[Movie Review] ZACK & MIRI MAKE A PORNO
Kevin Smith gets a lot of love on this site. A “love” that goes unreciprocated it seems! You see, despite my ‘ode to all things Mr Smith’, regardless of a four ‘popcorn’ review of his latest Q+A DVD (which can be found here) by yours truly and in spite of Kristina’s really rather good, glowing five ‘popcorn’ review of Zack & Miri Make A Porno (check it out here), my repeated requests for an interview with the man himself continually go ignored.
I joined the ’support club’ regarding the MPAA’s horrendously hypocritical attitude towards the Zack & Miri Make A Porno marketing campaign. I even rallied you Americans when it seemed that the flick was not getting the love it was due at the US box office, sandwiched as it was between High School Musical 3 and Saw V. But… still nothing!
AICN get some time with him quite often, and the talkbackers over there regularly savage the shit out of him (and for a man with a very public history of anal fissions, that’s got to sting just a little!). Here, not only do the staff writers all but drop to our knees in front of his proverbial crotch with every new product he releases, but our talkbackers seem to be willing to join us in doing so.
Maybe it’s because our site is just “wee” and our readership is “select” (a polite way of saying ’small’, I guess). Maybe its because he’s just so busy that he can only spare time on the ‘big’ people and not the ‘little folks’ who are truly the bread and butter of his fan base. I don’t know. Maybe we (okay, I) should start showing some goddamn dignity and stop chasing some down-time with the writer-director I consider to be the “voice of my generation”. Maybe we should just turn against him and his productions in an act of childish spite…
… And maybe Smith’s latest, Zack & Miri Make A Porno, is the film to do just that with?
Unfortunately, it is not.
Goddamnit if Smith hasn’t made what is quite possibly the best film of his career. Chasing Amy is his masterpiece but Zack & Miri Make A Porno could quite easily stand beside that, possibly even unsurp it, and that is for a plethora of very simple factors; namely Smith’s growth as both a writer and a director, his choice of supporting cast, but most importantly, the two lead actors he has chosen to carry this movie.
This movie is all about Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. In just one scene in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up (the moment when Rogen’s Ben begs his dad, played by Harold Ramis, to tell him what to do to make everything okay) Rogen proved that he was something genuinely special, and not just some ‘gifted comedian’. Here is an entire movie filled with such moments in which he finds the perfect balance between hysterical zingers, foul-mouthed gaggery and really pitch-perfect heartfelt drama.
There seems to be some sort of ‘blog-backlash’ starting up against Rogen these days, with people saying they’re tired of his “schtick”. What “schtick”? Put Pineapple Express up alongside Knocked Up, and throw this movie and his small role in The Forty Year Old Virgin in there too. Take away the running “stoner” motif and tell me there’s not a ‘range’ there? No? Look deeper!
Rogen is fantastic in this movie, but he soars as high as he does here because of the work being done alongside him by Elizabeth Banks. If ‘the industry’ hadn’t caught wind of the fact that Banks is the greatest, most under-appreciated actress working in Hollywood today then they need this movie on repeat. She’s having a hell of a year, and Kevin Smith’s latest caps it brilliantly. She’s funny, she’s sexy, she’s endearing… She’s everything we need her to be. But what amazes most is what she’s capable of illiciting from us with just a glance, a stare or a hurt expression.
The scene in which Zack and Miri finally… well, it ain’t no spoiler to say it… ‘get it on’ is one of my favourite scenes. How Rogen and Banks play it, the choice of music on the soundtrack, how Smith chooses to shoot it and the inclusion of the inane cut away to a quick discussion about Lost during it, it is just absolutely magnificiently done. It’s a beautiful moment in a movie you wouldn’t have thought would take the time to capture such a thing, in an allegedly “filthy” comedy, but the fact it does takes Zack & Miri Make A Porno from ‘just’ an excellent Kevin Smith movie, to something that is bordering on the label ‘masterpiece’.
And what about that supporting cast huh? The perfect blend of ‘Apatow Playhouse’ and ‘View Askew Players’ that you can possibly ask for. You know the first time you saw High Fidelity and you just knew that Hollywood was going to jump on the Jack Black bandwagon and give this guy an A-list career? Or, more aptly, when you watched The 40 Yr Old Virgin and you thought Seth Rogen deserved his own movie? Well, believe me, within the next two years we’re going to be seeing some high concept mainstream comedies headlined by Craig Robinson, who you will most certainly know from his small role in Knocked Up, his medium sized role in Pineapple Express and his continuing, brilliant turn on the US version of The Office. Words cannot describe how friggin’ hysterical this fella is in this movie. I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that every word out of his mouth, brings about full on guffaws! And, on top of this, you’ve got a great little scene from Justin Long and Brandon Routh, and a hilarious cameo from Gerry Bednob as Zack’s manager (you’ll probably know him best as ‘Mooj’ from The 40 Year Old Virgin?). What the hell is it with this guy, ethnic minority characters and swearing up a storm that is just so very, very funny? Oh… and Tom Savini, the god that he is, turns up for a minute too!
The British press here in the UK don’t seem to be ’feeling’ Zack & Miri Make A Porno. Hell, Total Film seem to turn against it (a two-star review) on the grounds that there is some “hypocrisy” in a movie about making a porno, with all the nudity on show that there is, but then “copping out” by not getting the leads naked too. Way to let your obsession with seeing Elizabeth Banks butt naked cloud your opinion, douche! Many are saying that its a coarse, vulgar movie that ‘depends’ on a fall into contrived romantic-comedy cliches. Empire seem to stab at it because it plays on being a poor-man’s John Hughes movie.
