| The House Bunny (2008) |
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| Saturday, 23 August 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 I’ve never understood the fascination some people have with Anna Faris. To me, while an attractive woman, she’s never been that “hot” or something I would day dream about. As far as her acting chops go, I’ve also never been that into her. I think her stuff in the Scary Movie franchise has been terrible and so has most of her other stuff (although I must admit her comedic pace in “Just Friends” was pretty damn funny and shows that she has potential). So here comes The House Bunny. A comedy about a Playboy playmate with Anna in the lead… and as you’d guess she plays a dumb blonde with nice tits. Can you see where this is heading?
THE GENERAL IDEA The synopsis for House Bunny looks something like this: “When Shelly, a Playboy bunny, is tossed out of the mansion, she has nowhere to go until she falls in with the sorority girls from Zeta Alpha Zeta. The members of the sorority - who also have got to be the seven most socially clueless women on the planet - are about to lose their house. They need a dose of what only the eternally bubbly Shelley can provide… but they will each learn on their own to stop pretending to be what others want them to be and start being themselves.”
THE GOOD The one redeeming thing I’ll say about this film is that as it progresses, the charm of the story and the characters starts to capture you a little bit. As stupid and annoying and painfully unrealistic or believable as these characters are… they are sweet, and the more we’re exposed to them in the film, well, you can’t help but like them. Getting an audience to like your character can get you a LONG way.
Some people may criticize this movie for promoting a philosophy that you have to be sexy to be happy. Oddly enough I’ll defend the movie on this one point. To me, the message of the movie wasn’t that you have to look hot to have a life, but rather looking your best can give you confidence. Not looking THE best… but rather looking YOUR best. The fact of the matter is this is true. When YOU think you look your best, you do have more confidence, and it’s often your confidence that takes you places. Deep down this is the message I think certain parts of the movie were trying to convey, and I like how they did that. However…
THE BAD No laughs. All the jokes can be seen coming from 4 miles away… and the ones that might have worked seemed to all be in the trailers, so those ones were spoiled for me. Oh there were a couple of grins here and there, but not much more beyond that. While sweet and a bit charming, Faris’ character is just far too stupid, clueless and plain old dumb for me to root for her to any meaningful level. Here’s the thing… when the “bad lady” comes along and says Faris doesn’t belong on the University campus and that’s she’s a negative influence, you have to be able to disagree with her… but you don’t. The “bad lady” is 100% correct and I actually found myself taking her side. That’s not good.
Yes it’s a silly little innocent comedy, but at least PRETEND to give a little depth to your characters. There was absolutely nothing to these airheads. Even the “smart girls” were as dim as twigs. And I’ve had enough of these extremely sexy young actresses who put on a pair of glasses and we’re supposed to believe they’re suddenly ugly outcasts… then suddenly they get a hair cut and contacts, and BOOM… they’re hot.
OVERALL I hated this movie for much of it… but as it wore on the sweetness, innocence and charm of the characters wore on me enough that it stopped me from walking out. The film is annoying in parts, boring in many other, but had a few smiles here and there mixed in with a positive message. Not enough to make me like the movie, but enough to prevent me from hating it.
Overall I give The House Bunny a 4.5 out of 10.
3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |
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