La casa de las conejitas

If you want to see a cute, feel-good movie that doesn't require a lot of thought and will leave you with a smile on your face, this is the movie to see. You'll laugh out loud at much of the humor, and you'll fall in love with Anna Faris. It's just silly fun. Anna Farris plays a ditsy blond who gets kicked out of the Playboy Mansion (Hugh Hefner is a good sport in this movie!), ends up homeless, and ends up as a house mother for a sorority of "loser" girls (smart girls who don't know how to attract boys). The sorority is about to lose its charter because they can't get enough pledges, and of course Faris saves the day for the sorority by teaching the girls how to be popular, and, along the way, she learns a few lessons herself. You'll enjoy knowing that her love interest is played by Colin Hanks, son of Tom Hanks, and that some of the people in the Playboy mansion and at the party at the mansion are played by themselves. Also, Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore and Katherine McPhee from American Idol are girls in the sorority. I thoroughly enjoyed this light movie.

Shelley lives at the playboy mansion, and dreams of being a Playboy centerfold. The day after her birthday, she receives a letter telling her she has to move out. Ending up at the Zeta sorority house, a house in desperate need of pledges and money to stay open, she helps the girls, all outcasts at college to become sexier to get what they need, while they help her with a guy she has a crush on.....

The House Bunny shouldn't work. It's got a mixed message, suggesting that girls need to use their sexiness to get what they need, while at the same time saying being yourself, with some confidence, and you can get the same. So in that sense I don't think it completely works.

However, it is very funny in places. Anna Faris is showing herself to be a very funny actress, and keeps the humour coming through-out. Hers is the best performance here. The actress's who play the girls in the house are all different, but give good performances too, with the possible exception of Emma Stone as Natalie, the girl in charge of the house. It's not that she's a bad actress. I saw her recently in The Rocker and she was very good there. It's just that here, she seems to be trying too hard to portray the 'nerd' side of her character. It's not a bad performance, just a little uneven.

The script has some good one-liners in it, and director Fred Wolf keeps things moving at a brisk pace. It's not the funniest teen comedy I've seen, but it has enough moments to keep you smiling, and for it's running time is an enjoyable movie.

Brains do not need to be engaged for this movie. But it does produce a few wonderful - and hilarious - surprises that make it a very enjoyable 90 minutes.

One is Anna Farris, who does a great twist on the archetypal dizzy blonde beloved of Hollywood since time immemorial.

But the real kickers are the jarring one-liners that pepper an otherwise sweet and predictable film. Several reduced this viewer to paroxysms of laughter, tears rolling down cheeks, beverage spurting across the room.

These moments, when they arrive, are so unexpected that the effect is one of firmly-flicked kipper on unprotected jowl. And none are in the "gross-out" style that one might have expected in a film of this genre.

Very bunny indeed.

It's impressive how talented Anna Faris is, she manages to turn a tremendously idiotic movie like this one into something watchable. And this is very clear when she shares the screen with another great actress, who is Emma Stone in a role that is also comedic, and yet she steals the show.

The film itself is a feel good movie, it has some aspects that I thought were really cool, such as the appreciation of friendship and taking away taboo and prejudice with sex, in addition to having some funny moments, always in Anna's hands. On the other hand, the rest is silly beyond measure, even having grotesque and embarrassing moments, like some starring the character Carrie Mae, extremely forced. Not to mention Anna's final speech, which is ridiculously corny and unnecessary.

I rate it 5 out of 10 for Anna's talent and the heart warming spirit.

Shelley (Anna Faris) was abandoned as a baby on someone's doorstep long ago. As she relates, no one was interested in getting her back although they did request that the basket be returned! Shuttled from one orphanage to another, Shelley eventually found a "family" when her womanish figure came into fruition. That's right, Shelley resided in the Playboy mansion and found happiness with Hef and the other gal pal housemates. However, one day Shelley receives word that Hef has given her two hours to move out of the mansion. A fellow worker at the residence suggests that, perhaps, she is getting too old to be a bunny. After all, didn't she just turn 27? And, isn't that like 59 in "bunny years"? So, off Shelley goes, hurt and scared. After a day on her own, she stumbles onto a nearby college campus and learns that she could possibly find a job, a home, and a salary by becoming a sorority "mother" to a group of misfit sisters. These gals, the Zetas, have seen their numbers shrink, mostly because they are all shy and a bit unconventional (among them, Katharine McPhee and Rumer Willis). The college has already told them that if they don't find new members, the Zeta house will be shut down. It is going to be Shelley's biggest challenge to turn the sorority into an attractive place for the new students. Can she do it? Perhaps, Shelly could ask for the help and advice of a nursing home director, Oliver (Colin Hanks), a nice man she met in a park? After a brief, blase beginning, this film packs a good punch of light comedy and romance. Part of the credit should go to the very nice cast. Faris is wonderful in her role as the dimwitted bunny who has more than enough smarts to learn a few new tricks and Hanks, in a smaller role, is quite nice as the love interest. The Zeta girls themselves, especially Rumer Willis and Emma Stone, are a delightful bunch of offbeat creatures that learn some lessons themselves. The rest of the cast, including Christopher McDonald and Beverly D'Angelo, is good, also. The costumes, naturally, are very fine, as this is a gal-dominated movie and clothes are especially important. But, the sunny sets, cinematography, screenplay, and direction are up to snuff as well. No, it's not Willie Shakespeare but the flick is definitely a good diversion from the everyday blues. It's a likely bet that you will find this "Bunny" to be quite funny indeed.