Revenge of the Nerd-ettes?
Shelley has been waiting her entire life to be accepted by someone. When she finally gets the chance, via Playboy, she embraces it. After her 27th birthday though, hoping to be the next centerfold, ends up out on the street… again… kicked out by Hef. Confused, but innocently accepting the grim situation, she stumbles upon a struggling sorority that is in need of a house mom. Shelley is in need of a place to stay, so the relationship works out perfectly. Her next challenge? If she doesn’t shape up the current sorority they’re going to lose their charter and end up on the street, which means Shelley will be back to square one. So, using her pep and charm, she helps the loser sorority sisters become the popular girls on campus.
The story has been seen before in Revenge of the Nerds. Struggling losers need to change their luck and end up doing so in the end. The story here is cute and it’s lovable in some areas, but mostly it feels like Anna Faris is leading the way and she’s not the strongest character in the story to do so. It’s neat to see the girls change from losers to popular, but the transition between the two is way too fast. I’m sure that desperation causes people to do things without thinking, like hiring someone like Shelley, but their acceptance of her is a bit too unbelievable. Again, I’m not saying this movie isn’t entertaining, it does have quite a few moments where you cheer the girls on, but overall it’s a shallow version of Revenge of the Nerds, which looks like Citizen Kane compared to this.
On the brightside, Anna Faris’ Shelley is completely lovable. She’s funny, she’s cute and she plays the ‘I’m just trying to do the right thing’ personality well. I enjoyed watching her pull off this role, but I would really like to see her in something a bit more serious one day. So far, her big roles include Scary Movie (everyone of them) and the holiday hit (and I’m still laughing inside about this one because it’s still good) Just Friends with Ryan Reynolds. I believe, and correct me if I’m wrong, this is her first leading role. I wish people would give her a chance to break out into something better, I can see Faris has that range, but she plays ditzy really well which works for her in The House Bunny. As for her supporting cast, the collection of personalities from the sorority members is perfect. I think the story really hurt them, but I think the actresses could pull-off that they were BFF if they really wanted to. Each brings a unique role to the screen, one is nerdy, one is a rebel, one doesn’t speak, one is a large bit of a tomboy and the other is someone with insecurities about her back. Again, each has an individual struggle and plays that role perfectly. The biggest problem I have with all these great characters is that they buy into Shelley way too fast. Like I said before, it just wouldn’t seem to fit well with the scheme for them. Just doesn’t appear to be plausible.
Anyway, they did a great job with their roles and the movie isn’t terrible, just isn’t up-to-snuff with RotN.
Laughing until you’re Blu in the face
The presentation of the Blu-ray is gorgeous. I think the more recent films really benefit from the HD transfer (if there is one) more than the older films. This film had a lot of bright colors in it, especially pink and red (which stand out really well in HD), that made the movie really look sharp. The audio was excellent as you’ll appreciate the hip soundtrack and the sound effects. It’s not an action movie, so you won’t get the full love of the TrueHD experience, but the audio is sharp nonetheless.
As for the features, here’s what you’re getting:
· Deleted Scenes
· The Girls Upstairs – Behind the Scenes with the Real ‘Girls Next Door’
· Look Who Dropped By: Checkout the stars who showed up on-set!
· “I Know What Boys Like” Music Video by Katharine McPhee
· Zetas Transformed
· Colin Hanks: Mr. Nice Guy
· Getting Ready for a Party
· Anna Faris: House Mom – a look at Anna Faris, and her character “Shelley,” her infection smile, fun personality and interactions with others
· House Bunny Style: Make-up/hair/wardrobe documentary on making over the Zeta girls into “Bunnies”
· The Girls of Zeta: A look into the actresses who make up the sorority girls of Zeta and how they bonded on-set
· Calendar Girls: A fun look into the photo shoot for the calendar
· House Bunny Memories
· From Tour Bus to Trailer: Tyson Ritter –A look at the on-set experiences of first-time actor Tyson Ritter
· From Song to Set: Katharine McPhee – A look at the on-set experiences of first-time actress Katharine McPhee
There are some really fantastic features here that give you some humorous insight on the film. The features make the movie even better, which is always good. The point of special features is to make the experience deeper for the movie goer and these do that. I really like the features on touring the set and just the retrospective view of Anna Faris and her character. It’s good stuff and fits the bill correctly. I’ve seen better movies with lackluster features, these top those movies. Scary, isn’t it? Worth your time though.