The House Bunny

Introduction

Despite appearing in serious roles in the Oscar-winning films Lost in Translation and Brokeback Mountain, Anna Faris is predominantly known as a comedic actress thanks to her appearances in the Scary Movie films, Just Friends and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. The House Bunny sees her in familiar territory - it is, after all, a Happy Madison Production.

Faris plays Shelley, a popular 'bunny' who lives at the Playboy Mansion and dreams of being a centrefold. Waking up after the big party to celebrate her 27th birthday, she is shocked and saddened to find a letter on her breakfast tray telling her that she is too old and has two hours to move out. Unable to function in the outside world, Shelley stumbles into the Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority house where she is knocked out by one of the unwieldy letters above the door and is invited in. Becoming house mother to the nerdy and outcast students who need new pledgers to avoid the house being sold, she sets about transforming them from socially inept geeks into attractive young women with the most hip house on campus.

Meanwhile, Shelley undergoes a journey of her own, falling in love with Oliver (Colin Hanks), a volunteer at a nursing home and is desperate not to be seen as a clueless bimbo so the girls help out whilst, at the Playboy Mansion, Hef is depressed at Shelley's decision to move out.

Video

As you'd expect from a new film on BD, the disc has a very good transfer, with superb presentation of the bright colours, from the pool of the Playboy Mansion to the bright outfits of Shelley and the girls and the newly redecorated sorority house. The skin tones look great, which is a good thing as there is plenty on show, and the picture, whilst not reference quality, is vibrant and sharp.

*The pictures contained in this review are for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect the image quality of the disc.*

Audio

A crisp Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack with clear dialogue, suitably poppy music and a decent, though not outstanding, array of subtitle and audio options. It's not the sort of film to show off your system, making little use of the surrounds, but there is a nice soundstage and all the nuances come across well.

Extra Features

The extras package is a little light, containing 12 featurettes totalling just over 40 minutes, covering most aspects of the production, though after a while they become a little 'samey', repeating some material. There are several deleted scenes that were omitted for good reason and the forgettable music video for Katharine McPhee's 'I Know What Boys Like'.

For a film only three months out of the cinema and with plenty of big names associated with the project, this selection of bonus material is paltry.

Conclusion

The House Bunny seems confused about what message it wants to send out - on one hand it's making a 'beauty is on the inside, so be yourself' positive point but this is cancelled out by the omnipresent Playboy lifestyle with its superficial outlook on femininity (and this is coming from a subscriber of ten years).

It began as an idea of Anna Faris' and was in production as "Untitled Anna Faris Project" - the chairs have UAFP printed on them - and I got the idea that it was a comedy film that wasn't really sure of itself. The idea of outcasts on a college campus eventually achieving acceptance was done years ago in Revenge of the Nerds and has been done plenty of times since - this follows the well-trod formula but with girls seeking acceptance by changing their appearance and becoming more confident.

Anna Faris is really the only reason to see the film - the other girls are OK, with Emma Stone reasonably impressive - but without the star power and comedic talent of Faris, the whole thing would just collapse. There are appearances by three Playmates, Shaquille O'Neal, Matt Leinart, Hugh Hefner and his girlfriends who are barely adequate playing themselves - Hefner doesn't even seem comfortable playing himself and is very different from the man you see in The Girls Next Door TV show. Faris, however, is perfectly at ease playing a girl so vapid and dim-witted that she thinks the word 'vapid' is a complement and says such things like "who'd have thought that steam would be hot" and the obvious reference to Forrest Gump is probably a comment on Shelley's IQ.

Another problem is the audience as, rated 12, it can't be an American Pie style sex comedy, nor innocent enough to make it a family comedy making its 'be yourself' life lesson accessible to younger girls.

The film is below average and the disc is disappointing.