Review: "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" (2008)

The Short Version? See title.
What Is It? Romantic/Sex Comedy
Who's In It? Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Traci Lords and lots of other cameos/bit parts.
Should I See It? Maybe.

I like Kevin Smith. He's a funny, quick-witted guy. As a writer given time to carefully consider his words? Not so much. Everything that makes him seem clever in persona drags his films down. Off-the-cuff dialogue, characters that are mild variations on a single mold, and ultimately a predictable, saccharine nature masked by excessive profanity. Since "Jersey Girl," Smith has seemed geared for generic date movies/family fare, and "Zack and Miri" is no exception.

Part of the problem is Smith's raiding the cast of Judd Apatow regulars, drawing comparisons to recent classics like "Knocked Up," "Superbad" and "Pineapple Express," against which "Zack and Miri" pale. When you're not being faced with cameos by the lesser members of Apatow troupe to take you out of the picture, it's a Smith regular doing their usual mugging, or someone like Traci Lords to really distract. Brandon Routh has some meta-fun with the confusion around his gender identity, while Justin Long draws laughs as he hams it up with a Dr. Girlfriend voice. At times, the whole affair seems more like lighter John Waters than Kevin Smith, and certainly Waters own take on this material (A Dirty Shame) had more bite.

I personally find Seth Rogen a pretty appealing guy, but setting him up with Banks without referencing the disparity between his attributes and hers (as was done in "Knocked Up") is far-fetched beyond words. For the first time in recent memory having not contributed to his own dialogue, Rogen has little of interest to say, delivery unable to cover the weakness. As difficult to believe as Rosario Dawson would have been as Miri, a role written for but rejected by the actress, Elizabeth Banks is an even further stretch. A woman as conventionally beautiful and whitebred as Banks needed massive psychological problems to play the roommate to Seth Rogen in a hovel. Instead, there's no reason given for why she hadn't been scooped up by the first well-heeled stranger to cross her path, rendering the entire story some sort of misguided romantic farce.

Even the staunchest defenders of porn recognizes its creation alters everyone involved, but somehow this is the most light-hearted, feel-good fuck fest ever put to film. It comes across as terribly naive, with the only repercussion being a typical last act break-up before the star-crossed lovers inevitably reunite. This is a Kate Hudson movie with a cockring, to vile for the Meg Ryan devotee, but far too tame for fans of edgier fare. The movie is good for some chuckles, but I find it falls flatly on the "Mallrats" side of watchability.


NSFW, but more amusing than most of the actual film: