Anna Faris makes this paper thin attempt at comedy overwhelmingly worthwhile. She is an original that reminded me of some other glories, from Carole Lombard to Goldie Hawn. Her innocence is so believable that we go with her wherever she decides to go. I wish the producers and responsible for this movie getting made had gone all the way and provided this extraordinary comic talent with a more substantial script and direction giving her the opportunity to shine even more than she shines here and here shine she does, big time. Just look at her listening, trying to make sense of what's happening around her. Deeply moving, very funny, kind of unique. I hope she soon finds her Garson Kanin and her George Cukor. I have the feeling we ain't seen nothing yet
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hollyfairbanks-usa12 September 2008
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The_Amazing_Spy_Rises22 August 2008Let me just say that I'm 19, a guy, and straight, and DAMN was I having a great time watching The House Bunny. To sum it up, THB is basically an Adam Sandler movie for girls, with Anna Faris breathing life into an otherwise flat movie with her uncanny comic ability and unbeatable charm. In short, she makes the movie watchable, and in some moments, likable and entertaining.
I see this film as one that most will easily dismiss without a second look, and I really discourage you from doing that. Anna Faris alone deserves your attention in this movie, as she is brilliant. I even heard a few people in my theater say that she could get a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy. I honestly wouldn't be surprised. She's lovable, adorable, intelligently stupid, and of course, roll on the floor hilarious. She's the reason the Scary Movie series is so much 'better' than the other movies in that series (Date, Superhero, Epic Movies), and her charm and charisma carries over here.
In addition to Faris, the strength of the film is the supporting cast (except Hugh Hefner, who gets a pass for simply being Hugh Hefner). The funny thing is, most of the performers aren't even actors. I'm not going to lie and say Rumer Willis is brilliant, because she's not, but she's funny and is good looking enough to surprise us. Katharine McPhee doesn't get enough screen time, but she does do a great job with what she's given. The last of the 'non-actors' is the frontman for The All American Rejects, Tyson Ritter, who is tolerable in a bit part.
Now, unsurprisingly, the best supporters are Kat Dennings and the WONDERFUL Emma Stone (Jules from Superbad). Stone is so likable and adorable that she's the best character in the movie after Faris. Colin Hanks is...well, I for one was surprised that he did this movie, but he was an asset nonetheless.
I'll go ahead and get my complaints out now. First and foremost, whoever edited this movie is absolutely terrible. Whether it be changing hairstyles, continuity errors, or bad cuts, the editing is noticeably bad, especially towards the end. I also didn't like the direction the script took in the end, as it turned the film into a parody of itself (which was weird considering the entire film was a parody of stupid girls and stupid men), and displayed several out of character moments. The jokes were a tad lame and predictable outside of Faris's character (there was NOTHING bad about her), but it was okay. There were some smart jokes that actually took some time to get.
The final plus for this movie is that it is LOADED with cameos. Since you know who the production company is, you already know the group that will be appearing, plus a surprise appearance from 2 NFL quarterbacks (one retired QB, and one current) in the beginning. All in all, The House Bunny is surprisingly funny, all because of Anna Faris and Emma Stone, both of whom have very bright futures ahead of them. Faris is definitely one of the funniest ladies alive. -
gimpo11 January 2010Brains do not need to be engaged for this movie. But it does produce a few wonderful - and hilarious - surprises that make it a very enjoyable 90 minutes.
One is Anna Farris, who does a great twist on the archetypal dizzy blonde beloved of Hollywood since time immemorial.
But the real kickers are the jarring one-liners that pepper an otherwise sweet and predictable film. Several reduced this viewer to paroxysms of laughter, tears rolling down cheeks, beverage spurting across the room.
These moments, when they arrive, are so unexpected that the effect is one of firmly-flicked kipper on unprotected jowl. And none are in the "gross-out" style that one might have expected in a film of this genre.
Very bunny indeed. -
Skipfishh2 May 2023It's impressive how talented Anna Faris is, she manages to turn a tremendously idiotic movie like this one into something watchable. And this is very clear when she shares the screen with another great actress, who is Emma Stone in a role that is also comedic, and yet she steals the show.
The film itself is a feel good movie, it has some aspects that I thought were really cool, such as the appreciation of friendship and taking away taboo and prejudice with sex, in addition to having some funny moments, always in Anna's hands. On the other hand, the rest is silly beyond measure, even having grotesque and embarrassing moments, like some starring the character Carrie Mae, extremely forced. Not to mention Anna's final speech, which is ridiculously corny and unnecessary.
I rate it 5 out of 10 for Anna's talent and the heart warming spirit. -
"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. -
kevin_crighton26 October 2008Shelley 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. -
Shelley (Anna Faris) was abandoned as a baby on someone's doorstep long ago. As she relates, no one was interested in getting her back although they did request that the basket be returned! Shuttled from one orphanage to another, Shelley eventually found a "family" when her womanish figure came into fruition. That's right, Shelley resided in the Playboy mansion and found happiness with Hef and the other gal pal housemates. However, one day Shelley receives word that Hef has given her two hours to move out of the mansion. A fellow worker at the residence suggests that, perhaps, she is getting too old to be a bunny. After all, didn't she just turn 27? And, isn't that like 59 in "bunny years"? So, off Shelley goes, hurt and scared. After a day on her own, she stumbles onto a nearby college campus and learns that she could possibly find a job, a home, and a salary by becoming a sorority "mother" to a group of misfit sisters. These gals, the Zetas, have seen their numbers shrink, mostly because they are all shy and a bit unconventional (among them, Katharine McPhee and Rumer Willis). The college has already told them that if they don't find new members, the Zeta house will be shut down. It is going to be Shelley's biggest challenge to turn the sorority into an attractive place for the new students. Can she do it? Perhaps, Shelly could ask for the help and advice of a nursing home director, Oliver (Colin Hanks), a nice man she met in a park? After a brief, blase beginning, this film packs a good punch of light comedy and romance. Part of the credit should go to the very nice cast. Faris is wonderful in her role as the dimwitted bunny who has more than enough smarts to learn a few new tricks and Hanks, in a smaller role, is quite nice as the love interest. The Zeta girls themselves, especially Rumer Willis and Emma Stone, are a delightful bunch of offbeat creatures that learn some lessons themselves. The rest of the cast, including Christopher McDonald and Beverly D'Angelo, is good, also. The costumes, naturally, are very fine, as this is a gal-dominated movie and clothes are especially important. But, the sunny sets, cinematography, screenplay, and direction are up to snuff as well. No, it's not Willie Shakespeare but the flick is definitely a good diversion from the everyday blues. It's a likely bet that you will find this "Bunny" to be quite funny indeed.
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rmvieira12 February 2011Don't expect too much of The House Bunny. It's just another teen movie that you can definitely judge by its cover. It's basically a silly story of a playboy bunny that is kicked off the Playboy Mansion and has really nothing to hold on to - and has to start over. The plot line is very simple and the movie is very predictable with loads of clichés.
Anna Faris' performance is the only thing that can save this movie. She's funny and can really get into a character, even though this role seemed like her roles on the Scary Movie series, playing a dumb and shallow girl. Only hotter and blond this time.
Watch this if you want a very light movie with nothing special about it. Almost good for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Thankfully it's not a long movie. -
nancy4523 August 2008If 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.
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MiamiHEATfan7773 September 2008Having also seen the ultra-violent Death Race in the same week as The House Bunny I realized one big thing; clichéd violence doesn't offer any kind of real reaction whereas clichéd humor can still manage to make you laugh as long as the delivery is entertaining and fresh. Sure, the dumb blond jokes in The House Bunny are old and played out, but Anna Faris gives you continuing reason to laugh in a film that is far funnier than it really deserves to be. The House Bunny plays on the sexy-but-dumb stereotype to the fullest extent and Faris has proved in the past, as a regular in the otherwise awful Scary Movie films, she can pull this off. On top of looking amazing, Faris gives this film every reason to exist. Co-stars Emma Stone, Kat Dennings and the increasingly emaciated Rumer Willis offer up a couple of additional laughs, but it is Faris that leads the charge. She plays right up to the edge of the dumb blond stereotype and only occasionally tosses in one too many clichéd jokes. Nevertheless, you forgive her thanks to a consistent number of chuckles throughout the film.
