Zoom-in Online

Fans of Kevin Smith know what to expect from his work and love him because he delivers. From his trend-setting and vulgar Clerks to his profoundly controversial and vulgar Dogma to his latest heart-warming and vulgar Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Smith has excelled at creating hilarious stories that deliver various levels of emotional profundity blanketed in razor sharp dialogue spiked with crassness. For years, Smith was set aside from other filmmakers because of his bold blue-collar sensibilities; his scripts permeated with the vernacular and the concerns of everyday Average Joe. But, in recent years filmmakers like Judd Apatow and his crew have taken the Kevin Smith formula and made it better. With films like Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall all the sex, vulgarity, and pop culture references are left intact en route to even more touching and relevant conclusions. The mainstream embrace of the profane and vulgar should work in favor of Smith when it comes to box office receipts but that doesn't mean that Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a great film.

Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are broke and pathetic. Barely scraping by in the blue-collar town of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, the life-long friends don't have the money to do anything but ignore their growing stack of unpaid bills. After a disastrous ten-year high school reunion in which Miri makes as ass of herself by attempting to seduce her high school crush, the now homosexual Bobby Long (Brandon Routh), the duo return home only to have their electricity and water turned off. After Miri comments that this is the position people find themselves in before they start having sex for money, Zack comes up with a brilliant solution to their problem: they can make a porno. Claiming that he and Miri have no family to disappoint and that anyone will pay $20 to see a porno if it involves someone they know (their graduating class numbered over 800), Zack manages to convince Miri to get on board; reassuring her that they can convince their genitalia that it's "just sex" and that there's no danger in ruining their friendship.

They collect an eclectic cast and crew to star in their porno, initially titled "Star Whores." To fulfill the role of producer, Zack manages to convince his friend Delaney (Craig Robinson), anxious to see some "titties" that don't belong to his overbearing wife, to spend a wad of cash on the film instead of a flat screen TV. Auditions for the rest of the cast dig up the submissive Barry (Ricky Mabe), the busty, bubbly, blond Stacey (real life porn star Katie Morgan), the erectionally gifted Lester (Jason Mewes), and the vaginally talented Bubbles (former porn star Traci Lords), and they manage to find a camera man in Deacon (Jeff Anderson), a high school colleague of Zack who taped away games for girls' varsity sports in attempts to get laid. As the shoot proceeds, Zack and Miri's big scene looms over them and the long-time friends will discover, for good or for ill, what their relationship really means to them.

On the surface, there's plenty to enjoy about Zack and Miri. Seth Rogen brings impeccable comedic timing and execution to a story the likes of which he's almost perfected and a supporting cast that includes Robinson and Kevn Smith regulars Jason Mewes and Jeff Anderson will provide plenty of laughs and quote-worthy material. Kudos should also go to Smith for his ability to write Miri as a believable regular girl, complete with idiosyncrasies such as sporting granny panties and leaving the door open when she's taking a poo. Banks brings a modest beauty to the role with looks that don't intimidate and a talent for filling her eyes with hopeful yearning and the porno scene between Zack and Miri is surprisingly and delightfully intimate, touching, and inviting. Smith's penchant for hilarious pop-culture references also comes through contextually as well as thematically as the Monroeville Zombies hockey team and Tom Savini and David Early's supporting roles homage George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (famously filmed in Monroeville).

Yet with Rogen and Robinson playing such prominent roles in a film filled with sex, swears, and pop (culture), it's just as easy to think you're watching a Judd Apatow film as you are a Kevin Smith film, with one problem: it's not as effective. With films like Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin there was something inherent in the conflicts and the characters that was just a little bit more touching and left you with a little more to take away when the credits rolled. Perhaps it was the genius of casting in those films - the family friendly Steve Carell in Virgin, an unconventional Rogen in Knocked Up - or perhaps it's the absurdity of premise in this film - two people logically deduce that making a porno is their only option - but something about Zack and Miri Make a Porno just leaves you feeling unfulfilled emotionally and comically (the fact that the film ends with a hard to digest "I can't live without you" speech doesn't help).

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is by no means an awful film and will ultimately satisfy those who know what to expect from Kevin Smith. However, with the success of films from Judd Apatow and his crew, it's not unreasonable to conclude that what to expect from Kevin Smith can be found elsewhere and done better.