With a name like Zack and Miri Make a Porno, you’ve gotta figure Kevin Smith’s latest movie is going to offend some members of the movie-going public.
Undeniably raunchy, the R-rated film, which stirred controversy with its stick-figure advertisements before Zack and Miri hit theaters Friday, turns out to be an oddly charming love story (trailer embedded).
Bouncing around between the F-bombs, bare butts, boobs and ball sacks is a surprisingly lighthearted comedy about two 21st-century slackers. Smith stirs in just enough saccharin to sweeten the hipster cynicism.
After platonic roommates Zack (played by Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) fail to pay their utility bills, the water and electricity get turned off in their dingy Pittsburgh apartment.
The mid-winter gust of financial reality — coupled with a quick hit of surprise internet celebrity, some Iron City beer and a chance encounter with a gay porn actor (slyly played by Mac guy Justin Long) — sends the broke roomies on a quest to cash in by making a DIY adult flick.
To increase their chances of a blue-movie bonanza, Zack and Miri defile a classic sci-fi picture.
Zack and Miri rolls through their goofball preproduction process, finding laughs in the wannabe moviemakers’ search for the perfect film to lampoon. The brainstorming sessions, the casting calls, the costuming ideas all yield laughs as a team of misfits comes together to see a seedy dream through to completion.
Rogen (pictured, right) shines as a chubby, bearded amateur auteur who slowly comes to grips with his true feelings toward Miri when their shoestring production squeaks to completion. Banks charms as Zack’s "just friends" roomie who agrees to screw him on-screen for the sake of their movie.
Supporting cast give inspired performances, especially Jason Mewes (writer/director Smith’s longtime sidekick who played Jay to Smith’s Silent Bob in Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), who works weirdo magic as Lester, a tattooed sex freak who’ll do anything on camera.
Craig Robinson rules as reluctant producer Delaney. Adult actress Katie Morgan (Sex Trek: Where No Man Has Cum B4, brings special assets to her first mainstream movie role.
Zack and Miri is not a beautiful movie, smeared as it is with outdoor shots of icy streets and slush-covered suburbs.
But it is fun movie to watch (brace yourself for the gross-out money shot that had audience members giggling uncontrollably). More substantial than Smith’s previous efforts, Zack and Miri sticks to a breezy pace, when things turn from goofy sleaze to slightly standard romance. Wisely, Smith keeps the heartwarming part short and sweet.
The maker of Zack and Miri Make a Porno has made a movie that’s legitimately funny and surprisingly tender.
Photos: Darren Michaels/© 2008 The Weinstein Co.
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