It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry

Anna Faris is the only thing funny about House Bunny.

Pineapple Express Rating:

House Bunny Rating:

This song title popped in my head when I thought of some of the comedies I saw recently on DVD. They say comedy is the most difficult type of movie to do. After watching these two, I believe they are right.

Pineapple Express is a stoner comedy that received strong reviews last summer so I checked it out. And I can't see what the big deal was. It was mildly amusing, the actors were in good form and it didn't look like a low budget film. And that was about it. Danny McBride and James Franco were the highlights as low level drug dealers. McBride has that rambling sharp wit and Franco channeled Tommy Chong for his blissed out pot hazed demeanor. Seth Rogan does that exasperated pop culture citing thang he does. The only real surprise was Rosie Perez, totally watchable as the crooked cop and answers the question of whatever happened to her. Most of the jokes and outrageous situations fell flat with me until the very end, where the good guys sit at a diner and talk about their misadventures. Listening to them talk about it was much better than actually watching it and was probably the pitch that got the movie made in the first place. Pineapple Express is a Pineapple Bomb.

It was better than the House Bunny, the latest Legally Blonde knockoff this time featuring Anna Faris as a Playboy Mansion hanger on that gets booted out and winds up the den mother to a failing college sorority. The plot is thinner than Anna Faris herself and in a weird way she comes across as a supporting actress in her own movie with all the focus on the sorority sisters. That's too bad because even though Anna Faris is a one trick pony with that ditz-on-steroids schtick she does, I like that schtick and she provides the only laughs in the whole deal. My favorite part is when a sorority sister announces a plan and says something like "and hence we'll do yada yada yada" and Faris follows up with an earnest wide eyed expression and says "Yeah! Hence!"

I didn't even finish watching House Bunny, I had to stop the pain. As Lindsey Buckingham once said, not too funny is it?