Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) User Reviews

First off, do not watch this with your parent, grandparents or in-laws.

[dave-3797 · 7/10 · 15 February 2009]

First off, do not watch this with your parent, grandparents or in-laws. You can definitely feel that this is a Kevin Smith feel, and the fact that it has Jason Mewes in it could have been a strong hint also. Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a strange but enjoyable love story, cleverly written by Smith so that you do actually feel the romance behind the porn.

No this movie isn't a major Hollywood blockbuster, and it is definitely not for everyone, if you're a prude give it a miss, but if light hearted and don't mind movies with the full range of body organs then I would recommend watching this!

A Porno with Plot and Feelings

[noldcw · 8/10 · 27 October 2008]

As Jackie Treehorn laments in The Big Lebowski, pornos these days lack plot, and production values, and feelings. Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" would make Jackie quite proud.

The basic plot revolves around two friends, Zack and Miri. The two have a platonic relationship and live together. As they hit dire financial straits, Zack suggests they should make a porno and sell it to make money to pay rent, utilities, etc.

I went into this film with some hesitation. I left quite impressed. Seth Rogen proves he can convey emotion and still be funny. Elizabeth Banks provides the perfect on-screen mate for Rogen. However, I feel, as did others who saw the preview, that Craig Robinson (Darrell from The Office) steals nearly every scene he is in.

Zack and Miri heartily earns its R rating. It is easy to see how the MPAA nearly rated it NC-17. No matter the rating, I would whole-heartedly recommend this movie to anyone (with the exception of grandparents).

film's content is risky but it works

[Special-K88 · 5 November 2008]

Zack Brown and Miriam Linky are platonic best friends, roommates, and underachievers who've known each other since the first grade. They're both perfectly content with their below average status, until they find themselves eyeball deep in debt and facing the threat of eviction. Their solution? Make an adult video hoping that it'll provide the financial stability they so desperately need, but can their lifelong friendship survive the complication of sex? On the surface this raunchy comedy is nothing more than an outrageously vulgar, foulmouthed version of When Harry met Sally, but at its heart is a sweet, genuine, and believable analysis of the frailties prevalent in a male-female friendship. Not always uproariously funny, but easily likable with a spicy script that challenges viewers to keep track of enough sexually explicit dialogue for three films! Rogen and Banks have great chemistry. ***

Not for everyone

[myreviewss · 6/10 · 15 November 2020]

You definitely need an immature and dirty sense of humor to enjoy this.

Harvey and Kevin make a love story

[Chris Knipp · 7/10 · 29 October 2008]

Roommates and longtime friends Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) meet a gay couple (Brandon Routh and Justin Long) at a high school reunion held on the eve of Thanksgiving. One of these guys (Routh) is so handsome and charming Miri crudely and of course futilely propositions him on the spot. Zack happens to talk to his lover (Long, hilariously deep-voiced and confident). It turns out the gay men produce and act in their own profitable line of gay porn films. They really are good-looking and have it together, and Zack and Miri, being so broke their electricity and water have been cut off, decide to make a porno of their own. The plot twist, obvious in conventional romantic comedy terms, is that the process of shooting a sex scene with them in it makes Zack and Miri, who, we don't know exactly why, have contented themselves with hasty, meaningless sex with others up to now, realize--after a slight delay--that they've really loved each other along.

Smith's use of Seth Rogen in a schlub-wins-pretty-girl comedy (there's no doubt that Elizabeth Banks is pretty) links him with Judd Apatow's productions, but let's hope he isn't swallowed up by the Apatow factory. Apatow can do anything, but in spite of the success of 'Knocked Up,' 'Super Bad,' 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' and 'Pineapple Express,' I wish he'd go back to producing really good failed TV series like 'Freaks and Geeks' and 'Undeclared,' where Seth got started and Judd gave birth to all the good comedy.

Kevin Smith's continuing appeal is his own. It lies in his faithfulness to his New Jersey "Askewniverse" regional working-class outlook and in his ability to call a spade a spade, "spade," in this case, being a string of four-letter words. He has never strayed far from his basic concerns even when more money came his way, as it did as soon as his under-$30,000 debut production 'Clerks' was snapped up by Miramax and feted at Sundance and Cannes. Smith's movies are frank and contemporary, outrageous and funny. Above all they're sui generis, a quality achieved through adhering closely to favorite tropes and locales and a posse of pals.

His dead-end mallrats entering their thirties without accomplishment or future speak truth, and the best things about his movies has always been the dialogue, which is spiky and arresting and nonstop and alive, even if he avoids polish so studiously that the lines aren't as memorable as they might be. Or is it just that I'm too old to be fully tuned in to the language, even though I understand it? Relationships and situations get honest treatment, even though they're hardly explored in depth. He's also good at politics and religion, as in 'Dogma', which took things a step beyond 'Clerks.' Raised as an Irish Catholic, Smith delighted in insulting the Church, but the Catholic League didn't take his provocations lightly. Sometimes drawing on Ben Afleck and Matt Damon and other celebs, he's kept going back to the same crew of actor-friends and characters, including Jason Lee, Brian O'Halloran, Mr. Affleck, Betty Aberlin, Jeff Anderson, Walter Flanagan, Ernest O'Donnell, or course Kevin Smith himself ("Silent Bob"), and my own favorite and the most frequent of all, the provocative yet needy Jason Mewes. Smith's last movie was 'Clerks II,' which much like Zack, highlighted a sexually outrageous act in a shoddy fast food joint. A good addition here is Zack's black cohort from his place of work, Delaney (Craig Robinson of the US TV "The Office"), who has great timing and delivery, and becomes the porno's producer.

