House Bunny, The

Stars: Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Rumer Willis, Beverly D'Angelo, Monet Mazur, Hugh Hefner, Christopher McDonald, Katharine McPhee, Kiely Williams, Tyson Ritter

Director: Fred Wolf

Here's a film that's a pleasure to be with, even if it could have been better, could have been funnier. Playboy bunny Shelley (Faris), passing 27, finds herself kicked out of the Playboy mansion (via a jealous rival, while Hugh Hefner's back is turned) and ends up as house mother to a dead-end sorority at the local university.

Zeta House has only seven members, and they're all geeks, misfits or losers. But good ol' Shelley soon has them turned into sex bombs and holds rave nights that attract the whole campus.

Meanwhile she makes a hash of things dating care home supervisor Oliver (Hanks) and has to find ways of dreaming up '30 pledges' (new housemates) to save Zeta House from extinction.

The breathy Faris, channelling Marilyn Monroe, is a natural and likeable comedienne, but she doesn't have enough good material here to turn the film into a totally winning combination of laughter and tears. Nicest moment: when she tries to replicate MM's skirt-billowing scene from The Seven Year Itch and ends up with scalded calves from the underground steam.

David Quinlan

USA 2008. UK Distributor: Sony (Columbia). Colour by deluxe.
97 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 06 Oct 2008