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Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) More at IMDbPro »

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188 comments in total

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103 out of 142 people found the following comment useful :-
Sweet, funny, and endearing, 31 October 2008

Author: C-Younkin from United States

For those that don't already know, the second half to that "Zack and Miri" title is "Make a Porno", three little words that have caused a lot of fuss lately. In addition to being deliberately shortened on TV, Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) has had to fight for even the R-rating, a teaser trailer had to be removed from his website, the posters for the flick were so raunchy that the characters could only appear as stick figures(of which Seth Rogen is assuredly not), and already certain theaters have decided not to show it while openly showing Saw V and Max Payne without a moments hesitation. All this for one of the years nicest romantic comedies. "Zack and Miri" is vintage Kevin Smith, blending the cheerily offensive with heartfelt sentimentality, and while its nothing groundbreaking or even terribly gratuitous (sure there are some cock and ball, ass, and boob shots but what comedy doesn't have those now-adays), it's also one of Smith's most successful attempts with the formula.

Seth Rogen plays Zack and Elizabeth Banks plays Miri, two best friends living in a crummy little apartment in Pittsburgh. The bills are stacking up , the heat and electricity have been turned off and they're about to be thrown out on their ass. What do two struggling thirty-somethings do? While crashing their High School reunion, they discover that the school's former Quarterback (Superman Return's Brandon Routh) is actually gay and the boyfriend of gay porn star Brandon (Justin Long). This gives Zack an idea and after ruminating over it for a night, he and Miri both decide that a cheap porno is the only way to solve their money woes. They enlist the help of Zack's coffee shop co-worker Delaney (Craig Robinson) to be producer and also bring on a rag tag team of actors (Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, and Ricky Mabe), first to shoot the movie "Star Whores" with such characters as R2-Teabag, Hung Solo, and Darth Vibrator and then when that encounters a shooting problem, they decide to do a coffee shop porn called "Swallow my Cock-Ucinno".

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, or nervously auditioning porn stars, he's the funniest character in the movie hands down. A close second is Justin Long, hilariously flamboyant and filled with gay pride to the point of being applause-worthy, this character deserves his own movie. And Jason Mewes is at his crude best in every scene he's in. "Zack and Miri" gets very good performances from everybody and it manages to do what a lot of romantic comedies this year have not been able to do, which is earn the laughs and earn the love of it's two characters. It's funny, fun, and you don't even need a condom to enjoy it. Let's see "Max Payne" try to make a similar claim.

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107 out of 176 people found the following comment useful :-
Deceptive. Absolutely sweet while still being dirty as you can get., 30 October 2008

Author: Splinter_Spy from United States

I love deceptive marketing campaigns. Usually, they make movies hit-or-misses financially, but deceptive marketing shows a lot of faith in a film, which is what every viewer should have in this one. Have faith in the fact that this film, despite being controversial and borderline wrong in some parts, is one of the funniest and sweetest romantic comedies of the decade. What happens when you mix Kevin Smith's witty and snappy dialog with the outrageous humor of a guy like Seth Rogen? Pure brilliance, that's what.

Z&M is a movie of depth and emotion. Yes, I'm talking about the movie with the extremely blunt title. What I like about both of our 'names', Smith and Rogen, is that no matter how raunchy they get, no matter how much they cross the line, they have a habit of making their films have real heart. It's the same here, and it looks like everyone involved had fun making the film...in every sense of the word...

What makes the movie work so well is the amazing platonic and romantic chemistry of the two leads, Rogen and Elizabeth Banks (who is quickly becoming one of my favorites). I can't think of two performers who have skyrocketed more in terms of fame over the last three years, and to see them together again after The 40 Year Old Virgin was a good treat. They work so well together that I found myself smiling at them in pretty much every scene they share (or, 80% of the movie), and it makes the experience so much better. They really make you feel comfortable and warm inside (I can hear the sex jokes coming already).

It's not just our wonderful leads that make the movie great, it's performers like Jason Mewes (playing a variant of his usual 'Jay' character), Jeff Anderson, and Craig Robinson that really help, because any scene without Banks & Rogen together has Robinson or Mewes, who form a type of foundation for the great performances of Banks & Rogen. Of course, the film features a few porn stars and a few cameos as well, the best coming from Justin Long and Brandon Routh. I was dying.