In a way Zack even directly reenacts what Smith actually did when he shot 'Clerks'--he made a movie at night in the New Jersey convenience store where he was then working in the daytime. The crew in Zack wind up making their porno at night in the non-Starbucks coffee shop called Bean-N-Gone where Zack and Delaney work. Predictably, a guy (Tyler Labine) comes in in the wee hours to buy a cup of coffee so he can drive home. He's so drunk he doesn't notice that one of the new porn recruits and Jason Mewes are having sex on a platform in front of the counter. This time, even though it's put off and partly an afterthought, the main characters not only find love but success in free enterprise--with their friends.

Smith's dialogue never falters. But I confess to an increasing nostalgia for the purity and simplicity of the original Clerks. That had a promise, a sense of how ordinary guys could be witty and smart, a sense that though nothing was happening, something momentous still might. It hasn't. 'Zack and Miri' doesn't take us any further than 'Clerks II' did; I think 'Clerks II' even had cleverer dialogue. This time down-and-dirty language is beginning to feel wearisome. It's beginning to feel forced. People don't talk that way all the time--at least women don't. But that doesn't mean Smith's fans are burned out. The Weinstein brothers have picked up this one, and nobody's going to lose any money. Last time I compared Kevin Smith to Eric Rohmer. That may seem far fetched at first, due to Rohmer's delicacy vs. Smith's gross-out factor. But both filmmakers are essentially perpetual adolescents who write good dialogue. Both of them go back to the same themes every time. Rohmer doesn't make a masterpiece every time and neither does Smith. But you keep coming back. I still like this vulgarian indie auteur.

raunchy sex romp rom-com

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 15 June 2015]

Miri (Elizabeth Banks) and Zack (Seth Rogen) are lifelong loser friends in the Pittsburgh outer burbs. They're broke and the water is shut off. At the high school reunion, Miri tries to hook up with school crush Bobby Long (Brandon Routh) but his gay boyfriend Brandon St. Randy (Justin Long) tells Zack that they're gay porn stars. A couple of teens secretly filmed Miri in her granny pantie and the video goes viral. Zack and a reluctant Miri agrees to make a porno with friends like Delaney (Craig Robinson) to make some money.

It's raunchy vulgarity going further than Apatow. Kevin Smith is trying to hit a narrow target of sweet rom-com and raunchy sex romp. The best parts are the great comic actors Banks, Rogen and the rest of the cast. Although, it's hard to see Banks as a loser. Maybe she needs to be smoking lots of pot to fit the role. Rogen fits the lovable loser role like a glove. There are some awkwardness with the subject matter although the porn video names are funny.

Not really a review I just had to say this

[jonevenh · 9/10 · 1 November 2019]

I've liked this movie since it was released in 2008. I watched it for the nth time last night, and never really noticed how well scored the movie is until then. When Hey by Pixies is played during the house party I could have sworn he had written that scene with that song in mind. The movie hits every beat of the song perfectly. Also a highly quotable movie with great casting all around. A Kevin Smith film with Jason Mewes AND Seth Rogen, now that's right down my alley 👌 only complaint would be that I would have loved a cameo from Smith himself.

Conservative

[Karl Self · 7/10 · 22 August 2009]

Today, thanks to the internet, pornography is ubiquitous, and this necessarily shapes the attitude of the generation that grew up with it. Having 10,000 different varieties of, say, Micronesian dwarfs gang-rogering an submissive Alaskan donkey up the ear canal, if that's your bag, only a mouse-click away, is necessarily going to affect you one way or another. Unisex slacker flatmates Zack (a fat dude) and Miri (a well fit female) have spent the last ten years dropping out, tuning in, serving coffee, and callously bantering about sick stuff, for example self-gratification gadgets such as the Fleshlight (a male relief aid that is a cross over between a lady's uglies and a torch, in case you've just returned from Mars or pretend not to know). But all this loose talk doesn't mean that the time-honored game of hide-the-kreplach with the Schickse of your predilection has become any less nerve-wrecking than 100 years ago. In a way, it has become worse because the internet leaves you in no doubt about how, while you haven't been getting any for the past decade, others are getting their tops and fingers on a very regular basis. "Regular basis" being a euphemism for hardcore penetrative sex with an entire cheerleader troupe of 18-year-old Asian nymphettes with no self respect or gagging reflex.

