Bad movies we love to watch
”
The House Bunny
”
starring Anna Faris, Emma Stone and Colin Hanks
Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith might just be the queens
of dumb movies we love so much we have to watch them over and over
again. The duo are the masterminds behind
”
The House Bunny,
”
a recent collegiate comedy to hit theaters. But they are also
the writers behind
”
Legally Blonde,
”
”
Ella Enchanted,
”
”
She’s the Man,
”
and
”
10 Things I Hate About You.
”
Bad movies we love to watch
“The House Bunny” starring Anna Faris, Emma Stone and Colin Hanks
Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith might just be the queens of dumb movies we love so much we have to watch them over and over again. The duo are the masterminds behind “The House Bunny,” a recent collegiate comedy to hit theaters. But they are also the writers behind “Legally Blonde,” “Ella Enchanted,” “She’s the Man,” and “10 Things I Hate About You.”
Those are all movies I own on DVD. But they are also the types of movies that, if I am flipping through the channels and they happen to be on TV I find myself unable to keep flipping. I can watch them from any point in the movie, and it all makes sense because I’ve seen them so often, and they still make me laugh. After seeing “The House Bunny” this weekend, I know next time I watch it I will be laughing just as much as I did at the theater.
“The House Bunny” doesn’t have a new storyline. In fact, it is almost the same story as “Sydney White,” a movie starring Amanda Bynes in which she transforms seven dorky guys into popular dudes on campus in order to save their house on Fraternity Row.
In “The House Bunny,” Shelly (Anna Faris) starts life as an ugly duckling who is abandoned at an orphanage. As she gets older she transforms, not into a swan, but into a Playboy Bunny. She finds a home and family at the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner and other blond-and-well-endowed women. But the day after her 27th birthday, which is 59 in bunny years according to a friend of Shelly’s, she is kicked out of the mansion.
Shelly stumbles onto a college campus with sorority houses. Soon she is offering her services as a house mother to a group of misfit girls who are in danger of losing their sorority charter. They can’t find new pledges and Shelly comes up with the perfect plan. She will help the girls become popular and get boys so that other girls will want to hang out with them.
The girls really are the biggest misfits. Natalie (Emma Stone) is the most normal, though she suffers from no fashion sense and a tendency to run off at the mouth about boring things. The others include a girl with spiked hair and metal piercings all over her face, a pregnant one, a girl in a metal back brace, a redneck, one who looks a little like an Ewok and one who is so shy she only communicates through text messages sent from the closet.
Shelly has her work cut out for her as she transforms the girls into beautiful bimbos and teaches them how to tone down all the man-repelling habits they have. She tells Natalie not to act so smart in front of boys. Mona (Kate Dennings) swaps her short hair for longer locks. Joanne (Rumer Willis) is encouraged to embellish her back brace by bedazzling it. And all the girls don piles of make-up and skin-revealing clothes.
Shelly’s makeover seems to be working on them, but soon Shelly needs their help. When she meets Oliver (Colin Hanks), none of her normal tricks to get men seem to work. She tries volunteering at the nursing home where he works. She tries a Marilyn Monroe impersonation. She tries making him jealous by saying she has dates with other men. But none of it seems to work.
Shelly and the other girls soon learn that beauty and brains can go hand in hand, and being yourself is as important as fitting in with others.
Anna Faris has just the right combination of sexpot and innocence to pull of the role. While Shelly dresses in super skimpy outfits the whole movie, and her lifelong dream is to be naked in the center of a magazine, Faris’ large blue eyes provide a sense of naivete to the character. She is the main reason to watch this movie. The other is Emma Stone, who seems a bit like Lindsay Lohan, but without all the issues. She inhabits the role of Natalie in the dorkier phase and in the hotter phase, but does the best job when Natalie discovers she can be herself and still be cool. Best line from the movie goes to Natalie who says, “I want to be your girlfriend like a proton wants an electron.”
The slightly distracting actors in the movie are Colin Hanks and Rumer Willis who are dead ringers for their famous parents. Colin, son of Tom Hanks and Samantha Lewes, looks like his father, talks like his father and even walks like his father. But he lacks just a little of that aw-shucks charm Tom always seems to have on screen. He just doesn’t quite match up to the legacy. Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce, has the comic timing her father has been known to pull off and her mother’s beauty. Rumer looks just like a young Demi in “St. Elmo’s Fire.” Rumer has had a few small parts in movies and on television, and they are likely to keep coming.
“The House Bunny” may not be the best movie, but is the funniest movie I’ve seen in a while.
