Super blonde

I went with my mother and my nine-year-old niece to see "The House Bunny" in the early morning in a relatively empty theater where there were only women. Of course it won't be the most memorable movie I've seen, but for late August, it's not all that bad.

Comedienne Anna Faris is perfectly cast as a carefree, big-haired and hare-brained Playboy bunny who after celebrating her 27th birthday (that's 59 in bunny years) at the Playboy Mansion, where she has lived much of her life, gets kicked out of there by yours truly, Hugh Hefner. With nowhere to turn, she looks at a sorority house that seems to resemble her previous house, only not as big. There, she accepts the job of a house mother to seven social misfits who make up the sorority Zeta Alpha Zeta. They need 23 more pledges before they are totally ousted as a campus sorority by the beautiful but snooty Pi Alphu Mu sorority.

Do the clichés sound familiar? Yes, they do. It seems like the creators of this movie grew up on "Revenge of the Nerds," one of my all-time favorite movies and the granddaddy of all jocks vs. nerds and losers who become winner comedies. So they decided to make a "Nerds" comedy a generation later with a feminist perspective. Faris's character, appropriately named Shelly Darlingson, first takes on all the wallflowers and makes them like her with flashy clothes, heavy makeup, costume jewelry, and platform shoes. At first, it is successful and boys fall for them. Soon enough, they see Shelly as frivolous and teach her to have brains as well as beauty. This leads Shelly to a forced, clumsy conversation with the man of her dreams (Colin Hanks, son of Tom Hanks). At the end of the movie, everyone wins except for the Pi Alpha Mu sorority.

There is a fine cast. Anna Faris perks everything up in what could have been a total lamebrainer. Her appearance and high voice get laughs, but when she does a dead-on "Exorcist" voice by saying everyone's names in order to remember them, that is the real deal. Colin Hanks and fellow Hollywood Offspring Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi Moore (and looks a lot like her) and Bruce Willis, provide able support. Katharine McPhee, the American Idol Runner Up of 2006, is made first ugly, then beautiful, as one of the sorority members. Listen for an "Idol" reference in which Faris tells Hanks she listens to Paula and Randy and that Simon is mean. The rest of the cast is amiable as well. We tend to know more about Shelly and the misfit sorority than the snobby girls or the hunky boys. Small parts by Beverly D'Angelo as a snide veteran house mother and Christoper McDonald as the prissy dean are provided nicely as well.

Now I would not put this on a must see list, but it is okay for a lazy day. As they dump out leftover movies for the summer, I would rather see this than a truly terrible one I was made to see with a friend - "Stepbrothers," where Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly did nothing but scream their heads off and I was so exhausted the night before that I fell asleep and could barely stay awake. For "The House Bunny," I was awake the whole time through.

Ever since I saw the trailer for The House Bunny back in May, I was looking forward to seeing it, this looked like a fun comedy and we all love Anna Faris, this girl is just adorable, and she makes comedies a lot of fun. So I saw The House Bunny yesterday and I did enjoy myself, but we've done this before, the dumb blonde story, not that we can't do it again, I'm just looking for something a little fresh. But Anna Faris holds herself so well with comedies, The House Bunny, she doesn't seem to enjoy herself as much in this role. A lot of the moments where she acts stupid, she looks a little uncomfortable at times, I think that's why this movie didn't stand out as well as other dumb blonde comedies. But it's mindless entertainment, the message, it worries me a little, I'll explain why in a little bit, but I'd say if you're a grown up and you know better, than this is a fun little movie.

Shelley is a hot playboy bunny whose life is just grand, she's a sweetheart, a little on the slow side, but always has good intentions, and when it appears that Hugh Hefner wants her out of the house due to her age of 27, she must pack up her things and take off. She's homeless, but finds a local sorority that needs a house mother and a clue into a social life. She becomes their house mother and teaches them how to attract people, but she learns a little something too when she meets a sweet, smart, and sensitive guy, Oliver. Now things become a success with the sorority, but they become a little too shallow and Oliver wants more than a playboy bunny, he wants a girl to talk too, and to top that off the other sororities are upset to learn that the former losers are now hotties that everyone loves.

My one problem with this movie, even though it is enjoyable, the message isn't appropriate for young girls. I know it's just a movie, I don't want to nit pick, believe me, I know when a movie is harmless, but it's teaching young girls that you have to play yourself down to get a guy and that looks will get you everywhere at any time, also we are rooting for a person who just always has good intentions, why? That's all Shelley is, just a nice person, but she doesn't have many likable qualities. I liked the movie over all, I just think the script needed more work, nothing about this movie stood out, it's a disappointment to me. I would recommend it for silly fun, but otherwise, just wait for the rental.