But I digress. Zack and Miri have been hanging out for some time whilst going nowhere fast, when the fascist utilities company cuts them off just because they haven't paid their bills for a year or so. When Miri finds out that her highschool heartthrob is now a gay porn-star, Zack has an incredibly great idea completely out of nowhere: let's pay the bills ... by also becoming porn-stars. Easier done than said, they get a few social dropouts together and start making porn. And, while they're at it, they decide to also bring their talents to the fore. At this point they both discover that they are a lot coyer than they think, and the director must have had similar feelings: the movie suddenly becomes very tame, and calls upon every porn cliché in the book. Director Kevin Smith has apparently missed out on that entire new-fangled internet wachumacallit, or maybe his pornographic education ended with 1980ies VHS porn, because his porn still has squeaky-voiced bimboes acting in "You must be the plumber, here to lay a pipe"-scenes.

To cut the whole story short, Zack and Miri do a very un-pornographic shagging scene which makes them fall in love. They can't admit this to each other, split up, and finally fall into each other's arms at the end. The end.

The reactionary bit is that a.) Miri stays fully dressed during the entire scene (a small reminder for all you puritan Americans out there: sex just works a lot better when you take your clothes off). Point b.) is that Kevin Smith clearly has no respect for the porn "industry" because he portrays the actresses as brainless bimbos, the actors as brainless him-bos, and porn as something that you can film with a wobbly DV camera and still make a fortune with. It would have been nice to simply see an alternative, less jaded view of the industry that's provided us all with many hours of solitary fun. I also thought it was a bit reactionary to cast the male part with a fat slob (sorry, Seth Rogen, you know I love you!) and the female part with a pristine beauty who would could equally well model for Vogue.

ZAMMAP is still watchable because Kevin Smith is a great filmmaker who could make a gripping documentary about the drying of paint on a humid day, because of the witty dialogue, and because of the great acting. Craig Robinson as Zack and Miri's motor-mouthed "disgruntled black dude" senior coworker coming especially to mind here.

Unused potential

[valnaut16 · 4/10 · 30 August 2010]

Although this movie had a nice start,with quite a few good jokes it failed to become much more than that.I was hoping to see something different,a breath of fresh air in the mass off generic,cheap teenage comedies.Unfortunately Zack and Miri are stuck somewhere in the middle of an sandwich and it's not pleasant at all.The first half of the movie I admire the most.This part is filled with something,not to say original but different,and actually has something fresh to bring to audience.Closer we are getting to ending movie starts dragging us in different direction,from unique and funny comedy towards cheap romantic flick filled with every possible cliché there is in a book.Actually it started becoming so bad it literally erased all enjoyable moments this movie did offer.Only thing that stopped me from turning it off was pure boredom.Disappointed,to say at least.

Smith's most accomplished work as director and one of his best scripts make "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" one of 2008's best comedies

[ametaphysicalshark · 31 October 2008]

I feel like I should let everyone reading this know of the bias I had in favor of this film going in. In spite of my dislike of "Mallrats", "Jersey Girl" and even "Clerks II" (which didn't gel into a cohesive whole for me, although it featured several great individual scenes), I have always liked Kevin Smith as a person, based not only on his podcast and Q&A sessions, but on my one, admittedly short, personal meeting with him. I have also always liked Smith as a writer, and still count "Clerks" as one of the most true-to-life, funniest, and most genuinely inspired screenplays ever written, and all his other movies despite being more flawed in my estimation have something or the other to recommend in them, "Chasing Amy" being his best outside "Clerks". Also influencing my opinion of the film is the fact that if you put Zack in an art-house theater instead of a coffee shop and showed him Robbe-Grillet movies he would basically be me. It also happens that the relationship between Zack and Miri, platonic roommates who have known each other for a long time, is an exact reflection of my own relationship with my roommate. With all that covered, does "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" meet my lofty expectations?

In spite of some forced and unfunny gay and race jokes, it certainly does. I'm almost surprised by it, as I thought there was no way it could meet my expectations. The most instantly noticeable thing about "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" is how good the film looks. Throughout his career Smith has been criticized for his skills as director (or lack thereof), and surprisingly Smith has been one of his biggest critics. On a SModcast episode recently Smith said that he and David Klein (his cinematographer) had really worked hard at making this look like a 'real movie' (perhaps not the exact words, but it was something like that). The effort really has paid off. "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" is a genuinely well-shot film, there's none of the awkwardness and amateurishness of some of Smith's other movies, and if Smith himself says that he thinks of himself as 'not a real film-maker' then he should re-evaluate himself because he has really achieved something quite surprising here.

The screenplay is no disappointment either. In spite of, as I said earlier, some forced and unfunny race and gay humor, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" still features characters who feel like real people (something Smith has always been able to do) and some really inspired dialogue and even some well-executed sight gags this time around. Oh, it's absolutely filthy, of course, but there's real heart here, and where I personally think "Clerks II" failed at bringing vulgarity and romance together into a cohesive whole, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" does exactly that, including in the film's key scene between Zack and Miri (which also features a "LOST" joke! Did Kevin Smith make this movie for me?!)

