"The House Bunny" - spoiler movie review

My first exposure to "The House Bunny" was a huge ad on the side of a wall at a local mall. The picture and the tag line, coupled with the movie title, immediately turned me off.





But then I saw the trailer, and the movie actually looked like it could be really funny.


The movie is the story of Shelley, a Playboy bunny who lives at the Playboy Mansion and longs to fulfill her dream of being a centerfold. The day after a most fabulous 27th birthday party, she gets a note from Hugh Hefner to move out of the mansion. Heartbroken, she ends up homeless and then arrested after a misunderstanding, but she stumbles upon sorority row. She decides that being a house mother is exactly what she wants to do, but the snooty house mothers want nothing to do with her - except for one, who points her in the direction of a house that might be in need of a mother. And boy, do they. The Zetas are in danger of losing their house because they don't have enough recruits and aren't raising enough money for charity. Oh, and they dress frumpily and oddly and they have no clue how to deal with boys and are complete misfits in many different ways. They eventually agree to let Shelley be their house mother, and after a humiliating stunt pulled by a rival sorority, they agree to let Shelley make them over. And make them over she does, making them the hottest girls on campus and throwing an amazing block party that also makes them the most popular house to pledge. However, they find that they've become that which they hated, and they blame Shelley for it. It has meanwhile been revealed that a rival Playboy bunny has manipulated a male house employee into forging the eviction note from Hef as well as forging a note from Shelley to Hef to tell him about her departure. When the sabotage is revealed, Hef indeed offers Shelley the much-coveted position of Miss November, but she turns him down to stay with her girls. When they blame her for changing them, she leaves the house and accepts Hef's offer, but ultimately, she's not happy. She does then have a joyful reunion with her girls, who inform her that their rivals pulled a dirty trick so that none of their pledges showed up. However, just as their charter is about to be revoked, Shelley swoops in yet again to save the day, and the girls ultimately are able to keep their house and be true to themselves, and Shelley even finds love along the way.


I did find the movie to be fairly predictable, but you pretty much know that going in if you've seen the trailer. Yes, everyone learns a valuable lesson at the end of the day. There are a lot of funny bits and good lines.

I laughed when Shelley convinced Joanne (well played by Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore) to run after the boy she liked, and during her run, her brace (that she didn't really need anymore but which she had been continuing to wear for the past four years because she was comfortable with it) fell off, just like the scene in "Forrest Gump" - complete with Shelley's encouragement for her to "RUN".

That birthday party scene was pretty cool, and then Shelley woke up the next morning, and even her cat had the bunny ears on.

Speaking of parties, that was one hell of an Aztec party the Zetas threw. (I laughed when Shelley said they always wanted to throw the party at the Playboy mansion, but they could never find a virgin to sacrifice.) But seriously, how much money must that have cost, and who paid for it? The jello volcano was pretty funny.

When her cat didn't want to leave the mansion and was literally clinging to the guy's chest, my reaction was "OWWWWWWWWWW".

I'm trying to figure out what college is located near enough the jail/courthouse she came out of to have their sorority houses that close by.

There are also some inexplicably weird bits, like Shelley's habit of repeating someone's name in a devil-possessed voice which was really disconcerting. She never explained it and no one ever asked, and the first or second time, it was kind of funny, but after that, it just became old. There were some parts that just fell really flat as well, but at least that didn't happen often. The transformation of the girls was fairly quick. In this case, it wasn't just about the clothes and the makeup or even the experience of not having been around boys, but in some cases, especially Mona, it was an active dislike of the trappings involved in catching a boy's attention, but the attitude change was much too quick and easy.

For the men who might have zero interest in this movie, I'm just noting that there are *lots* of footage of hot girls in really skimpy outfits.

I cracked up at Hef - he still looks really good. I was kind of surprised that he'd agree to be in a movie where he was portrayed as being so heartless as to kick Shelley out, so it made more sense that it was all a scam, and it was really funny how much he mourned her leaving, including refusing to see people or do anything and just sitting in his room alone, eating pints of ice cream.

Katharine McPhee was pretty good, though I didn't recognize her during the movie. I just saw her name in the end credits. Her character didn't have all that much to do other than be really pregnant, but she did get to sing the song at the end. It was funny that Shelley referenced "American Idol", since McPhee came in second during her season of the show.

From the one-sheet that I initially saw, I thought Anna Faris looked completely like she should be Goldie Hawn's daughter. She was pretty good in this. Totally vapid.

I loved Kat Dennings, but then, I also loved her in "Charlie Bartlett", and I'm looking forward to seeing her next movie ("Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist") in a week or so.

Beverly D'Angelo is pretty much wasted in a one-dimensional throw-away part. I'm surprised she accepted the role.


I liked the movie enough, but it would probably make a really good rental.