Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a raunchy movie. The language is very sexually explicit. There is nudity from both genders. There are situations depicting the making of an adult movie. My wife said, “That’s the raunchiest thing I’ve ever seen in a theater." I nodded in agreement – in other words, I lied.
The movie tells the story of flat-broke Zack and Miri – longtime platonic roommates – who are faced with either doing something drastic or getting evicted from their apartment, already without water or power. A chance meeting with a male adult-film star at a high-school reunion sparks an idea: get out of debt by becoming adult-film entrepreneurs.
The movie forms an interesting marriage – at least on paper – between Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen. Smith wrote and directed the popular comedies Clerks and Chasing Amy. Rogen starred in the hit comedy Knocked Up. With Zack and Miri, unfortunately, it’s mostly their individual weaknesses that are on display.
Smith is not a good director. Visually, his work is flat, uninspired. Or, in other words, he doesn’t know how to place his camera to complement a scene. He plops it squarely in front of the action and covers it head-on. It gets the job done. But, it’s appropriate to say – about a movie this filled with '70s/'80s nostalgia – that it isn’t “hip to be this square.”
More damaging, he is not a very good writer. His shtick has always been to litter his dialog with pop-cultural references, often relating to the movie Star Wars. With Zack and Miri, the shallowness is really starting to show. He’d already spent his last “get out of jail free” card for overplaying Princess Leia jokes. Now he’s behind bars to stay.
Zack and Miri resembles Knocked Up. Rogen is making a career playing sad-sacks who somehow manage to get the prom queen. It was pure adolescent male fantasy fulfillment – like adult films actually – when he won Alison in Knocked Up and Miri is the same. This male-egocentric nature makes both films anti-“chick flicks.” All of you guys out there beware: it’s not safe to admit too much enjoyment to your dates during the drive home, trust me.
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