The plot is pretty much what you should expect going in. It's a romantic comedy centered around the making of a porn film to help the two leads get out of a financial crisis. The movie is hardly unpredictable, but it's well-written enough to survive the familiar, conventional outcome. You can't expect something as unconventional as "Chasing Amy" (although this movie might be more consistent and hence better), which was a romantic comedy set in a geek/nerd world, with such accurate reflection of the people I know and the life I live that it remains a favorite of mine in spite of its rough visual look and some bad acting, but "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" is so well-written and contains such genuine emotion that it overcomes all the hurdles which a romantic comedy faces.

The acting is certainly a big part of the movie's success. No offense to Joey Lauren Adams, but Elizabeth Banks has the skill and presence to carry a film like Adams could only hope to, and is a surprisingly great comedienne. Seth Rogen is an affable goofball as he usually is, and Craig Robinson is... Craig Robinson. The two big surprises here are Jason Mewes, who plays a character quite different from Jay very well. There's no real emotional acting for him here, but he's really hilarious and solid here, and Katie Morgan (!), who doesn't have much to do but is a surprisingly decent comedic actress who may actually have a mainstream career in her future.

Some critics have accused "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" of being sappy. I don't know if it's just my being able to identify with Zack so much and my having a Miri of my own, but I felt like the film ended up being genuinely sweet and not sappy. It made me laugh, it nearly made me cry, and it left me feeling very satisfied by the end. Easily Smith's most satisfying movie since "Chasing Amy", possibly since "Clerks", and with the move away from Jersey, away from the View Askewniverse, it sees Kevin Smith maturing as a director and yet still delivering something that's very much a 'Kevin Smith' movie, just a more accomplished version of one. Before this, I thought his horror project "Red State" would be a disaster, after this I'm actually thinking he can pull it off.

8.5/10

They make a porno. They make you laugh.

[Simon_Says_Movies · 7/10 · 28 November 2008]

Seldom (if ever) do I remember the mere contents of a films title causing such a fuss prior to release. The MPAA must have something very large protruding from their rectums, as to feel the need to initially slap Kevin Smith's latest effort with NC-17 rating. I don't know what the fuss is all about, but when Hostel: Part II can get an R, and Zack and Miri is in question, there is something rotten in Hollywood.

The simplest explanation is that they felt the title 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno' publicly (such as on posters and commercials) divulged too much "information" regarding the raunchy content of the film. After watching Zack and Miri, I was quite shocked. Other then the frequent but not abnormally high occurrence of f-bombs, a quick male frontal scene and some shots of breasts, the movie is by Kevin Smith standards, tame. Even when comparing it to recent Judd Apatow flicks such as The 40-Year-Old-Virgin and Forgetting Sarah Marshall the structures are similar; they exhibit the same abundance of cussing, very similar subject matter and even use the '08, 'Full Monty' craze, yet all received R ratings. All that is left is the world Porno, which in the context of the film is not outrageous or unnecessary, and will not cripple the youth of North America. If I hear a case of a child's ears and eyes bleeding after exposure to the word Porno I will cheerfully retract my position.

Kevin Smith is the original king of gross-out comedy, with his classic film Clerks, ranking as one of my favourite all time comedies. After chick flick-ish efforts such as Chasing Amy and Jersey Girl, Smith has fused these two styles together into a film that exhibits equal parts raunch and sweetness. Although similar to the Apatow formula, Zack and Miri is easily distinguishable as a Kevin Smith film, even with the casting of Apatow regulars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. Disregarding all the hullabaloo, this film is simply funny. Plain and simple. Those who are at all interested should seek it out. If this is not your cup-o-porn, I mean tea, then don't go watch it and call it outrageous. (Unless you mean it in a positive light) Seth Rogen plays Zack, who shares a platonic relationship with his long time friend Miri (Banks). Finding themselves in dire financial straights, they try to enjoy the little things in life wherever possible. Following an eventful High School reunion, Zack gets the idea that all crosses through our mind at one time or another; make a porno with Miri to drag themselves out of the gutter. While initially reluctant, Miri comes around and they begin production. Zack secures finances from his coffee shop co-worker Delaney (Craig Robertson), and then begins casting, securing the likes of Lester (Smith regular Jason Mewes), a stripper named Lacey (Katie Morgan), a 'specialist' named Bubbles (Traci Lords) and an oddball named Barry (David Early). Zack also recruits his hockey team-mate Deacon (Jeff Anderson, who you will recognize from Clerks) to film.

During the shoot however, something happens between Zack and Miri, and they begin to realize what they actually knew all along. The latter portions of Zack and Miri are mostly devoid of raunch, and devote time to the budding relationship of the two leads. Rogen and Banks exhibit excellent chemistry and the solid scripting by Smith makes the characters seem like real people. The two portions while strong on their own do not mesh seamlessly, but works well enough for me to still put forth a strong recommendation. This film is worth seeing for the scene stealing work by Justin Long alone, as the man who sets off Zack's porno-inspired ambitions, as well as for the funniest 'poo' joke since, well, this decade at least. Zack and Miri will make good on making a porno, but they will make something else as well. They will make you laugh.

7.5 / 10

Kevin Smith Makes a Movie...well, not quite.