This isn't to say this is a classic comedy by any means, but anyone that goes to see House Bunny should walk away with a smile. This isn't a film to hate, it offers up exactly what the trailers promise and it delivers a little extra with an unexpected f-bomb dropped in the mix and a peek at Faris's little bum to keep the men paying attention.
Perhaps the one major shock would be Colin Hanks; it seems those Tom Hanks genes aren't quite paying off just yet. After a decent sized role in Peter Jackson's King Kong, Hanks has only managed to worm his way into mediocre films at best. Then again, he hasn't shown anyone any reason to give him anything with more meat on it so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Katherine McPhee of "American Idol" fame plays a small role in the feature as does Beverly D'Angelo, but both are relatively inconsequential.
The ladies in the audience are more likely to get a kick out of The House Bunny and the fellas dragged to the theater with them should be able to enjoy themselves as well despite the estrogen oozing of the screen. It isn't like this is a film you should rush out to the theater to see, but you could definitely do worse in your selection. -
lubita-lui-hristos4 August 2019I LOVE this movie. Honestly, I know it may not be everyone's cup of tea but it's so unique and has some of the best lines I've ever heard. It also has a great message. I was hesitant to watch it at first being that it's about a playboys bunny but it very quickly won me over and has since taken one of my top 5 movie spots.
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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.
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Otoboke8 November 2008Ladies and gentlemen, imagine if you will the concept of cinematic schizophrenia. It's okay if you don't quite grasp the idea behind this concept because I just then made it up especially for this review. However, should a movie ever adopt the illness that is cinematic schizophrenia, it will undoubtedly in some way or another resemble the bewildering mess that is House Bunny. Here is a film that is one thing, then another, and then another and so on. It's a feature that gives the audiences some genuine laughs, and yet tacks on drama so soppy and melodramatic that it's hard to take anything in the vicinity of its presence with any degree of sincerity. There's also some brilliant performances, and yet the thespians involved are neglected to play out shady, two dimensional cut outs for characters; going through act one, two and three with a different wardrobe, and a whole new personality to match. What hurts the movie most however isn't this mix of successful elements with mundane ones, but the collision that occurs when they try to blend; House Bunny is a confusing, disjointed affair that entertains sporadically and yet has around the same amount of potential to irritate and bore. In the end, much like a "bunny" in reality, this isn't going to give the brain cells much company and whatever fun is had will be quickly forgotten in no time; shallow, trite and ridiculously unfocused, House Bunny should be fine enough for teenage girls looking for some brain dead amusement, but for anyone else, this is material best left alone.
Following the story of ugly neglected orphan turned Playboy centrefold wannabe turned homeless bimbo, House Bunny opts to tell the classic tale of 'be yourself and always appreciate those closest to you'. The problem with this isn't just that the movie fails to change any of the formula associated with this cliché concoction but that it instead contorts elements beyond recognition which in turn distorts any sense of conviction within the script. Furthermore, with three distinct acts that draw their borders just about as obviously as their characters go through personality changes, the film adopts a jolted structure that plays out all too obviously and predictably. Throughout the tale we see characters go from one thing to another and then meeting somewhere in the middle by the end; it's nothing that hasn't been done before, so many times. Yet where House Bunny gets most irksome is in the extent that characters shift focus, resulting in tired clichés that fail to create any resonance with the audience beyond grabbing a few stilted laughs. As a direct result, it is the feature's first act that plays off the most successfully, meshing likable characters with not so likable ones in a manner that seems almost satirical in its charm. Unfortunately, this sense of consistency and intrigue soon dispels once the movie sets up its driving force for the central theme, resulting in ideas rather than characters interacting with each other; this isn't engaging drama by any means, no matter how hard it tries. Sure enough there's somewhat of a decent message to be taken back, but it's too far behind all this confused jumble of caricature nonsense to be taken seriously.
To say that the feature is without its merits however would be a small misjudgement. House Bunny certainly isn't anything worth looking into, but should you be subjected to watching it, there are a few hidden gems in amongst all the dirt. Most of these highlights, as stated earlier, lie in the performances of the main cast, and while most are given nothing but lame characterisation to work with, most get the job done and pull some decent laughs out of their limited bag of tricks. Anna Faris who by now is more than comfortable in these kinds of slapstick roles, is particularly convincing in her position here, making the most of her ditzy persona and fleshing her out to be just a little more engaging than she should otherwise be. Emma Stone in what is only her third feature also gives a memorable performance in her own right, outdoing her lukewarm outing in lacklustre The Rocker by quite some distance. It goes without saying that her character suffers the most from this schizophrenia I referred to earlier, and Stone certainly entertains more as Act One Nerd, but consistency aside, she adds an air of vibrant ambiance that counters Faris' more eccentric glow.
