Review of The House Bunny (2008) by Gabriella D — 17 Aug 2010

Today, we are going to play an interactive game indicative of standard issue H?Wood comedies. The expression ?With predicable results? can be applied multiple times to describing the very same movie. For example: In The House Bunny, a dimwitted Playboy Bunny moves into a household of geekishly intelligent college girls ____ ____ ____. Or: A mouth-wateringly beautiful Playboy Bunny gives a household of stylistically clueless college girls a makeover____ ____ ____. Or even: A desperate reviewer watched The House Bunny and drove off the road in a suicidal rage ____ ____ ____.

In this PG-13 comedy, Faris plays a Playboy Bunny who is kicked out of Hugh Hefner?s mansion only to find a job as housemother to the most unpopular sorority on a college campus.

The movie is certainly not the worst of its ire, but moviegoers have doubtlessly seen this sort of set-up before?minus the Playboy angle, of course. The misfits are going to lose their house without pledges; a fish-out-of-water Playmate steps in and motivates them; the house is saved and everybody realizes that it is okay to be themselves; roll credits. What makes this connect-the-dots story worth sitting through, however, is the genuinely hilarious screwball performance by Faris. However middling her films might be, Faris?s comedy reel alone (Scary Movie, Lost in Translation, Just Friends) cements her place with Carole Lombard (My Man Godfrey), Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday), and Barbara Streisand (What?s Up Doc?).

Bottom line: House broken.