[frankenbenz · 6/10 · 6 December 2008]

http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/

Kevin Smith thinks he's funny much in the same way Quentin Tarantino thinks he's cool. Problem is, they're not and their continued attempts to prove otherwise have become incredibly grating. While Tarantino once made good films heavily inspired by great films, Smith has always been a true auteur: singular and influenced by no one but himself. Zack and Miri Make a Porno is conclusive proof Smith's unique style will never change, it will never mature and it will always suck. There's nothing wrong with that if you're a frat boy and you love puerile, telegraphed jokes, but let's be real...Smith's sh** stopped being funny about five minutes after Clerks.

The words in Smith's screenplays rain down like an epic hail storm, with so much crammed into the mouths of his actors, audiences have little ability to breathe, let alone watch a movie. But the fact is, Smith doesn't make movies, he writes dialogue and if there is a less visual director working, you would have to go all the way back to the pre-movie days of radio to find him. Worst of all, Smith's dialogue is rarely funny or smart, it's merely a rambling tirade of profane, pop-culture inanity, singular in its authorial voice. Good writing doesn't scream out loud who wrote it, just like good film-making shouldn't. Unfortunately for the very few of you who plunked down money to see this movie, Kevin Smith is neither a good writer nor is he a good director, he's just another narcissist in love with his own patented brand of verbal diarrhea.

Kevin Smith is back ... with a "porno"

[alex-richie · 7/10 · 14 January 2009]

All the dedicated Kevin Smith fans should rejoice - the great man is back in action. It's been a long time since we've seen him like this, so in a certain sense, Kevin makes a comeback with "Zack and Miri." By the way, while the title suggest something pretty vulgar the film is really only slightly more vulgar then the "Clerks" or its sequel. It's just that some of the things that clerks only talk about actually happen in "Zack and Miri." And speaking of "Clerks," the connections to it are everywhere. The opening scene sees Zack and Miri waking up, then comes the dialog's in the café Zack works for - pure clerks-style, and then of course Zack uses the said café to shoot the film - just like Kevin Smith shoot "Clerks" in the store he worked for. "Zack and Miri" are full of laughs, most of them dirty, others - extremely dirty. But unless you're going to watch it in the company of your grandma - who cares? Just look out for performances of Justin Long as a gay porn star, as well as our old friends - Jeff Anderson (video store clerk from "Clerks") and Jason Mewes (Jay). In fact it looks to be the first time that Mewes appears in Smith's movie, playing someone other than Jay, but for the same reason don't expect to see Silent Bob. But of course, don't be mislead by the porno bits and dirty jokes - "Zack and Miri" is first of all a love story, even if it's the weirdest one ever seen on screen.

Jesus.....it was great

[xxbogginxx · 9/10 · 20 September 2008]

I saw this movie at the opening of Fantastic Fest in Austin, with Kevin Smith live. The whole theater was roaring with laughter for at least 3/4 of the movie. If you're a fan of his films, you won't be disappointed. If you're not, get the hell on board, cause this movie is hilarious. The movie has some of his most classic scenes by far, with some great performances and spectacular lines by Justin Long, Rogen, Mewes, and Craig Robinson who steals the show. I guarantee you won't leave the theater unsatisfied. It's like Clerks 2 had sex with Dogma, and left the horrendous emotional scenes at the door, and kept the bad ass dialogue thoroughly intact.

Sex still more offensive than violence

[Anonymous_Maxine · 7/10 · 6 March 2009]

If Kevin Smith can't do anything new with the romantic comedy genre I think it's pretty safe to assume that it's never going to happen. The first 45 minutes or so of Zack and Miri Make A Porno have some of the funniest stuff I've seen in a movie since Pineapple Express (which was written by fellow funnyman Judd Apatow). The scene where Zack is talking to the two gay guys at the high school reunion cost me a perfectly good cup of delicious iced coffee, most of which ended up in my lap and sprayed all over my coffee table. I think I rewound that scene and watched it over again about 15 times before I finally heard everything over my laughing.

But there definitely comes a point in the movie where the predictability factor shoots through the roof and, despite Kevin Smith's undeniably outstanding writing skills, the movie takes a serious downturn.

I am not as huge of a fan of Kevin Smith as some of my friends. One of my best friends grew up in New Jersey right next to where Clerks was filmed and has thus developed kind of a special relationship with Smith's films, but while I enjoyed Clerks and loved Mallrats and was mildly impressed with Chasing Amy (except for all the screaming), I haven't been very interested in anything Smith has done since then. I was outwardly bored with Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back seemed like such a cash-in to me, I still haven't gotten around to seeing Clerks II and I'll probably never watch Jersey Girl. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are in that thing, for God's sake.

But for a good portion of Zack and Miri I thought that I had been missing something all along, or at least that I had forgotten the undeniable charm of Smith's work. It's true that he is a brilliant writer. He can create conversations that have a hugely profane but still realistic flow, and with actors like Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks (and a whole list of others) nailing all of their lines, it makes for something special in the comedy department. Sadly, the movie is so predictable that I almost feel like I should give you a spoiler warning just to tell you that.

Zack and Miri are life-long friends who have a relationship of convenience. They enjoy each other's company and have a real friendship, but they are roommates primarily for financial reasons. They both have dead-end jobs and rely on each other to share the rent and bills, but a variety of factors (mostly Zack's inability to put their utility bills above a "Fleshlight" on his list of priorities) they eventually find themselves months behind on their bills and unable to pay their rent.

One day Miri accidentally allows herself to be filmed by a couple of teenagers while she's changing clothes in plain sight at the coffee shop where Zack works and the video shows up on the internet with hundreds of thousands of people watching it daily. Not a bad turnout for what is really a pretty thoroughly uninteresting video, but no matter. This gives Zack the idea that they should make a porno. Even if only the 800 or so people from their high school graduating class bought a copy for $20 a pop or so, it would instantly solve all of their financial problems.

It's interesting to notice that Zack and Miri suffer through more moral and emotional torment trying to accept the idea of having sex with each other than they do about selling their naked images to strangers. I would have thought that crossing the line into making porn movies would be a pretty big step, but not these two. You see, it seems that Miri's parents are dead and Zack grandparents are dead (?), so they have no one to be disappointed in them. It is, however, one of the film's clever accusations of the public at large that the only reason that everyone doesn't get involved in making porn is because they're worried about what their parents would think.

They amass a makeshift crew made up of Lester the Molester (Jason Mewes), a stripper named Stacey (real life porn star Katie Morgan), an aging stripper named Bubbles (Traci Lords) who earns her name with a rather disturbing trick that she does at bachelor parties, and Barry, a black man with a brutal marriage to a black caricature of a wife and more than his share of financial problems himself.

The first half of the movie is some of the best work that Smith has done in years. The dialogue is hilarious, none of the film's admittedly extensive profanity seems overdone, and even the characters are believable as they make this completely unbelievable plan. I spent most of the first half of the movie trying to figure out what was going to go wrong and prevent the porno from ever being filmed, but I spent the second half watching the movie slog through a sadly lengthy list of romantic comedy clichés as it labored toward the obligatory Hollywood ending.

I understand that the word "porno" has generated some controversy, prompting some newspapers to refuse to print ads for the movie and some theaters to refuse to show it. I'm wondering if Kevin Smith predicted this and if it was part of his decision to use this title, since getting his film banned from select theaters and newspapers is probably the quickest and most efficient way to ensure it's success. At any rate, it is another sad, sad sign of the times when the word "porno" will generate frantic animosity, but no one has a problem with blood-soaked, degenerate films like Hostel and the never-ending Saw films from being shipped to theaters. Go figure.

Do Not Leave the Theater Before the Bluescreen

[arelx · 10/10 · 9 November 2008]

For those who love the movies of Kevin Smith (the King of Bathos) as much as I do, it's important that you wait until you see the bluescreen before you leave the theater. That's right, watch the titles, wait *through* the color bar, and don't leave until you see the parental guidance screen (again). I'd be writing a spoiler if I told you why, but if you like this movie you'll want to keep watching till it's *all over*.

This clearly is not a movie for prudes or anyone who can be offended by (in no order) making fun of gay people (in a friendly way), making fun of heterosexual people (in a friendly way), poop jokes, in fact, jokes about or show of any bodily function, including copulation, swearwords of any variety, making fun of sex, making fun of marriage, someone sitting on a toilet, um well, offended by just about anything. In fact, if you can be offended by anything except violence and intolerance, this movie is probably not for you.

However, if you'd like some lighthearted fun about cappuccino-flavored love, and you like Kevin Smith's stuff, go for it.

This film is for 18 yeras old but it is good

[xXmRx · 7/10 · 31 August 2015]

The problem Smith often encounters is that sometimes it feels like he's throwing F-words, vibrator, pussy, and jerk-off jokes at us a little too easily and it doesn't really jive well with the sweeter side that comes later. As an example, watch "Jersey Girl." Just here he has a good balance for the most part. It starts off a little shaky but settles in nicely with crude jokes that earn big laughs. A diarrhea gag is priceless, a character named Bubbles has a unique talent, and the names themselves are great fun, take the David Mamet inspired "Glen and Garry Suck Ross' Cock" for example. It gets gooey but Smith keeps things down to Earth with an endearing love story about sex and the jealousy and uncomfortable and sensitive nature that surrounds it. It's nothing new. Everything mentioned has been explored to death on every network sitcom ever produced but it keeps its sweetness and that's really what counts here.

Rogen is a big, doughy, lovable ball of enthusiasm and he's always fun to watch. And Banks is adorable, has good comedic chemistry with Rogen but most importantly both actors bring a gentle and heartwarming romance to the screen. The rest of the cast is a big help, starting with "The Offices" Craig Robinson, who nails every line the character has, whether it's defying what he believes to be racism, talking about his wife,

Some crude laughs but not enough to carry it over the weak and obvious narrative arch and lack of emotional investment from the audience

[bob the moo · 4 January 2009]

Lifelong platonic friends Zack and Miri live together but struggle week to week to make ends meet and keep the bills paid. When they get their water and power cut off on the night they are stumped as to how they are going to get out from under. At the same time a viral video of Miri in her large pants (aka "granny pants") reveals that they have some weird sort of online fame already – a fame they are keen to exploit. Their plan? Well, get a group of locals together, rent a camera and get some basic sets and make themselves an amateur pornographic film. It is all business of course, but will even "performance" sex complicate Zack and Miri's relationship?

