House Bunny Movie Review Essay

In the film House Bunny, a 27-year-old girl, Shelley Darlingson, played by Anna Farris, finds herself tricked out of the Playboy Mansion by another bunny for being too old. Shelley winds up at the University of Southern California and becomes the house mother in a very poorly kept sorority house, Zeta Tau Alpha, consisting of six socially awkward girls. After gaining the girls’ trust by showing them she is nice and can attract boys, she does her best to turn the ZTA girls around to be popular beautiful young ladies who are ‘better’ than the other sorority girls. However, the changing of personalities goes too far and the girls realize they’ve changed for the wrong reasons and begin to judge everyone. During the time Shelley is being blamed, she receives a call about how ‘being too old’ was a lie to get rid of her. When expecting Shelley to immediately drop everything and return to the Mansion, she decides to stay the hose mother of the Zetas. U sing this movie I plan on analyzing the movie through different scenes of the typical activities of the sorority girls on campus and comparing them to how college life is today and what could be done differently. Throughout House Bunny, a constant rival goes on between Phi Iota Mu and Zeta Tau Alpha. When Zeta, a now popular sorority, throws a mixer party the same night as popular PIM, all of the girls going through rush and all of the fraternity boys enjoy their evening at Zeta instead of PIM. Girls are initiated at the party through ‘sacrificial rights’ because they still have their virginity, music is played for everyone to dance to, and everyone enjoys their nights. These girls are focused on looking good now and being popular. Girls are very similar but a little different today. In today’s society in the typical college experience, girls are not initiated in this way and girls do not throw the parties. The girls, instead of throwing their own parties, get all dressed up and head out to other fraternities to listen to music, drink and get together with different guys. Several girls nowadays waste their time and throw away their good morals every weekend, when they coul d be choosing better alternatives such as a staying in for the weekend or at least one night and study or relax with some friends. Time management and studying are two of the hardest strategies to master as a college student. Unfortunately when we have free time we cling to more fun activities at all times and then get caught up later when it is the last possible second to do homework and we realize we should have been working on homework rather than partying. Studying is not the most fun activity nor does it sound better than going out with friends to drink or participate in crazy college activities; however, everyone has to do it eventually and it would just be easier if you studied a little every free moment and then you would have more free time later. You would be more successful if you thought about every possible outcome of each choice clearly before doing anything. In the movie, after the Zeta girls become popular and look prettier, thanks to Shelley, they set up a tent at the involvement fair. All of the students rush towards their tent because they have food, games, and calendars of the girls looking t heir best. The Zetas are getting more involved around the campus, as students should, but through popularity not service. From this popularity the Zetas go downhill from there and turn into the popular rude crowd to those who do not ‘belong.’ The Zeta’s stopped being who they were before Shelley became the house mother, the smart, nerdy, different crowd, and became the jerks who judged people off appearances. When trying to decide on bids for their house, they talked about how they had seen one of the girls before and thought they were weird and shouldn’t be allowed in their house. The Zeta’s stopped focusing on academics and their true personalities and tried to change for the ‘better’ when it was clearly for the worse. Involvement is a key to surviving in college. You should get involved to make new friends, find others like yourself, develop study groups, and stress-reliever outlet clubs. However, when you try to be involved with the rest of the campus through primarily popularity and parties, you are getting ‘involved’ in all of the wrong ways. Instead of changing to be the popular crowd by looking hot and becoming a preppy jerk to ‘fit in,’ just express yourself more and get out in the real world to try and make more meaningful friendships that could last a lifetime. If people could be more accepting and friendly instead of being quick to judge, everyone would have more friends and the world would be a better place. Acceptance is one of the biggest problems especially at a college where if you aren’t accepted you just hide from everyone and get discouraged. Everyone as a whole should work to be more accepting of others for who they are. I am not saying everyone has to like everyone else, but I am saying at least give everyone else a chance to shine and join the group. When a smart nerdy group of socially unaccepted girls get a new playhouse bunny house mother they turn into a stereotypical group of rude sorority girls who just want everyone to be in their house so they can be more popular as long as they are ‘normal.’ If people took the time to accept everyone and give everyone a chance, people would have more friends and not be as nervous to try to make new friends. Getting involved on campus is smart as long as you are getting involved in the right ways with the right group of people so you can make a difference in your community. Getting involved also has advantages, because it can help manage time and studying habits or even study groups. Involvement in the college community is smart so good grades can be attained, meaning better opportunities later. Managing your time and taking the time to study receives full benefits later, as well. College is not easy, especially when coming in as a freshman new to the whole idea of college. However, college can be enjoyed and mastered if you try to get involved, study more, accepts more people for who they are, and manage your time to the best of your ability. Works Cited The House Bunny. Dir. Fred Wolf. By Karen M. Lutz and Kirsten Smith. Perf. Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Hugh Hefner, and Tyson Ritter. Columbia Pictures, 2008. DVD.