Posted on: September 27th, 2008 REVIEW: Zach & Miri Make A Porno

The Calgary International Film Festival is underway and the city is undulating with a frenetic film frenzy. There’s a ton of great little flicks showing throughout the festival, but with the chaos of getting married in three weeks time, there isn’t a lot of room to put the plans aside and watch a shitty Gus Van Zant movie. But then I saw that Kevin Smith’s latest, Zack & Miri Make A Porno was on the bill. This is as close as GKS has ever gotten to a “screening” per say, and hopefully it won’t be the last taste of seeing a major film before anyone else.

Kevin Smith reached a fork in the road after Chasing Amy. He could either pursue the road paved by Amy and make raunchy comedies with some meaningful human expostion, or he could continue down the track of just pure raunch, ala Mallrats. Ultimately he would bounce back and forth between these two approaches, with Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back taking the slapstick too far, and Jersey Girl being a complete trainwreck of such contrived proportions.

It wasn’t until Clerks II that we seemed to catch a glimpse of Kevin Smith finally accepting his fate and finding the perfect balance of dick and fart jokes with emotion. But still, to approach Zack & Miri with some hesitance is warranted, as the last time Mr. Smith made a film outside of the Jay and Silent Bob universe, we got the wince-inducing, aformentioned Jersey Girl. I’m happy to report that Clerks II was no fluke, and Kevin Smith keeps his momentum going with Zack & Miri Make A Porno. Be forewarned though, the film is incredibly filthy, incredibly explicit, and incredibly funny.

Zack & Miri tells the tale of two life-long platonic friends that find themselves in a dire financial crisis. And where does everyone first look when they need to make some fast bucks? Why porn, of course. Our titular characters’ journey into the world of independant pornography tests the strength and meaning of their relationship with lewd, crude and hilarious results. Holy shit I should write for the LA Times.

There’s no doubt that Seth Rogen (Zack) is a money-magnet at the box-office right now, as is anything with Judd Apatow’s name attached to it. While Apatow had absolutely nothing to do with Zack & Miri, I forsee a huge take-in at the box office from the average movie-goer based on the fact that it looks like an Apatow film – Elizabeth Banks (Miri) and Craig Robinson make for a fantastic cast including Smith regulars Jason Mews (in his first non-Jay role in a Smith film) and Jeff Anderson (in his second non-Randall role in a Smith film). The film also includes a handfull of cameos from actual pornstars, Brandon Routh, an absolutely side-splitting Justin Long, Kenny Hotz (of Kenny vs. Spenny fame) and the great Tom Savini in a great nod to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.

Kevin Smith will tell you himself, he’s not a technical director. At all. And Zach & Miri marks no change in that department. The man’s strength is his writing and dialogue. It’s not entirely believable dialogue for the most part, but unlike Juno, for example, which was just too farfetched and detracted from the film, Smith’s dialogue is actually funny. I wanted Smith to keep pushing the interaction between the characters, and he delivered. Craig Robinson especially stole every scene he was in, even though his character is essentially the same as Darrell from The Office. For me though, the standout line of dialogue comes from Jason Mewes’ character, Lester “The Molester”, in the middle of shooting a sex scene for their film Suck My Cockaccino. Kevin Smith just knows how to write the perfect line for whatever scene he’s doing. Smith also stays in top-nerd form with constant fanboy references to Star Wars, comic books and terrible Julia Roberts films.

There’s not really much more I can say about Zack & Miri. It’s easily one of, if not the funniest films of the year, and I hope it does well once it’s released. The MPAA had a field day with this one, and while I hope they all die of horrible, painful, cancerous deaths, I can kind of understand why… it’s downright crude. But it does have a lot of heart in it too. It just happens to be right next to the large, veined hard-on.

The only thing I can compare it to is John Huges meets Tom Hanks…  or if Sixteen Candles had an all night fuck-fest with Porky’s.

Zack & Miri Make A Porno hits theaters this October 31st… do check it out.

 

Filed under: Barnacles, Review

One Response to “REVIEW: Zach & Miri Make A Porno”

  1. dale Says:
    September 28th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    Agreed.

    One thing I noticed about Justin Long’s dialogue was that it seemed almost ad lib at times, even though kevin smith is known for being a line nazi to people wanting to put their own twist on the scene. That would be interesting if that was the case.

    Also, what’s up with the pointless dance numbers separating the 2 and 3 act? It was the same deal in clerks 2. They’re fun, but I don’t get it. And one final point is how the characters said the ‘f’ word to the point of it becoming distracting.

    Just my two cents. Thought the movie was great though. I wonder how it would have turned out if it were set in the View Askew world? Better? Worse?

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