I live in a first floor flat on a busy junction in a part of Birmingham and, as well as being a cool place to be, I do get lots of direct marketing from the film posters on the buses going by within about 5m and just below my window level. This was not a particularly pleasant thing when I had to content with Rogen's goofy face every 5 minutes when this film was released – I'm not a big fan of him and I find him to be pretty one note but just happened to come along at the right time. However I was interested enough in Kevin Smith to go and check it out to see if he had managed to get better. It was no surprise (given the title) to find that he had certainly not grown up anymore because this is a film that relies heavily on crude jokes and sexual references above everything else.

This does the job for quite a while because the film is sporadically funny in a childish way. I suppose it will depend who you are because some people love this sort of thing whereas for me, it was just too obvious and forced – even if I still found it quite amusing. It wears off though because, talking of obvious and forced, the actual plot is really poor. It is not just that it is predictable (lots of films are "predictable" if you think about it) but it is more the way it trudges towards the obvious conclusion without worrying about whether or not the audience care (we don't) or if it rings true (it doesn't). The focus on crude jokes in the first half means that you don't really care about the characters and when Smith decides to go all doe-eyed in his plot then you just don't buy it and it only results in being unfunny and dull.

The cast all do the basics and there is only really one "good" performance in the film – which is from Banks. She has a natural presence which is sort of charming and she does work that well here. She isn't good enough to charm the film into being better (Rosario Dawson sort of managed it in Clerks 2) but she does reasonably well considering what is asked of her. Rogen does his usual stuff – if you like that then you will like this but for those who disliked him even once then this is more of the same. Mewes is amusing but his presence only reminds you how much funnier he was as Jay. Long is funny in his small turn and there are a couple of other good comic performances from others in the group as well.

Overall this film is just what we have sadly come to expect from Kevin Smith – a crude film that is funny but nowhere near funny enough to carry the whole film like he once did. The plot is poor and obvious but this will only irritate in the final third – up till then there are at least a hatful of crude laughs to be had if you like that sort of thing.

Seth and Liz Make a Comedy

[sol- · 7/10 · 24 September 2016]

Desperate to raise enough money to pay their mounting bills and rent, two platonic flatmates decide to film and star in a homemade pornographic movie, but things get complicated when they realise that they might really love each other in this lively Kevin Smith comedy. As usual, Smith litters the film with entertaining supporting characters, with Jason Mewes particularly interesting, repressing his Jay mannerisms to play an uninhibited amateur porn actor, and Justin Long as a gay professional in the business has rarely been funnier. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks also make for likable leads, however, the overall film comes off as a notch below Smith's par. Predictability is a key issue here as it is telegraphed from very early on that the protagonists will realise that they love each other and get jealous on set. More detrimental though is the way Smith allows sentimentality to overtake his penchant for quirky humour. Sentiment is not uncommon in Smith films; 'Mallrats' and 'Chasing Amy' (arguably his best movies) have sentiment in spades, but in both cases, it is squeezed in and around the kooky supporting characters and raunchy jokes. Here, the plot seems to halt whenever Rogen and Banks reassess their feelings for one another. Never to mind, 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno' has far more highs than lows. The makeshift movie studios, non-professional costumes and boom mike incidents are funny, the 'Star Wars' referencing is a lot of fun and the zany extras in the middle of the end credits ensure the film ends on a strong note.

Surprisingly heartfelt, but not as good as it could have been

[aidanratesmovies · 7/10 · 25 March 2020]

Although the film can be largely amusing throughout, Zack and Miri struggles to find a balance between its humor and plot without struggling. The film is largely full of some well thought out gags, many of which can lead to laughs, but as the film goes on, it seems to lose its sense of humor. The biggest problem with the film, is its predictability, which makes it frustrating to watch as time goes on and it finally makes it to the end. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks make for a great pair, however, and the two clearly capture the heartfelt energy the script does seem to be going for. At times, the emotional factor in the film can feel a bit forced, but by the end, it has you rooting for them all the way. In the end, Zack and Miri is not as good as a parody or a comedy as it could have been, but it is still full of a lot of laughs, and enough heart to satisfy, even if it doesn't always land in the right places. My Rating: 7.5/10

Not Smith's best, still worth a watch

[LazySod · 7/10 · 2 March 2009]

Zack and Miri are life long friends. They have known each other all their lives and have never been more than friends. They are also in dire straits - living in a run down apartment and failing the money to pay for the utilities or even the rent they know they'll be out on the street soon. So a plan is made - everyone knows that sex sells and that there is money to be made in the porn industry.

