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'The House Bunny'

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BY CHRISTY LEMIRE | The Associated Press

August 22, 2008

The entire purpose of this late-summer comedy is to be a showcase for Anna Faris, star of the "Scary Movie" franchise, whose sunny disposition and solid comic timing make " The House Bunny" a whole lot more enjoyable than it ought to be.

You've seen it all before. It's essentially a female remake of "Revenge of the Nerds," with a script from "Legally Blonde" writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, so it contains the same type of facetious humor as that 2001 hit. Faris, in all her ditsy glory, functions as a descendant from a long line of supposedly dumb blondes, but she's so unafraid of going for the big, goofy laugh at her own expense that she makes this familiar role her own.

Faris stars as Shelley, a perky Playboy bunny who gets kicked out of Hef's mansion and becomes the house mother for a sorority of misfits. The Zetas only have seven members, and they need to come up with 30 pledges to avoid being kicked off campus.

So Shelley, with her itty-bitty outfits, pouf of platinum hair and an endless stream of malapropisms, transforms these wallflowers into Pussycat Dolls.

Silly? Impossible? Of course. This is a "Happy Madison" film, after all - though it is refreshing to see Adam Sandler's production company come up with a female-centric comedy for once.

PLOT A bunny living in the Playboy Mansion gets tossed out because she's too old, and has to find work. She lands a gig as a housemother to a sorority of socially inept women.

CAST Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Katharine McPhee, Rumer Willis

LENGTH 1:38

PLAYING AT Area theaters

BOTTOM LINE Essentially a remake of "Revenge of the Nerds," but Faris makes it more enjoyable than it ought to be.