Hey sexy people. Capone in Chicago here, begging you read my whole review before judging me.

I don't know how well this Adam Sandler production is going to do at the box office, but I predict a long and fruitful life for the this film on DVD, if for no other reason than I can't really see tens of thousands of men going up to a box office worker and asking for a ticket for a PG-13-rated movie called THE HOUSE BUNNY about a Playboy Playmate who takes a group of misfit sorority girls and makes them hot and popular. Nope, I don't see that at all. We don't even see her naked, for Hef's sake. But here's the thing: THE HOUSE BUNNY is actually a lot of fun in spots thanks entirely to the sexual solar flare known as Anna Faris, who plays the darling Shelley with such wild abandon and absolutely no fear of looking foolish that you can't help be charmed by her. Plus, she looks fucking hot in her little booty shorts.

Shelley has spent the last nine years living at the Playboy Mansion simply because Hugh Hefner (who plays himself) likes having her around. She's never been a centerfold for Playboy, but she suspects that Hef is about to finally ask her to be Miss November right after a big birthday party he throws for her. Instead she gets a letter from Hefner the morning after her party telling her to pack her things and move out. She winds up on a college campus (as so many Playmates are apt to do), where she stumbles upon a run-down sorority house occupied by the last few remaining sisters of Zeta Alpha Zeta, who are on the verge of losing their chapter because they can't get any new pledges to step foot in their door. The house is filled with exactly the kind of young women who would never join a sorority, which is sort of binds them together in the first place. They have body piercings, weird hair, back braces, dumpy clothes and no social skills at all. Oh, and one is pregnant. Enter Shelley, who volunteers to be the sorority house mother (she needs a place to live) and proceeds to give the house and the girls makeovers. Her guidance makes the house the life of the campus and the girls all become varying degrees of hot. But at what price?!

Emma Stone (who can also be seen this week in THE ROCKER) is Natalie who seems all in favor of this transformation, but can't quite shake her love of all things nerdy. Her housemates include Kat Dennings (who played Catherine Keener's daughter in THE 40-YEAR-OLD-VIRGIN), Rumer Willis (daughter to Bruce and Demi), "American Idol" finalist Katharine MacPhee (playing the aforementioned pregnant sister), Dana Goodman and Kiely Williams. THE HOUSE BUNNY has a sweet if overplayed message about being yourself. Shelley learns that she doesn't have to play dumb and oversexed to make a nice guy interested in her (Colin Hanks, in a disposable role, plays the object of her affections), and the sorority girls learn not to be overly judgmental of pledges the same way rival houses are. They also learn that there is a balance between brains and beauty.

But the undeniable star of this show is Faris, who I've found funny in the four SCARY MOVIE films, THE HOT CHICK, LOST IN TRANSLATION, and on the most recent season of "Entourage." The moments when Shelley has to drop her bimbo facade due to some injury or great attack on her character are hilarious. "Sweet balls!" is one of my favorite Shelley-isms. This type of movie needs someone like Faris to deliver, and she does so whole hog. She can wear the clothes like a real Playmate, but also pull off the comedy. There are certainly huge portions of THE HOUSE BUNNY that do not work (there are about three different sets of villains here that all overstay their welcome and overplay their parts), but any failures or shortcomings are no fault of Faris'. She's a gift from the lusty comedy gods. I should also mention that it was really bizarre, but not entirely unpleasant, hearing music on the soundtrack to this film of songs that are actually on the charts right now. I'm not sure how they pulled that off, but it made the film feel that much more fresh (of course, by the time the DVD comes out, it will feel plenty dated).

I acknowledge the need every once in a while to enter a movie with your brain turned off. And there are certainly a few choices this week and next (including three films opening on the final Friday of the summer that aren't even screening for critics) that would allow you to switch off the old neural receptors. Even if you refuse to turn the brain off, the film works in a limited sense as a message movie about female empowerment…sort of. But I think THE HOUSE BUNNY is the best of brainless bunch, because it's not actually brainless, and it is actually funny a lot of the time. You may feel a little guilty after seeing it, but it's the good kind of shame.

-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com