Of course, not only do you get heart with Rogen and Smith, but you get surefire jaw dropping jokes that will make you say, "did they really just do that?". One of the jokes I'm speaking of comes at Jeff Anderson's expense. The vulgarity of Rogen's comic style, mixed with Smith's wicked fast writing is the perfect compliment and a great recipe for laughter. Z&M certainly won't deliver as many laughs as films like Superbad or Knocked Up, but that's mostly because the film is more serious, desperate, and shorter (but of course, still very light hearted).

I guess the only thing I didn't like was the lack of resolution with the subplot of the actual porno, but that's just wishful thinking, as the end is more than satisfying (as well as clever and hilarious). People are obviously going to be hesitant about seeing this movie because of the blunt title and risqué plot, which in of itself is hilarious, but these reluctant people need to realize that the sex is outweighed by the love, and the raunch outweighed by the righteousness. Zack & Miri Make A Porno is one of the best romantic comedies of the decade, as well as of the year. It's a fun, sweet, heartfelt raunchfest that will leave you laughing your ass off and having a good time. It's the perfect date movie if the person you're taking is receptive to the idea of seeing a movie like this.

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149 out of 263 people found the following comment useful :-
Jesus.....it was great, 20 September 2008

Author: xxbogginxx from United States

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.

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69 out of 105 people found the following comment useful :-
View Askew and Apatow Peeps Make an Awesome Movie., 2 November 2008

Author: misterembryo from United States

Thanks to the aptly named title, brilliantly appointed by Kevin Smith (writer, director, and creator of the View Askew Universe), you go into the film with a certain mindset, a dirty one to be exact. This follows the explicit what-you-see-is-what-you-get nature of every pornographic film title, a fact that offers hilarious moments as Zack and Miri are eventually faced with the difficult task of creating a movie title that says it all.

Yes, Zack and Miri Make a Porno is exactly that, Zack and Miri making a porno. And believe you me, there is plenty of potty mouth to go around. But as dirty as the movie is, you will be surprised and delighted to find that this is a movie with a lot of heart, and as with all Kevin Smith pieces, a great deal of brain (no pun intended).

Zack and Miri have been BFF's since the first grade, which has rendered their relationship strictly platonic. They have never really amounted to much since graduating high school ten years ago, but know that deep down inside they are really much better than the others, or at least tell themselves that.

At the high school reunion, Zack and Miri have to endure the inevitable: the mindless chitchat and feigned nostalgia. The only reason Zack goes is to laugh at people, while Miri goes to show her high school crush what a hottie she's become. To Zack the night is a success, thanks to a hilarious cameo by Justin Long, while Miri's night doesn't quite go as planned. What they come away with is the realization that they really need to do something with their lives, if only to save them from their economic crisis, a story that is not uncommon in America these days. You guessed it. They make a porno.

As silly as it sounds, there is something truly heartfelt, albeit raunchy, about watching Zack and Miri and the rest of their crew make their porn movie. It's kind of like watching Mark Borchardt make his low budget horror flick in the hilarious documentary American Movie, only the porn Zack and Miri and company make is quite possibly the worst porn ever made (okay, okay that may be an exaggeration but you get my point).

All around is a job well done by the cast and cameos. Seth Rogan plays the everyman to a "T" and Elizabeth Banks shines as the high school outcast turned hottie. Their chemistry as platonic friends is golden, and sparks truly fly when their true feelings finally come to light. You'll see familiar faces from both the View Askewniverse and the Apatow family, creating pure hilarity as both of these comic forces collide.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is less about making a porno than it is about everyday people finding their niche in life. Their niche in life just so happens to be making pornos. Zack and Miri Make a Porno can be synonymous to Joe Six-Pack Becomes a Professional Wrestler, or Joe the Plumber Makes Over $250,000 a Year. Venues who opted not to show this film, I feel are overreacting a bit. Although Kevin Smith's latest certainly lives up to the name, what we ultimately get is a feel-good movie. And a feel-good movie has never felt so good. In the end, Zack and Miri made a porno, and Kevin Smith made an awesome movie.

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55 out of 94 people found the following comment useful :-
A Porno with Plot and Feelings, 27 October 2008

Author: noldcw from Nashville, TN

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).

