Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Kevin Smith, 2008)

[jt]

Has anyone actually seen the film yet?
I really don't want to be the Smith defender on this board, or be perceived as a troll but I've enjoyed some of Smith's films in the past and don't want to have to read through another 3 pages of Smith hating to see if anyone actually likes or dislikes this.
If anyone else is tempted to write something insightful like "Smith iz a HACK!!!', perhaps they could go over to the politics thread instead and tell us all how they think Sarah Palin is a bubblehead...

[moviscop]

Kevin Smith is an asshole.

I'm seeing the movie tomorrow.

[dx23]

Armond's almost unreadable review of this and HSM3.

Favorite line:

Kevin Smith would spell “art” with a capital “F.”

Funny, I always thought that's how Armond spells it.

That's really professional on Armond's part. Review to completely different films in one column that have nothing to do with each other and that are for 2 completely different crowds. Was the NY press running out of Internet or was he just being a lazy assclown again?

[mfunk9786]

All the snark I was prepared to throw at this movie was knocked down by the fact that it really had its act together. It's obviously not Oscar material, but it was sweet and funny, the former due mostly to the adorable Banks, and the latter due to the supporting cast (even Jeff Anderson). No obnoxiously over-the-top Smith antics here, thank goodness.

[exte]

So the rottentomatoes rating is too harsh then?

[mfunk9786]

I wouldn't go all that far. It's a sweet little three-stars-out-of-four movie.

[Joe Buck]

I thought about giving it a shot last weekend, but surprise, no theater in the area is showing it. Thanks Regal.

[domino harvey]

I guess you'll have to wait for it to hit DVD with eight different commentaries

[Joe Buck]

Hell yes! Get Affleck and Jason Lee in there too!

[Barmy]

This was fine. I slept through a bit of it--all of a sudden I awoke to a porn shoot.

Pullquote of the century: "Elizabeth Banks: I'd like to make a deposit."

[moviscop]

I enjoyed the love story aspect, but the film was just flat.

Stephanie Zacharek from Salon.com took the words out of my mouth:

The jokes are forced, almost mechanical, in their crudeness. They're so carefully placed that they feel a little precious rather than spontaneous, which ends up defying that impulsive, animal thing inside us.

[Antoine Doinel]

They still can't seem to make a good poster for this film.

[Antoine Doinel]

Smith bites the hand that feeds him.

[nsps]

Smith always has something to complain about. I remember in the early days of the Internet, like in '97 or something, Smith told all his View Askew readers to send angry emails to the WGA because they didn't give him credit for doctoring the straight-to-video Overnight Delivery. When the TV series of "Clerks" failed, he talked about how the Mouse was always out to screw him over, first with Dogma and now this. It gets old. This is a bit newsworthy, however, because he's always been one of Harvey's boys, and now he's bashing his marketing department.

The film itself had some laughs thanks to the cast, as someone else mentioned, but had a woefully clumsy screenplay. Smith's writing process seems to go something like this: "Hrm…I need to put more pop culture references in the film. How about LOST? OK, how'll I do this? I know! A completely random aside that doesn't grow organically out of the scene and also doesn't work as a conversation!" At least in his earlier work (and I'm no fan of that either), if the characters were going to have a conversation about "Star Wars," they had a real conversation about it. This is just plain lazy.

[Joe Buck]

I finally got around to seeing this. I wouldn't consider myself a Kevin Smith fanboy, but I have all his films on DVD and have enjoyed them all, with the exception of Jay and Bob Strike Back. I was very pleased with Clerks II.

This film was not what I had been expecting. It was not funny at all. I can think of maybe two times when I was tickled by something on the screen. In fact, I found more to laugh at during the deleted scenes on the DVD. Maybe better editing choices could have helped it. The film goes nowhere, just 90 minutes of Smith spinning his wheels. I might rank this even beneath Jay and Bob Strike Back in terms of entertainment value. Craig Robinson and that Indian Guy from 40 Year Old Virgin were the only bright spots in this thing for me. Rogan had nothing to work with. The story was D.O.A. And I saw more of Jason Mewes than I ever asked for (including his taint!).

In summary, very disappointed, the most disappointed I have ever felt following a Smith film. Hell, I even like Jersey Girl. Yeah, it doesn't take much to make me a happy viewer, but Smith totally missed my funny bone this time. A good cast, totally wasted by a lackluster script.

[Antoine Doinel]

And here's a new red band trailer, in which (unsurprisingly) the funniest thing in it is Craig Robinson.

So I got around to watching this last night, and the funniest thing in this film is Craig Robinson (and big points to Justin Long in his brief appearance as well). Otherwise, ZAMMAP is Smith at his most desperate, grabbing a handful of Apatow castways, trying his best to ape those productions and failing miserably. The biggest problem with the film is that it's emotional center is ridiculously false.

Spoiler

The entire third act is build around Miri "testing" Zack by saying it's ok if he sleeps with someone else because they are just friends and then proceeding to get pissed off because he actually does it. But in Smith's world, Zack is the one who has to apologize and tell Miri he loves her to make everything right (nevermind, that he already poured his heart to her earlier). Bullshit. Anyone with an ounce of dignity wouldn't take that treatment and certainly wouldn't try and track down the girl three months later.

If Smith had wanted to make a braver film or at least an original one, ZAMMAP would be about a couple who like each other but realize when they are shooting they are just not good together in bed, having to go through a variety of sexual partners to figure out how to please each other and what pleases themselves, strengthening their relationship. But Smith is still too stuck on giggling at boobies to bother, and the result is one of the more tiresome sex comedies I've seen in a while.