Every Kevin Smith movie has a sort of John Hughes ‘aura’. Hell, there’s movies on his directorial CV that go so far as to reference this fact in the dialogue. There are no more John Hughes movies any more, why shouldn’t Kevin Smith - a talent who claims the works of Hughes to be an inspiration to him - pick up the metaphorical baton and run with it, meshing up the huge heap of emotion that most Hughes movies carried with what Smith does best; profanity, pop culture references and great dialogue?
Smith doesn’t ‘depend’ on romantic comedy conventions to wrap up his movie’s third act. He places them within the structure of the movie he is making, with characters that feel real and that we’ve come to really adore, and he lets things play out. There’s no mad dash to some location to stop one character from leaving another. There’s no horrible pop-song playing over the top. What has been done before within the romantic comedy genre, doesn’t feel old hat when we’re watching this film because the whole film feels like such a fresh, loveable delight.
And on top of this, by taking things out of New Jersey and into Pittsburgh, in all its freezing, wintery glory, Smith has a fresh palate to paint with. Visually he seems a lot stronger then the point-the-camera-at-the-actors-and-shout-”Action” style that he is normally accused of possessing. And, as I said, with the great script, sublime performances and improved visual style, you’ve got yourself probably the strongest, most accomplished enjoyable film of Kevin Smith’s career.
The movie surprises because it is, at its base, a lovely romantic comedy dressed up in the coat of a crude, gross-out “boys only” laugh-fest. This isn’t a blokes film! This is very much a perfect date movie, for every sex, just like Kristina suggested. Yeah, they over-play the crudity on a verbal level to the point that it starts to stand-out - not every sentence has to have the word “fuck” in it, trust me - but this is a minor grumble, honest.
And seriously, when you’re making a movie that takes the romantic comedy and the world of amateur porn and puts them on a collision course with one another, if the only complaint you can make is that the excessive swearing distracted, then you know that you’ve done good!
This, in a year when the genre has never been so strong, is the best comedy of the year!
PS: Mr Kevin Smith, sir? You ever find yourself with a free thirty minute and want to chat to me for this site then drop me an e-mail at undiscovered_genius@hotmail.com and we can arrange something. Come on, we’re BIG fans! 
Related Posts:
- [Movie Review] ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO
- The “Banned” ZACK & MIRI MAKE A PORNO Poster
- The US Poster For ZACK & MIRI: Kevin Smith (1) - MPAA (0)
- Jason Bateman Is NOT Zack!
- Best Casting Announcement Ever!!!
14 Responses to “[Movie Review] ZACK & MIRI MAKE A PORNO”
Wasn’t it awesome?!
are you serious? 5 ****ing popcorns?
im not questioning your rating capabilities i am simply doubting myself- because now i dont know wether to watch QoS or zack and miri.
it comes out today here in florida
todays friday in the u.s….idk what day it is over there…movies usually come out on fridays over here in the great world of hamburgers and fake tits (and my love The Paltrow)
hey is gwyngwyn american or a foreigner?
Kristina, it was indeed awesome!
Do you have any idea what the song was playing over the sex scene between Zack and Miri? I want that song, badly!
PS you know what else is awesome?
THE INDISPENSIBLES! Appears on this very site daily!
You should check it out too Hazmat!
It’s called “Lift Me Up” by Live.
You are indispensible
Damnit, cannot find that Live track on Limewire
PS Hazmat, go see THIS and catch a matinee of Bond 22 another time. That film doesn’t need ANY help or extra numbers. This movie deserves much more people to take a chance on it!
gazz
i just came back from watching bond and it ruled but zack and miri are getting overall good reviews so im deffinatedly watch it
dude limewire is so lame…its got half of all ramnsteins songs corrupted and the same with my fav band..rise against. all of rise againsts good songs are Fd up on limewire.
yet i use it all the time..i have like 300 songs on my library..but some have horrible quality. but its freeee xD
so if you ddint find it on limewire try youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMYGqTTj-GY
The song is actually called ‘Hold Me Up’ by Live and I’ve got it now! Good song, great when used in the movie though!!!
Everyone should have watched Hunger instead of Quantum of Solace on day of release in the UK but hey ho…
I don’t understand the anti-Kevin Smith movement in the media. Give me the choice between Chasing Amy or Knocked Up and Amy will win every time and they are both films I hold in high regard. Smith is great but having grown up with him I suppose I wouldn’t discard him as quickly as younger folks might? I don’t know.
And Gazz is bang on about Rogen. That scene in Knocked Up is THE moment when you know you’re watching an Actor. Like watching late-career Bill Murray at work really. I geuinely think Rogen will hit those heights in a couple decades.
From what I’m hearing about Apatow’s FUNNY PEOPLE, it’s going to be a movie that will revolutionise just how people think of both Sandler and Rogen as performers!
I know someone who has read the script and they emailed me saying that if Apatow holds Sandler in well enough then he could get a Best Actor nomination off of the role!
Now that would be crazy! Ha Ha!
Apatow is our generation’s Billy Wilder. I do believe that. Rogen is the new Jack Lemmon! Honest!
Ah! HOLD not LIFT! Sorry!
Trackbacks
What's Your Opinion?