The House Bunny

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.

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.

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