6/10

If you want to see a cute, feel-good movie that doesn't require a lot of thought and will leave you with a smile on your face, this is the movie to see. You'll laugh out loud at much of the humor, and you'll fall in love with Anna Faris. It's just silly fun. Anna Farris plays a ditsy blond who gets kicked out of the Playboy Mansion (Hugh Hefner is a good sport in this movie!), ends up homeless, and ends up as a house mother for a sorority of "loser" girls (smart girls who don't know how to attract boys). The sorority is about to lose its charter because they can't get enough pledges, and of course Faris saves the day for the sorority by teaching the girls how to be popular, and, along the way, she learns a few lessons herself. You'll enjoy knowing that her love interest is played by Colin Hanks, son of Tom Hanks, and that some of the people in the Playboy mansion and at the party at the mansion are played by themselves. Also, Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore and Katherine McPhee from American Idol are girls in the sorority. I thoroughly enjoyed this light movie.

Shelley lives at the playboy mansion, and dreams of being a Playboy centerfold. The day after her birthday, she receives a letter telling her she has to move out. Ending up at the Zeta sorority house, a house in desperate need of pledges and money to stay open, she helps the girls, all outcasts at college to become sexier to get what they need, while they help her with a guy she has a crush on.....

The House Bunny shouldn't work. It's got a mixed message, suggesting that girls need to use their sexiness to get what they need, while at the same time saying being yourself, with some confidence, and you can get the same. So in that sense I don't think it completely works.

However, it is very funny in places. Anna Faris is showing herself to be a very funny actress, and keeps the humour coming through-out. Hers is the best performance here. The actress's who play the girls in the house are all different, but give good performances too, with the possible exception of Emma Stone as Natalie, the girl in charge of the house. It's not that she's a bad actress. I saw her recently in The Rocker and she was very good there. It's just that here, she seems to be trying too hard to portray the 'nerd' side of her character. It's not a bad performance, just a little uneven.

The script has some good one-liners in it, and director Fred Wolf keeps things moving at a brisk pace. It's not the funniest teen comedy I've seen, but it has enough moments to keep you smiling, and for it's running time is an enjoyable movie.

"The House Bunny" has a funny concept and what looks like a "Legally Blonde" form of execution. If Anna Faris, most commonly known as the one portraying/making fun of the Neve Campbell "Scream" role in the "Scary Movies" was ever going to become the next big female comedienne the time would be now. She showed she was willing to make fun of herself in those movies but I still wonder if she can play a sincere, actual human being rather than a character meant to be the punch line most of the time. "Bunny" was written by "Blonde" screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith so that could be good news but a lot of the weight of this movie is going to rest on the shoulders of it star. Reese Witherspoon made that movie what it was and the big question here is, can Faris do the same?

She plays Shelley, a ditzy playboy bunny with big dreams of becoming the next centerfold who instead is tossed out on her ass by Hugh after her 27th birthday. Shelley went from the orphanage to the mansion so she never quite got the fill gist of the outside world. Now homeless and with very few survival skills, she has no idea what to do next. Just through happenstance, she encounters something that looks like a mini Playboy mansion but is in fact the best college sorority on campus. They decline her for house mother but she finds a home with the Zeta sorority, a group of misfit girls, led by Natalie (Emma Stone), who seriously need to improve their image and attract new members in order to stop the college from closing their house. Enter Shelley to give the girls make-overs.

This movie made me laugh out loud twice. One involved the manhole cover joke in the trailer, and the other was a really good jab at Bob Saget. The rest of the movie is likable and has a nice message but really can't seem to wring that many laughs out of a good premise. It's a parody against the bimbo ideology, first having Shelley turn the girls into mindless, skimpy-looking prostitutes only to realize later that you also have to have substance too. Sometimes it gets a few chuckles and other times it comes off looking embarrassingly sitcom-ish, like when Shelley tries to look brainy to impress a guy by wearing very thick glasses that make her dizzy, but overall the script isn't as smart or funny as "Legally Blonde" and that hurts its chances. The movie also treats some of the secondary characters in really bad taste, like a girl whose such a misfit she actually talks like Frankenstein and walks like Igor, and I was confused by some others, like a girl who supposedly is bad with boys and yet is pregnant.

I was also confused by the mental abilities of the main character. At times she seems dumber than dirt and at other times she seems almost profound. That she works regardless of this has less to do with the script and more to do with Anna Faris. I don't think this will be the star-making role I thought it would be for her but she gives Shelley a very sweet, genial nature and she is willing to throw herself into silly situations with an innocent and goofy charm. Emma Stone is also pretty funny in this movie, dialing up the dorky meter to about an 8. I feel bad for Colin Hanks though. This kid just doesn't seem to be getting many chances to shine, and here he's wasted as the romantic lead in a movie that's pretty low on the romance.

"The House Bunny" begins, middles, and ends like most college movies do, just unfortunately its not funny or clever enough to distract from the generic plotting. Most of the secondary characters are also wasted as well but maybe, it will put Anna Faris on some people's radars. She is a very funny comic actress and with the right script, its possible she could be the next big thing.