Aside from those elements however, plus the undeniable fact that most will find something to laugh at here, then House Bunny falls flat. It's a tepid effort for sure, eager to please its target audience of teenage girls with little aspiration to reach anyone else, and for that the feature can get more than tiresome in between the more amusing and engaging parts. Certainly not a movie to be taken seriously by any means, director Fred Wolf never quite seems to grasp the script's notably tongue-in-cheek nature, and instead delivers a black and white rendition of the now sloppily vague "believe in yourself and you will be happy" story. The drama is pointless, the characters ridiculously incoherent, and the themes are underdeveloped to the point where all hope is lost underneath rubble of mismatched ideas and talents. I'm sure some audiences will get a kick out of it, but I wasn't one of them. I laughed a few times, and I very rarely got bored, but that's not saying much. This is for teenage girls in search for silly, ditzy fun with no brains and no heart either; anyone else should look elsewhere.- A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)
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thbyrd29 August 2008Truly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. And I don't' say that often! I kept waiting for the funny parts. And to think I drug my husband to it! Stupid premise, very predictable, quite awkward, embarrassing movie. One positive note.... Catherine McPhee was charming and great in her role. She definitely has a future in acting. Her role was small but credible and showed promise. Rumer Willis should keep her day job, whatever that might be. I felt sorry for Anna Faris. She looked good in the movie but the content was an embarrassment. Drippy, sappy, stupid. And what was Beverly D'Angelo thinking associating herself with this mess? And Hugh Hefner and the girls next door? Don't waste your time or money on this drivel.
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fischer_patrick14 April 2023This is an okay comedy. The story itself is lame. It could have used several more drafts of the script. The film has a talented cast including Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Beverly D'Angelo, and Chris McDonald. Unfortunately, D'Angelo and McDonald don't factor into the story enough. The film feels like a studio ordered a zany college comedy with hot girls and didn't care about the script. The characters aren't memorable, there is no great development for any of them. The growth we do see from the characters is rushed and feels unearned. Anna Faris carried the movie and her style of comedy is the only thing that really landed throughout the film. It has its moments and is okay, but it's not a film worth watching a second time.
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puffball9722 August 2008I 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. -
Anonymous_Maxine28 August 2008There's a scene in The House Bunny where a key character inquires as to whether Shelley is, in fact, "that dumb." One of her fellow sorority sisters immediately stands up and says, indignantly, "She's not dumb!" This is an important scene, and my immediate assumption was that we, the audience, were meant to shake our fists at the screen and say, "Yeah!" But then I remembered that for well over an hour by then, the movie had been scrambling frantically to get us to laugh at how genuinely and spectacularly dumb she is.
This is a contradiction that permeates the entire movie, with strange results. When I saw that scene, I was immediately relieved that I had found the movie up to that point so completely unamusing, otherwise I would have felt guilty for laughing at this girl, who, I understand, is "not dumb."
So, in order to flaunt my superiority, I turned around in my chair and shook my fist at the drunk, cackling teenagers at the back of the theater and yelled, "Yeah! She's not dumb! See? You little punks!" Strangely, this only brought more laughter.
The House Bunny, by the way, is PG-13, which should cause the majority of the male audience to lose interest entirely and confuse anyone over 17 as to why anyone would find such a movie interesting. The story is centered around the life of a Playboy bunny who is ousted from the Playboy mansion. Playboy's founder himself, Hugh Hefner, plays a sizable supporting role. Would one be out of line to expect a little gratuitous nudity? In this case, yes, because this is a soft porn movie for kids age 13 and up. Nice.
The story is basically Legally Blonde in a sorority house, so it's obvious that the movie's message must have something to do with superficiality and obsessions over appearance and other such nonsense.
