Review: ‘The House Bunny’
Review: ‘The House Bunny’
The House Bunny
2.5 stars out of 5
The newest movie from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company is what you’d come to expect from the team that brought you I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Click, and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan: delightfully low-brow with flashes of comedic brilliance that is washed away like dirty syringes in Lake Michigan.
The House Bunny is one of the funniest films of 2008 in bits and pieces but collectively it is crushed under the weight of the mammoth amount of annoyances and cliches. Anna Faris, who played the same wide-eyed doe role in the Scary Movie franchise, is wasted in this comedy that contains too many doldrums from being anywhere close to remarkable. Unfortunately, like a Divinyls song, Bunny has a few good dirty riffs but the album is destined for the $1 bin.
When Shelley (Anna Faris) is kicked out of the Playboy Mansion due to her age, (she’s 27), the naive but harmless strumpet is left with only a beat-up old family car, the clothes on her back and optimism the size of Miss August’s boobs. After misinterpreting a police officer’s request as an invite for fellatio, Shelley lands herself in jail. After her release the next day, she finds herself in the middle of a college campus. Overhearing a gaggle of girls talking about dating, drinks and other “d-words”, Shelley visits two sororities in hopes of finding a a remedy to her homeless problem.
Calling it a “little Playboy mansion”, Shelley quiz’s a group of older women (one played by National Lampoon’s Vacation series alum, Beverly D’Angelo) on why they’re allowed to stay in a home that is obviously meant for more youthful gals. Oh, right, they’re House Mothers. <light bulb moment> After asking if she could also take part in the vicariously living through offspring, our favorite blonde is promptly shown the door. Sad, bewildered and repeatedly ogled, Shelley winds up at the downtrodden and dilapidated Zeta house. Filled with misfits including a caveman looking girl (Dana Goodman), a girl with a back brace (Rumer Willis), goth girl (Kat Dennings), knocked-up girl (American Idol’s Katharine McPhee) and their leader, the perky and lovable Natalie (Emma Stone), Shelley feels like she is wanted again.
As the Zeta house is on the verge of shutting down due to low pledge enrollment, Shelley is eventually installed as House Mother. Taking the role seriously, she begins to make “improvements” to the image of the sorority, both in the house and the girls inside. As the girls and house get made over with a fresh coat of paint, so does their standing in the college “jockocracy”. Boys start coming around and if there’s one thing we learn from this movie, it’s that where there are boys…there are girl pledges.
Rather quickly the misfits become exact replicas of the kind of girls who have always rejected them: pretentious, judgmental and nasty. More battles between the rival sororities ensue, a subplot with suitors for Shelley and Natalie takes place and everything is tied up with a pretty pink bow.
Ms. Faris is an outstanding comedienne with stellar timing and charisma but even with all the talent she posses, The House Bunny appears uneven and unremarkable. A cross between Revenge of the Nerds, Mean Girls and every movie that has the “ugly girl” take off her glasses to appear hot, Bunny has just been done too many times and much better.
Perhaps the film would have worked better if it ditched its talented cast and went straight to video and included some “T” to go along with its smell of “A”…and there’s the tragedy of it all.
The cast is first rate. Appealing with an undeniable warmth, the leads of this movie are misused with a script from Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (Legally Blonde) that undermines the story. Emma Stone, who was one of the few bright spots in Superbad, is easily the best and most enjoyable aspect of movie. Any scene that included Ms. Stone was one to watch.
Too bad that can’t be said for the whole movie.
