 | STARRING: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks |
The commercials for Zack and Miri Make a Porno leave you with the feeling that this is the latest Judd Apatow comedy. Instead, it’s the latest from writer/director Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith is a very likeable guy who showed a lot of promise in early films like Clerks and Dogma. His more recent films like Jersey Girl and ClerksII have been disappointing. It makes you wonder if he’d rather be an actor when you see him in films like Live Free or Die Hard. But Zack and Miri has been well received on the Film Festival circuit, so I hoped it would be a return to form.
The plot of Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) Make a Porno is very simple. They are roommates who have been platonic friends since grade school. When their electricity is cut off and they can’t pay the bills they come up with a novel idea. They want to produce an amateur porno and sell it. Miri is already a YouTube sensation, as teens had filmed her changing and posted a video of her in her “granny panties”. With the backing of a friend, who is willing to give up the money he was saving to buy a new big screen TV, Zach & Miri assemble an odd cast of characters to make this film. The assembled cast includes former porn star Traci Lords and current porn star Katie Morgan, along with Kevin Smith’s pal Jason Mewes. A funny thing happens when it’s time to start shooting. Zack and Miri really don’t want the other to have sex with anyone else. And when they have sex for the first time on camera, the emotions they had denied start to flow. What started out as a raunchy sex comedy quickly turns into the typical romantic comedy.
Zack and Miri has a few funny sequences and female nudity (not form E. Banks), but is a disappointment overall. Funny early scenes are forgotten as the movie drags on to its predictable conclusion. Zack and Miri’s 10 year high school reunion is a highlight, as Miri hits on her high school crush (Brandon Routh) who turns out to be attending with his gay lover, played hilariously by Justin Long. They originally attempt to make a film called “Star Whores”, a pornographic version of Star Wars. I have no idea how they got George Lucas to allow even the suggestion of a Star Wars porno, but they eventually go in a different direction and make the movie in the coffee shop where Zack works. Seth Rogan does his usual shtick as Zack, and Elizabeth Perkins is likeable enough as Miri. But the film is basically a romantic comedy. It does seem like an original idea to take the making a porno and turn it into something romantic, but I don’t think that’s what the audience of this film really wants to see. It’s certainly not what I wanted to see. There seems to be no reason as to why Miri would fall in love with an overweight slacker like Zack. An awful gross out gag thrown in out of nowhere towards the end is the movie’s low point. A good first half makes the film worth seeing, but wait for the DVD.
- Ade
Black Belt Theater
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