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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

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#1 of 1 Posted 11/10/08 3:06 PM

From harveykarten Posts 798 Last Feb-7
To All [Msg # 23553.1 ]

ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO

MGM
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B
Directed by: Kevin Smith
Written By: Kevin Smith
Cast: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Jason Mewes
Screened at: AMC 34th St., NYC, 11/8/08
Opens: October 31, 2008

Back in our own Victorian 1950s few girls would have sex with their dates, maybe not even with their steady boyfriends. If they did, it was not customary for women to boast of the achievement. Their mothers told them repeatedly, “Boys won’t buy the cow if the milk is free” Singles believed that there were two kinds of women: those who play around, and those whom men want to marry. The logic is that if you “give away” your body, the guy to whom you “gave” it would not consider you marriage material. Nowadays maxims like these are turned on their heads. Current theory is that people first become friends, then romantic partners, then have sex, and that final step evokes a desire for marriage. If you don’t believe that, see Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” about two people who are just friends, actually roommates, who would not consider themselves future marriage partners as that would ruin what they have together. When the two finally have six, bingo! The rules change. They realize at that point that they might have been in love all along. The romantic conclusion of the movie finds the guy proposing when his girl is sitting on the toilet. That may not be like dinner with champagne at New York’s Per Se restaurant, but for them it’s the ideal romantic touch.

Written and directed by Kevin Smith, whose “Clerks” and “Mallrats” would not be mistaken for Merchant-Ivory productions, “Zack and Miri” puts together a truly funny man, Seth Rogen, and a button-cute Elizabeth Banks as his roommate. As the title characters respectively, they live together platonically but their relationship is being tested by their empty pockets. Baristasa not paid like barristers, so the Starbucks-type coffee pourer, lights and water turned off and eviction threatened, figured there’s money to be made in porn: that citizens of Red states turn to it as much as those of us in the Blues, and that the most respected CEO staying at top hotels around the country will doubtless pay a little extra to receive the pics on TV with the babes they pick up at the bar.

Assembling a crew with coffee server Delaney (Craig Robinson) as producer, Lester (Jason Mewes) as a performer, and a bevy of bubble-type bimbos in the cast, they start shooting until the shack they rented from a scammer is torn down forcing them to use the coffee shop as studio. Much of the action is not unlike what you might expect in pornos (or so I’m told), but the whole point of the movie-making is to uncover the buried romantic feelings that Zack has for his roommate, Miri.

The movie barely ekes out an “R” rating (with the emphasis on bare), the “F” word is treated as though the actors get a dollar every time they use it, and most important, the new connection that the principals have with each other for mere titillation by the audience points the way to their true feelings. Seth Rogen, again with an Afro-style cut and beard, shows himself to be one of the funniest men in the movies today, the guy who may not be Brad Pitt but who wins the affection of hotties (in the audience as well) because he makes them laugh. Elizabeth shows a depth of acting as a highly attractive woman who can play Laura Bush as well as Miri Linky. As for those critics who say that the movie is “filthy,” hey—sex between consenting adults is not “filthy.” Getting splashed with poop as we see in many a movie today, is. Learn the difference. As for critics who say that the two halves of the movie do not mesh, that you cannot spin a romantic story out of a sophomoric comedy, the whole point of “Zack and Miri” is that you certainly can.

Rated R. 101 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

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