W.C. Fields once offered up a piece of sage showbiz
advice for those worried about having a scene stolen from them. He warned
never to act with dogs or children. Were he alive today, he might add Anna
Faris to that list. The young actress oozes charm in the right role and
when she’s on, you can’t take your eyes off her. Such is the
case in The House Bunny, a Legally Blonde retread whose fish out of water is Shelley Darlingson, a
Playboy bunny who’s thrown out of Hef’s mansion on her 27th
birthday for being too old. Desolate and with nowhere to go, this ditzy
waif ends up on the doorstep of Zeta Alpha Zeta, a sorority made up of
campus misfits who are about to lose their charter due to lack of
membership. Desperate, the girl’s leader Natalie (Emma Stone) allows
Shelley to be their housemother, and before you know it, bikini car washes
are held to raise cash for charity and sexy calendars are sold featuring
the sorority members, once the expected makeovers occur.
There’s not an original idea in the film’s
by-the-numbers screenplay, but the enthusiasm of the cast and Faris’
charm are more than enough to make you overlook these faults. More than
likely, feminists in the audience will object to Shelley’s strategy
of having her new charges find their inner bimbo (one of her tips is to
“skimplify” when dressing) and that her late-movie conversion,
in which she espouses the virtue of being yourself, is nothing but lip
service. Whatever, this is lightweight fare and its audience knows a good
date movie when it sees one.
A different sort of experience in higher learning is
on display in College (1 1/2 stars), a dismal, crude comedy that follows the
misadventures of three high school seniors who head to a local university
to determine whether they should attend there in the fall. Their weekend is
filled with hazing of the worst sort by a group of sadistic upperclassmen,
including taking body shots off the hairiest human being alive, being
thrown into a swine stampede, and having their car stripped. You know, good
old-fashioned fun.
There’s a sadistic streak that runs through the
film that makes the humor more disturbing than funny. We wind up laughing
at the movie’s three misfits rather than sympathizing with them,
making this misguided comedy one
to skip.
The sadism on display in Death
Race (2 1/2 stars) is of a different sort,
as it’s laced with sharp social satire. The title contest is a
ratings blockbuster in the near future as Terminal Island, a floating
prison, serves host to a high-octane auto race where death among its
participants is not only commonplace but encouraged. Jason Statham stars as
Jensen Ames, a former race car driver who’s framed for his
wife’s murder and sent to the island where Warden Hennessey (Joan
Allen) blackmails him into racing. With his freedom and his
daughter’s fate on the line, Ames gets behind the wheel and shows no
mercy as he mows down one opponent after another.
Though the film’s satirical bent is obvious
(that reality television is headed to a grisly end!), the film has other
positive qualities. The production design is appropriately gritty and the
movie’s dingy, tattered look perfectly underscores its violent
aesthetic. However, director Paul W.S. Anderson proves to be his own worst
enemy as he shows no restraint where moving the camera and editing the film
are concerned. The result is a bit of a jumble as the audience ends up
straining to piece together the fractured action on display. Race ends up being a film
I wish I had seen more of.
This article appears in Sep 4-10, 2008.
