By ALAN SIMMER, Pulse Movie Reviewer

What happens when a Playboy Bunny finds herself out on her ear?

Such is the premise of "The House Bunny," a movie following the exploits of Shelley, played by Anna Faris, who you may know from the "Scary Movie" series.

There's not a ton of new ground here. Take a mansion-dwelling Playboy Bunny ("Girls Next Door") and throw her in with seven conspicuously odd college misfits ("Sydney White," which is itself a retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"). Next, have her help them save their sorority house ("Animal House," "Sydney White" again) by giving the girls the makeovers of their lives, which increases their popularity and appeal to cute boys ("She's All That," "The Princess Diaries," "Grease").

However, the girls lose their way and become the very thing they set out to destroy ("Mean Girls," "The Candidate") before getting an eleventh-hour ("The Eleventh Hour") wake-up call ("An Inconvenient Truth," "Dante's Peak") that leaves everyone feeling great as they exit the theater (any Pixar movie).

Though the events feels familiar, Faris makes this movie all her own with help from her supporting cast of sorority girls. Faris looks every inch the Playboy bunny --- she walks different, talks different and must have gotten some collagen injections to plump up her lips, because they normally don't look like that. I checked.

Up-and-comer Emma Stone, former "American Idol" contestant Katharine McPhee, Kat Dennings and Rumer Willis (yes, Bruce and Demi's daughter) perform well as some of the quirky sorority sisters. (Stone bears an eerie resemblance to Lindsay Lohan, both physically and in acting style. Perhaps there is some plot afoot to replace Lohan with Stone in the acting world, resigning the tabloid darling to bad Lifetime movies and rehab.)

Hugh Hefner has significant screen time with his trio of "Girls Next Door" coquettes, which is amusing enough. Beverly D'Angelo also gets in on the act as a severe sorority mother, though I couldn't help but wait for her to wail "Claaaaaaaark!" at someone. She didn't.

The writing is tight and quick, and the quips come fast and frequently. This isn't one of those movies where the writers simply threw a bunch of gags at the audience and hoped a few hit the mark; funny bits are often layered on top of one another, compounding the joke. And the movie isn't afraid of "The Office"-style awkward moments where it almost becomes uncomfortable to keep looking at the screen.

But I kept looking because the movie is darn funny. It's a great way to spend a few hours during the last lazy days of summer and an easy picture to watch before the heavy Oscar-fare starts clogging up the theaters. Don't miss it.

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