Shelly, played by Anna Faris, is booted out of the Playboy mansion and finds herself homeless, so she decides to shack up with a sorority of uncool girls and teach them how to turn themselves into male fantasies.
It's sad that the movie fails so completely because there is so much potential there, but, unfortunately, they just don't know where to stop with the cartoonishly overblown outcasts. These are not your typical college nerds, these are girls that don't know better than to walk up to some guys in a bar and say, "Hey, where's the crapper? I gotta drop off some timber."
Timber!!!
I feel like, in order for the comedy in a movie like this to be successful, we need to be able to point to a few characters and say, "Hey I know someone like that!" Not in this movie. You don't know anyone like anyone in this movie. But you have, however, seen people like the people in this movie.
Remember that goofy teen comedy She's All That? One of the cool kids takes a bet that he can take the ugliest, most uncool girl in school and turn her into the prom queen. So we meet little Laney Boggs, the weird art student always covered in paint and unable to get a date to save her life. Zach, the cool guy choosing to accept the mission impossible, has his work cut out for him. But surprise! she takes off her glasses and combs her hair and she's hot! What a relief that the transformation was so easy!
When we meet the girls of Zeta Alpha Zeta, they are genuinely frightening social outcasts. Bitter, confused by social interaction, and more clueless about fashion than your average homeless person, they are quite a spectacle to behold.
But, surprise! Wouldn't you know it? With the addition of the right, ahem, outfits, a little hip hop bumping in the background, and just the right amount of slow motion, they're all crazy hot! Who would have guessed?
Interestingly, it isn't until the very, very end of the film that you will truly realize how purely and incredibly meaningless it is. The movie is about Shelley's efforts to turn a group of social outcasts into frat party favors, but then it tries to feed us this message about not worrying about what other people think and just being yourself. What the hell?
Beginning with the story about a Playboy bunny that just happens to be rated PG-13, everything in the movie cancels out everything else. There's a scene at the end that is meant to tie everything together and make it all make sense, but it is one of the biggest forehead slappers I've seen in recent memory.
I've noticed lately, particularly with movies like Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder, that there are a lot of new things being done in the comedy world. The House Bunny is unsurprisingly unaware of these new ideas and experiments and is merely feeding us the same childish tripe we've seen countless times before. One can only hope that, since they are now resorting to a PG-13 Playboy theme, they must surely be running out of ideas . -
arduinico30 September 2021The alchemy about the two of them is just perfect, they are incredibly funny. The script is fine but they make it great.
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King_of_Five29 August 2008Seriously, how many more of these shitty movies are going to be made? If its not some quartered and drawn remake, it's some shitfest starring Wannabes and Never-Was-Its.
The Legally Blonde movies were idiotic (pun not intended). The fact that they promote and moralize the "stupid blonde" facet is disgusting. In reality, the only thing these types of people receive is pity (whether they notice it or not). It doesn't help that they hired the chick from the Scary Movie series (seriously, Anna Faris as a Playboy bunny?).
Save yourself the trauma and just watch this pirated on the internet. There's no reason to waste your hard-earned cash (or your parents') for a typical, trite piece of cinematic trash. -
neil-47617 October 2008The set-up is simple: airhead bimbo Shelley is conned out of the Playboy mansion for being too old, and ends up as house mother at a sorority house which is due to close because its handful of misfit members are incapable of attracting new members. Fortunately the one thing Shelley is good at is attracting people, so she teaches the girls how to look attractive, and they teach her that there is more to life than appearances.
The script tries to have its cake and eat it by making Shelley dumb as a fencepost while, at the same time, being sharp as a tack. This hardly matters, because Anna Faris makes Shelley a character whose attractiveness (as a person) far outweighs her shallowness (she is indeed vapid in the early stages of the film).
Some of the early humour doesn't work too well, and there are the usual cultural mistranslations for a British audience which is completely unfamiliar with the whole sorority business, but this doesn't matter either: the generalities work just fine even if some of the specifics don't come across.
The message is clear, but not overdone. A lot of the humour is very effective - Faris is a gifted physical comedienne - and this is, in my view, another comedy which succeeds because it has heart. You root for Shelley and the girls because they are inherently decent, nice people, and you hiss the rival sorority (who have designs on taking over the other sorority house) because they have lost sight of the virtues espoused by Shelley and her girls - this, incidentally, gives the movie an unexpected cheer-out-loud moment towards the end).
