as the head of ad sales for a major sports magazine and getting ready to coast into the best years of his life.
Unfortunately, the magazine has just become the part of a larger company in a corporate takeover, and he's been "demoted" (which has to be better than being "downsized") in the shakeup. To make matters worse, his new boss Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) is half his age and thinks he knows everything. He is about to find out that he doesn't.
Carter comes into the office and thinks that his business school theories will carry over to the magazine where Dan has been operating on handshakes for longer than he's been alive. Unfortunately the cross-promotion ideals that Carter and the new organization hopes will make things work don't seem to be taking off, and to make matters worse, Carter's new wife dumps him just as he receives his promotion.
Dan isn't immune either. As if losing his nice position to someone like Carter isn't the worst news he could receive, his wife is pregnant with a new child (evoking echoes of Father of the Bride II) and Carter, fresh off his dumping, looks to Dan for insight, and when he comes home with him for dinner one night, meets Dan's daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson), which doesn't make Dan any happier at all - especially when Dan finds out they've been secretly dating.
When the pressure gets on to get sales going or get fired, however, Dan and Carter team up and land a big account just in time, only to find out that the magazine has been sold again, and both Carter and the management team are out and Dan is back in charge, almost as if nothing happened.
There's really no explanation of why Carter and Alex don't see each other, except perhaps in respect to Dan's wishes, which is the only downfall to the movie - other than that, it's an enjoyable ride all around.
Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and drug references.
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