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Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
Director: Kevin Smith
Synopsis
Strapped for cash, two friends (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) decide to make a porno together.
Movie review
From Time Out Chicago
Smith’s fans are always eager to point out that without Smith, there would be no Judd Apatow. The foul-mouthed, pop-culture-and-sex obsessed guy-pals of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad are the spiritual children of Dante Hicks and Randal Graves in Clerks. With Zack and Miri, Smith seems eager to retake the fast-talking-filth crown, and also get in on a little of Apatow’s racket of throwing in some sentimentality. On the first count, the collaboration of Smith and Rogen yields solid results. When it comes to handling romance, well, Smith can’t resist putting one of his characters on a toilet for the climactic admission of love.
Longtime roommates and compatriots in poverty Zack and Miri (Banks, solid if never brilliant at playing off Rogen’s woolly charms) have achieved a level of comfort in their years living together; he can make jokes about her dildo and she can discuss his masturbation habits. Faced with a mountain of debt, they decide to make a porno and self-distribute. To any observer, Zack and Miri’s easygoing friendship is obviously love, but for them to realize it, they must first do a porn scene together. Think of it as When Harry Fucked Sally. Whenever Rogen and, to a lesser extent Banks, are just riffing, Smith is in his comfort zone. He’s less adept at handling more conventional plotting and standard genre moments. But does anyone go to a Kevin Smith film with the word porno in the title expecting a conventional romantic comedy?
Author: Hank Sartin
Time Out Chicago Issue 192: October 30–November 5, 2008
User reviews of this film
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- Jack Hoff USA said...
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Posted on Jun 21 2010 19:51
A window into American moral values, or to be more precise, the COMPLETE LACK thereof.
Miri and Zack are two 30-something losers (with a capital L) who, just like the U.S. Fed, suddenly find themselves utterly bankrupt and on the verge of homelessness. So in typical American fashion, they both decide to take the easy way out and make a porno movie for some quick cash. Of course their decision leaves the viewer confused as to why they don't simply just go out and get themselves a F'ing JOB instead, but THAT would be a sensible solution and Americans are definitely NOT interested in THOSE. One is also left wondering why Miri doesn't just go sell one of her kidneys, until one realizes the BRILLIANCE of her plan; she can only sell one of her kidneys ONCE, whereas she can rent-out her vagina over and over again until it's stretched-out like an old, used rubber band. Ah, doesn't American entrepreneurship just WARM your heart?
This movie features the usual torrent of F-words and vulgar language that we've all come to expect from this particular director, along with some sofisticated acting on the part of such well-known Thespians as Traci Lords, who plays a prostitute that can blow bubbles with her vagina. Kinda like Alan Greenspan and Bernanke do except Traci's bubbles DON'T impoverish half of humanity.
Back to this flick; if you're the typical American that likes to masturbate with one hand while holding a Chicken McSandwich with the other, SEE IT.
If on the other hand you value quality, logic, intelligence and have a strong set of moral values, DON'T BOTHER. - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Kevin Smith
Cast: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Jason Mewes, Traci Lords, Ricky Mabe, Brandon Routh, Justin Long full cast
Rated: R
Duration: 102 mins
US Release: Oct 31 2008
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