The single use of the F-word is very funny. -
siobhandenton31 October 2008After being evicted from the Playboy Mansion for being too old at 27, Shelley Darlingson (Anna Faris) now homeless, has little choice but to move into the Zeta Sorority House, whose seven misfit members risk losing their house unless they receive thirty pledges from potential new Zetas. So in exchange for living there, Shelley dedicates herself to the task of making the Zetas popular to help them attract pledges. An orphan whose only real home has been the Playboy Mansion, Shelley is incredibly naive with no real world experience, and is therefore the ultimate archetypal dumb blonde character, trading one comfortable environment for another. From the same writers of Legally Blonde, The House Bunny attempts to imitate the success of the former. Unfortunately the film fails on all accounts. Legally Blonde was successful largely due to Reese Witherspoon's likability, subverting her dumb blonde image in the film. The House Bunny makes no attempt to dispel this stereotype: Shelley tells the sorority girls that popularity is increased through higher levels of attractiveness. The film is also hugely clichéd: there isn't anything that hasn't been seen before here. Complete with the typical cheesy montages in which the characters toil as inspiring music is played, the film is entirely formulaic. The film is completely predictable from the start, with no surprises whatsoever. Anna Faris is not particularly likable; during her appearance on Friends (playing Erica in the final series) she was just about bearable. However, now given a feature length film, the increase in screen time just serves to highlight her lack of talent as an actress. Shelley is irritating, stupid beyond belief and not remotely funny. The biggest laugh in the film comes unintentionally from Hugh Hefner in a cameo role, who actually manages the feat of failing at playing himself. Emma Stone (Jules in Superbad) does well enough with a terrible script; whereas Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce, is given little opportunity to show off any acting abilities she may possess. Overall 'The House Bunny' is a poor film that brings nothing new to a tired genre.
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brianx-124 August 2008I gave this movie 9 stars out of 10 because it made me laugh, it made me laugh a lot, and I was still laughing after I left the theater. Anna Faris is a hoot, and you can't help but love her. (She's the Goldie Hawn of the early 2000's)Everyone else in the movie ends up loving her because she's the epitome of goodness and loving. Even tho the movie is basic in it's good people vs their antagonists it works, and it's not meant to do anything but entertain, amuse, and make you laugh. I was expecting a rehashed Animal House, but it's not that at all. It's a feel-good movie all the way. Forget all the Summer comic book fare and go see this one, you will not regret it and you'll feel a lot better than after having seen The Dark Knight, I assure you!
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It was a late Sunday afternoon after a late Saturday night and it was my partner that suggested that, of all the films doing the rounds, The House Bunny would be a good pick. I did have my doubts on her call but figured that it might be silly fun in an undemanding sort of way and that maybe it was suitable for the situation. The film opens with a tone that suggests that this was the right approach because from the get-go I was getting a vibe of Clueless and figured that there would be some silly laughs on the way to the obvious conclusion of "on second thoughts, to thy own self be true and it will all be OK" moral. Fine, I will concede that the Happy Madison production company logo was a little bit of a concern but not to the point where I ever prejudged the film before it had even had a chance to work on me.
Looking back though, had I done so I would not have been far off the mark because The House Bunny is a pretty flat piece of work. Lets cut right through it here and get right to the central problem, which is that it is simply not funny enough to make me forgive it and ignore all the other problems it has - and it has plenty. Since watching I was read many comments ripping into it for the simple characters, the basic plot, the lack of internal logic that it has even within the context of the jocks/nerds high school genre but if all these viewers had been rolling in the aisles or charmed by the film then few of them would be saying any of these (even if they all continued to be true). Sadly the majority of the film is unfunny and has little in the way of charm. Neither thing can be said of Faris though because her delivery makes for some of the few funny bits of the piece. OK she struggles with her airhead character but when she gets to juxtaposition her bubbliness with things that don't fit her character, like swearing or the physical slapstick.