So, with the plan in hand, the film starts rolling as everybody involved starts working to make the plan work out. That this doesn't go easily from the word go should not come as a surprise - they are all amateurs after all. But that doesn't hold them back.

And so it goes. Porn in the making. In a typical Kevin Smith film the group sticks together and tosses the one after the other off-colored comment at each other whilst doing their best at making this odd situation work out. Also typical is the plethora of references to other films and the way it works out in a funny way.

All in all this film is a typical film for Smith who does an OK job, but nothing really brilliant like he did with Clerks. It's fun to watch, but I do hope for Smith that his next work is a little more spicy than this - he can do better than this.

7 out of 10 of the worlds worst porn films

Zack & Miri Make a Porno and also make you laugh

[rparham · 8/10 · 27 November 2008]

It is difficult to imagine a title that will more or less tell you almost everything major that happens in the movie you are about to see than Zack & Miri Make a Porno. The title pretty much sums up the whole film right there, in the broad strokes. But, as with most things, the meat is in the subtext. What the title doesn't tell you is that while making a porno, Zack & Miri, and their other accomplices, will make you laugh pretty hard. Zack & Miri Make a Porno may not be high art, but it is very funny movie, with a touch of heart to go along with it.

Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have been best friends for as long as they can remember. They live together, but in a completely platonic relationship, drive to work together and both attend their school reunion together. Things are a bit rough for them these days, though: their rather meager jobs are not bringing in enough money to keep the rent paid and all the utilities running. So, after running into an old classmate whose lover is the star of porno films in California, they hit upon a brilliant scheme to make some money: make a porno film.

In short order, they raise some capital from a co-worker (Craig Robinson), recruit a stripper, Stacey (Katie Morgan), Lester (Jason Mewes),a man who isn't afraid to expose himself, a cameraman (Jeff Anderson) and Zack and Miri plan to round out the cast themselves. However, in the process of getting down to business, Zack and Miri are realizing that their long-standing friendship may actually be something more, and can they manage to watch each other get it on with someone else after discovering that they may only want to be with each other.

One thing is certain: if you are not able to listen to frank jokes featuring almost every vulgar word in the English language, not to mention a fair dose of nudity and simulated sex, you should be looking elsewhere for an evening at the movies. Zack & Miri Make a Porno pulls few punches in these categories. If this is not an issue for you, then Zack & Miri will provide a plethora of laughs. As scripted by Kevin Smith, Zack & Miri is one hilarious joke after another, most of which comes from Smith's always impressive ability to weave some terrific conversations full of wit between his various characters. Zack & Miri Make a Porno, like all of Smith's best films, is all about the dialogue, and it works wonderfully, as always.

Seth Rogan is proving to be an actor who manages to give a performance that seems so completely unforced and natural. Zack, like many of Rogan's other roles, is a slice of life guy, and Rogen manages to make it seem like you are just watching a friend that you filmed around the house with a video camera. Elizabeth Banks is equally good in the role of Miri, and the two characters have a nice, natural chemistry, that evokes it's power when the two film their first sex scene for the porno, which Smith stages tastefully and scores with a great, unreleased song by Live. You know you care about what happens to these characters once this scene hits.

The supporting cast is strong, especially Robinson as Zack's co-worker who is principally interested in financing this film so he can see some women naked after being married for so long (A scene between his character and his wife late in the film is a riot) and Jason Mewes, no longer under the influence of drugs, proves that he will do almost anything in a film and gets plenty of laughs.

Zack & Miri Make a Porno is Kevin Smith's second turn at a film outside of his "View Askewniverse" series of films that he kicked off with Clerks, and it shows that Smith has ability to produce a funny film without exclusively relying on his old standby characters. In the process of doing so, he has crafted something that, if you can handle the racy nature of the material, will leave you in stitches.

Rude, crude,...

[exediselijah · 7/10 · 6 July 2021]

...and incredibly sweet.

I received an alert informing me the above review is too short, but when a bullseye wins the game do you keep shooting? Nossir.

Amateur Hour

[kenjha · 3/10 · 4 July 2010]

Struggling roommates come up with an idea to make a quick buck in this lame comedy. The script is amateurish and humorless. What's more, there isn't a single two-dimensional character here. Everybody is a caricature and the relationship between Rogan and Banks is never believable. In fact, all the characters are so crude and rude that they don't resemble really people. The film is based on the sophomoric premise that the f-word is funny, and that cramming multiple f-words into every line will make the film hilarious. Not only does the comedy not work at all, but the later attempt to turn the film into a touching romance falls completely flat.

Raunchy as can be but with a layer of sweetness

[nickzbekool · 10/10 · 10 September 2020]

Very funny movie that is both sexy, very unfiltered but some romance too. Don't let the title fool you very good movie. Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen play 2 cash strapped roommates who are in desperate financial trouble so they decide to make a porno. Once the cameras start rolling long repressed feelings begin to surface and things will no longer be the same. Also starring real life porn stars Traci Lords and Katie Morgan this is one great comedy that will have you laughing from start to finish. From the director of Clerks and Dogma Kevin Smith has made another dirty comedy classic!