The House Bunny

3 / 10
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They wanted a role model. They got a Playmate.
Certificate: 12
Running Time: 97
Retail Price: £24.99
Release Date:
Content Type: Movie

Synopsis:
When the mansion's favourite bunny, Shelley (Faris), is kicked out of the hottest house in town, she gets lost in the wilderness of Beverly Hills. But when she stumbles into the sorriest sorority, Zeta Alpha Zeta, she finds a home where she can finally put her talents to good use. The race is on to transform the clueless girls and make Zeta the hottest house on campus.

Special Features:
• House Bunny Style
• The Girls of Zeta
• Calendar Girls
• Anna Faris: House Mom
• The Girls Upstairs
• Colin Hanks: Mr. Nice Guy
• From Song to Set: Katherine McPhee
• From Tour Bus to Trailer: Tyson Ritter
• Look Who Dropped By
• Zetas Transformed
• Getting Ready for a Party
• House Bunny Memories
• I Know What Boys Like Music Video
• Introduction to 'I Know What Boys Like'
• Deleted Scenes

Video Tracks:
1080p Widescreen 2.40:1

Audio Tracks:
English Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1
Audio Descriptive Dolby Digital 5.1
German Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1
Catalonian Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitle Tracks:
Danish
Dutch
English
German
Hindi
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish

Directed By:
Fred Wolf

Written By:


Starring:
Anna Faris
Colin Hanks
Emma Stone
Kat Dennings
Hugh M. Hefner
Christopher McDonald
Beverly D'Angelo
Katharine McPhee
Rumer Willis
Kiely Williams
Dana Goodman
Kimberly Makkouk
Monet Mazur
Tyson Ritter
Sarah Wright
Rachel Specter
Owen Benjamin
Holly Madison
Bridget Marquardt
Kendra Wilkinson
Tyler Spindel
Sara Jean Underwood
Lauren Hill
Hiromi Oshima
Dan Patrick
Sean Salisbury
Matt Leinart
Shaquille O'Neal
Nick Swardson

Casting By:
Lisa London
Catherine Stroud

Soundtrack By:
Scott Smalley

Director of Photography:
Shelly Johnson

Editor:
Debra Chiate

Costume Designer:
Mona May

Production Designer:
Missy Stewart

Producer:
Adam Sandler
Jack Giarraputo
Allen Covert
Heather Parry

Executive Producer:
Anna Faris
Kirsten Smith
Karen McCullah Lutz

Distributor:
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Your Opinions and Comments

The fact this has been made with the cooperation of Playboy Enterprises (Hef appears as himself and a number of Playmates have cameo roles), you'd think somebody would have pointed out the "House Bunny" title is a wrong 'un.

The Bunnies were hostesses at the Playboy clubs of the 1960s - waitresses, croupiers and the like. The women who hang around the Playboy Mansion are Playmates.

TBH, I'm surprised Playboy have cooperated with this picture. As lame-brained as it is, it still paints the organisation in received-perception terms as a misogynistic male fantasy where a woman is put out to grass when she hits 30.

I suppose the title works as a kind of cultural shorthand - you know the "Bunny" reference relates to Playboy, etc.
posted by Mark Oates on 3/2/2009 14:10
3 / 10
Like I said in my review, this was called 'Untitled Anna Faris Project' most of, if not all, the way through production so they probably came up with this title at the eleventh hour. I don't think people really care what it's called - I don't.
posted by David Beckett on 3/2/2009 17:00
I made my first comments on this picture before I'd seen it. I've actually watched it on regular DVD now (rather than Blu-ray), and to be honest I rather liked it.

I'd like to say up front that I don't think this is a title which merits high-definition. It's a sweet, rather goofy picture, but there's nothing to show off the increased definition like great landscape shots, so the premium paid for Blu-ray would be a waste over the standard definition DVD.

To find out that this movie is produced by Adam Sandler is no surprise. The movie has the feel of a Sandler picture - stupid gags and a schmaltzy pay-off. If Anna Faris hadn't developed the picture for herself, I'd have expected Sandler to drag up to play the lead himself.

Anna Faris plays vacuous Shelley with a few interesting notes. She's a little too aware for my liking. She seeks out a niche for herself as housemother to the Zeta sorority house and sets about giving the handful of misfits therein a makeover. A little more ingenuousness would have made things a lot funnier in my opinion. I'm also not too sure about Shelley's habit of using an Exorcist voice as an aide memoire to remembering names.

Emma Stone is fun as Natalie, Shelley's first encounter with the housemates and nerd-girl supreme. She is awfully like Lindsay Lohan, to the extent the resemblance may prove a hindrance to her career. Kat Dennings essays a terrific performance as anarchist punk Mona, Katharine McPhee is cute as pregnant hippie-chick Harmony, Bruce's daughter Rumer Willis plays back-braced Joanne, Kiely Williams plays reclusive housemate Lilly and Dana Goodman plays farmgirl Carrie Mae, who sidles up to a guy in a bar like Quasimodo on the housemate's first night out together.

Colin Hanks (Tom's boy) is unremarkable as Oliver, Shelley's love interest. His old man would have done some priceless reaction shots to Shelley's antics.

Some scenes were shot at the Playboy Mansion with the participation of Hef and the Girls From The Playboy Mansion (who are much dumber and more vacuous than Shelley ever is). It should be noted that Shelley's eviction from the Mansion is a plot by a wannabe to usurp her position and not Hef's decision, which makes my initial observations in the first posting above pretty pointless.

An enjoyable, dumb movie if you fancy a dumb movie night in. 6/10
posted by Mark Oates on 15/2/2009 04:10