This is not enough though and there are few others willing to step up and help her. The students themselves are all so-so characters and their performances are what you would expect. It doesn't help that some of them are so simple on paper (written for the sake of comedy) that we don't really feel for them across the story. McDonald and D'Angelo are solid additions but other than one or two good laughs they aren't ever fully utilised. Hefner happily takes part in the movie as it allows him to further cement this idea of him as a cool part of our culture where he is like a kindly uncle preceding over good clean fun, and certainly not a pornographer who has gotten rich from the fact that young women are attractive in states of undress or while having full sex.
Speaking of this actually, it is hard to avoid one of the biggest underlying problems with the film and it is related to the whole Playboy thing. You see, as a man, I do watch porn and, while in the back of my mind there is a worry about exploitation or a disbelief that someone would seek out a job that asks them to do some of the things that are now standard in these films (not to mention the stuff that is not standard), I generally don't think about it too much. Now at least I can be honest about that but The House Bunny turns a totally blind eye and creates this fantasy that the playboy mansion is all about loveliness and beauty and not about pornography or sex in any way. In itself I can ignore this because it is a lie that has been told so many times before but what bugs me here is how the place is used as an ideal within the transformation of the characters. The message of "to thy own self be true" never appears and, although it tries to get to some sort of slightly warming moral it ultimately can be summed up by "for the love of God don't be yourself because boys won't like it and if you're not popular then you are nothing". This is not the most uplifting of messages but I could buy it if it had used this for the majority and then flipped it for the ease of closing the film - it is concerning that nobody seemed to think that this was necessary to do.
Like I say though, if the film had been funny then I wouldn't have minded any of this stuff but there are just too few laughs in here to cover anything. Faris produces a handful but they are all "out-of-nowhere" laughs that come because they don't fit with the rest of the material - which unfortunately is the majority of the running time. A very basic comedy that is nowhere near funny enough to cover up the problems and the themes that it has. -
This is a belated review, entered in 2015 after a second viewing.
Here are your instructions: If you have seen the movie and are looking for validation, and you 'get' the rating (6) skip the review. You don't need it.
Otherwise, if you are newbie or have a different view, you can proceed to these comments:
1. OMG. It's as if a couple of writers had taken a week off to "map" the arc of Faris' career (which was pretty solid UP TO THAT POINT!) and concluded, hey, she can do it, she can carry an entire wacky comedy on her own, she has the looks, she has the talent, and no has ever given her a chance. So let's do it.
2. Above, I explained how this film came into being. What I neglected to add was what happened next. The script. It looks like it did not get beyond the first draft. It reads like it did not get beyond the crayon stage. It contains lines like "the eyes are the nipples of the face." Having spent all their energy deciding if Anna could do this film (and yes, she could have done it, she did do it, and it is a pity she did not have better material) there seems to have been no time or budget left for a proper script. Anna was sent into battle with no live ammo. The rest is history.
3. There an Amanda Bynes film called Sydney White which is very similar. Here is the thing. Side by side, compared one to the other, the Bynes film becomes an amalgam of Citizen Kane and Mean Girls. Not that it is so great (it is actually pretty good, but making a point here!) but simply that House Bunny is so bad.
4. Bottom line, for Faris' fans only, and I know there are a lot of you. She tried. But she was fighting impossible odds. But she tried. -
itislynda27 August 2008You know a comedy is truly awful when: 1. you don't laugh 2. you're in actual pain. Somebody in Hollywood must have thought, "Well, all I have to do is combine mostly 'Legally Blond' with some 'Animal House' thrown in, with a nod to 'Forest Gump,' and I'll make millions." The difference is that the characters in all these comedies were actually likable and we rooted for them. Because the heroine is so stupid--and not in a good way--and the other characters are so forgettable, I didn't care about anyone. Everything in this movie is undeveloped, except the bra size of the "house bunny."
In "House Bunny," the repeated comic attempts (which never succeed as comic reality) include having the heroine lower her voice when she repeats the name of somebody's she's just met, having a woman attempt to pick up guys by repeatedly taking about her bowel movements, plus unfunny and constant references to S&M and oral sex. The basic premise of the movie is that in order to be successful, to have a boy friend, you should mask your intelligence and make sure you are attractive (AKA, slutty). Yeah, yeah, "House Bunny" has a veneer of "what really matters is your personality," but nobody really believes this dogma.
This movie is sexist and stupid and insulting to the audience. If it were the last movie on earth, I'd still say burn it.