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40 out of 65 people found the following comment useful :-
film's content is risky but it works, 5 November 2008
Author: Special-K88

Zack and Miri are platonic best friends, roommates, and underachievers who've known each other since the first grade; they're both perfectly happy with their below average status that is until they find themselves eyeball deep in debt and facing the threat of eviction. The solution? Make an adult video hoping it will provide the financial stability they 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 genuine and believable analysis of the frailties prevalent in a male-female friendship. Not always uproariously funny but easily likable with a script that challenges viewers to keep count of enough sexually explicit dialogue for three films! Rogen and Banks have great chemistry. ***

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33 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
Zack & Miri Make a Porno and also make you laugh, 27 November 2008

Author: rparham from Gainesville, Florida

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.

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20 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Basic romantic comedy, 3 December 2008

Author: gemy_o from Finland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Hugh Grant-love story with a porno twist put into it. Some good jokes, but not hilarious.

Zack and Miri should have just hooked up first and then continued their lives in making more porno. Why try to make it seem like they wouldn't get back together in the end? So predictable!! The movie could have elaborated on the lives of Zack and Miri beyond the porno, and the "i love you, i love you not"-drama. It would have made for a better comedy and out ruled the clichés of romantic comedy.

The movie seemed done by the book. There was a montage-scene which seemed irrelevant. What i was expecting were really funny jokes, but the only funny character REALLY was Justin Long's character.

Had they done the original star whores the movie in a movie could have been more comedic, but no... Or just finished the movie!! Hmm... The whole movie was irritating in the end.

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44 out of 80 people found the following comment useful :-
Do Not Leave the Theater Before the Bluescreen, 9 November 2008

Author: Arel

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.

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23 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
Zack and Miri Make a Porno Movie Review from The Massie Twins, 31 October 2008

Author: joel massie (GoneWithTheTwins) from www.GoneWithTheTwins.com

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Kevin Smith's name has become almost irreversibly linked with hilariously vulgar dialogue and the notions of pushing the boundaries of good taste in comedy. And while Zack and Miri definitely contains a few scenes of Smith's trademark atrocities, it never really hurdles over that line of decency that is practically expected, nor does it relish in the typically volatile conversations notorious in his previous work. For better or for worse, Zack and Miri just isn't that funny. And since it's coming from Kevin Smith, the latter is more likely.

Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have been platonic friends for as long as they can remember. After heavy misuse of funds and a degrading revelation at their high school reunion, the duo realizes they are in desperate need of money. In a mad scheme to alleviate the burden of their financial blunders, they concoct a plan to make an adult movie. Recruiting a coworker (Craig Robinson) to produce, an unscrupulous cameraman (Jeff Anderson) to film, and a few uninhibited actors and actresses to perform (Jason Mewes, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, Ricky Mabe), everything seems to be going according to plan - until Miri finds herself falling for her costar.

Ever since Clerks, Smith has reveled in the art of crafting vulgar conversations mixed with a touch of humanity, a helping of sincerity, and almost no decency. With Zack and Miri the back-and-forth banter feels a little too forced, as if Smith's characters curse just to add a little pronunciation to key words in the topics they discuss, rather than allowing the subject matter to create the laughs for itself. Many of Zack's retorts to Miri feel unfulfilled and never fully exploited for their full comedic potential. The numerous gay jokes stale quickly, the porn parodies are recycled, and arguments with the temperamental coffee shop boss feel borrowed from early Apatow films. Smith's clever way with words does seep into a few conversations, but not nearly enough.

Smith is known for his outlandish and MPAA-rating-pushing dialogue. But in Zack and Miri, Seth Rogen sounds like he wrote his lines himself, spitting out the verbiage that we're familiar with from Knocked Up and Superbad. And Elizabeth Banks refrains from overly offbeat sexual conversations altogether. By the time the film wraps up with its incredibly commonplace boy-loses-girl plot, there are few genuine Kevin Smith laughs. In fact, once the love story takes over around the midway point, barely any humorous scenes exist at all. It's as if he forgot what makes his own films so popular.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno provides a more tantalizing mental image than it visually paints on screen. The idea is stimulating, but the execution is stale. Surrounding a musty love story with the principally clumsy (and only occasionally sexy) conception of pornography sounds interesting in theory. But only until that bland true love bit awkwardly surfaces. For it's the romance buried amidst the random vulgarities that the movie really wants to single out - unfortunately that's not the amusing part of Kevin Smith's film-making.

- The Massie Twins

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