The House Bunny

Anna Faris attained minor stardom in the Scary Movie franchise, while further establishing her comedy cred with well-received turns in Lost in Translation and Just Friends. Unfortunately, filmmaker Fred Wolf's The House Bunny isn't the starring vehicle she deserves, with its rehash of gags and situations from Legally Blonde, Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, and the more recent Man of the House. Naïve but lovable Shelley (Faris), a nude model who's become a fixture at the Playboy Mansion, is tricked by a rival into leaving Hef's bunny hutch. With no job and no skills, Shelley takes a position as house mother to smart but hopelessly dorky sorority girls. It's win-win for everybody: Shelley helps the coeds find their inner hotties, while they give her the book learning that will enable the former model to hold her own in lively dinner conversation with an idealistic nursing-home manager (Colin Hanks) for whom she's fallen. Some of the one-liners draw hefty laughs, but much of The House Bunny has an all-too-familiar ring. Nonetheless, while this might not be the movie that establishes Faris as this generation's Lucille Ball, it'll do until a better one comes along. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include 12 production featurettes—including “The Girls Upstairs,” “Look Who Dropped By,” “Anna Faris: House Mom,” “The Girls of Zeta,” and more—(53 min.), 12 minutes of deleted scenes, an introduction and music video for “I Know What Boys Like” by Katharine McPhee, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a flawed but often funny film.] (E. Hulse)