Thanks for checking out our House Bunny Review. If you’d like to see a video version of our House Bunny review, you can see it at the bottom of our written version.
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.
You can watch the video version of our House Bunny review here:
i loved this movie. even though they totally over exaggerated Everythinggggg it was still a good laugh.
awesome.
Finally saw this. I’m a big Anna Faris fan, but this was a disappointment — even with Adam Sandler’s production company behind it.
Faris is cute, but neither ‘enhanced’ or vapid enough to be a Playmate. And frat movies went out with the ’80’s.
The chemistry in this movie also seemed ridiculously forced — Colin Hanks may be a nice guy, but socially, everyone knows they’d be in different hemispheres. And gags like the Marilyn Monroe ‘The Seven Year Itch’ gag with the dress and the steam vent fell entirely flat.
This might have worked if they’d brought in a pro like Tina Fey )’Mean Girls’) to write it, but Karen McCullah Lutz &Kirsten Smith just don’t have the chops.
Similar physical comedy pros like Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Teri Garr (‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’) have proved their capacity to do drama well — I’d like to see Faris make the attempt.
My husband kept giving me dirty looks through the entire movie and he looked like he wanted to walk out, and me with him. But we stuck through it only because it was our anniversary and didn’t want to lose out on $20.
I’m going to go see it again today! It was AWESOME!
I LOVE THIS MOVIE! IT WAS SOOOO FUNNY! REALLY REALLY HILARIOUS! ALL-TIME FAVOURITE MOVIE!!!!!
i don’t understand why so many of you didn’t like this movie..you guys must not have a good sense of humor at all
i thought this movie was HILARIOUS!! and i’m definately buying it when it comes out
i would rather kiss my dogs poo than see this movie again,! it reeked!!!!!
The movie was extra funny!!!! if you dont have a sence of humur you would say it sucked because it is almost all comedy!!!!! i would watch again, and again if i had the money!!!!
Hey, Dark Knight was bound to come out of the top spot sooner or later
I love Anna Faris so much too, her faces are just priceless. There’s something about her that just makes me wanna laugh. I will give it a shot just to see how she is even though the premise is pretty stupid. Of course I will wait to rent it though.
nevermind tropic thunder is number one, and anyway i hated the movie
I saw this movie with my girlfriend last night and it’s a dumber version of Legally Blonde. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, compared to some of the stupid movies she’s dragged me to. Not only did I not fall asleep, but there were some parts where I laughed a bit.
I actually didn’t think it was all that bad. Honestly, I haven’t seen a movie that wowed me in a while, so this movie isn’t any more of a waste of money compared to the rest of the crap that’s out. It was stupid funny and I chuckled here and there. It doesn’t seem AMAZING from the previews, so you’re setting yourself up for failure if you go in expecting something great.
no the weekend estimates are in on box office report and…….no!! the house bunny is number one!! anyway i havent seen this, is it really that bad?
IT WAS SOOO MUCH BETTER THAN A 4.5!!!
IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! :]
and a really good movie, everyone should see it!!!
What can I say Andrew. I guess some of us just don’t pass final judgment on things before we see them. I guess the rest of us just don’t have the superior taste that you have (ie. don’t share your exact tastes)
I just chuckle to myself every time I see something like this that you actually spent time and money to go see when so many other great things are in theaters right now.
So there using porn scripts and bringing them down to a PG-13 level.
Huh,,,,???
I predict this film will gross at least 5mil.
I actually really liked the movie. Yeah it wasnt shakespeare in the park or anything but I got a couple of good laughs out of it. And faris’ character was pretty dumb but she was really sweet and her heart was always in the right place.
All in all I thought it was worth the 9 bucks
I can’t understand why anyone would put up money to make a movie like this.
I would just watch it to see Faris in lingerie.
I figured it would suck. Hey did you guy’s answer my question on whether Beowulf is better than 300 or vise versa?