REVIEWS

Kevin's Review: Zack and Miri Make a Porno - In a Way, Just Like Real Porn

by Kevin Powers
October 31, 2008

• US Release Date: October 31, 2008
• Genre: Comedy
• MPAA: Rated R (for strong crude sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity and pervasive language)
• Running Time: 101 minutes
• Directed by: Kevin Smith
• on IMDb
•    7/10

Analyzing Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno feels remarkably similar to what it must be like to review an actual porno. The film has baseline appeal, so the only question is whether it's really good or really bad. The film has a built-in draw since Smith mated his universe with Judd Apatow's, creating a cast and context that definitely gets you excited. But like most adult films, Zack and Miri serves a solitary purpose of providing a good time. Smith hits this low bar pretty easily, delivering punching, raunchy lines the likes of a headboard rapping against a wall. But for all the raucous obscenities and those fan-favorites delivering them, Zack and Miri is an adult film that delivers pretty much what's on the box.

As the film begins, Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are platonic lifelong friends and roommates who are stupidly poor. Their one car is a rolling, frozen POS, while their apartment is besieged by a lack of water and electricity since the two can't seem to make ends meet. Following an enlightening high school reunion and a drive-by YouTube-ing, Zack and Miri figure having sex on tape isn't such a bad idea to righting their financial situation. The two set out to craft a hip, marketable storyline and settle on "Star Whores." From there, they begin to write the script and recruit the rest of the cast, which includes Kevin Smith-fave Jason Mewes as Lester and Traci Lords as Bubbles (named for her trademark talent).

Zack and Miri and Brandon, played by Justin Long, at their high school reunion in Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Underlying Zack and Miri's pursuit into porn is the two friends coming to terms with their own feelings. Even though they say it's just sex, both know venturing down that path will change things. The push and pull that ensues is as predictable as a money shot. Nevertheless, Smith manages to keep the tempo and lewdness up so as to avoid the story from going limp. It's a decent balance between tenderness and nakedness, though obviously the latter gets the most laughs and attention.

While the film is obviously not porno-grade, Zack and Miri definitely takes the idea of softcore up a few notches. You see more of Mewes than you probably would ever want to, and there's a particularly disturbing scene highlighting the perils of one sexual position. Equally educational is a technique Lester imparts to Zack that allows for two guys to "mess around," but not in a truly homosexual way. Just like actual porn, Zack and Miri might actually teach you a thing or two.

Rogen and Banks are obviously the featured duo in the film, but the couple that stole the movie was Justin Long and Brandon Routh as the gay pair Zack and Miri encounter at their high school reunion. Long is richly hysterical as a throaty gay porn star, especially when he makes a scene professing his love for Routh's character (and his ass). If you stay through the end of the credits, there's an additional scene with the pair that is just about the best punctuation you could hope for. Zack and Miri gets a lot of things right and proves versatile with both love and sex, but it isn't remarkable by any stretch. But just as if you were evaluating real porn, do really you care about the particular degrees of good or bad? It's meant to be a fun time, plain and simple. And under that rubric, Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a fine piece of porn.

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