Zack and Miri Make a Porno or as I like to call it Zack and Miri make a subpar cliched film
When I first heard about Zack and Miri I almost immediately had a love/hate relationship with the film. On one hand I am a big fan of writer/director Kevin Smith but I am not a fan of Seth Rogen. So I was conflicted about seeing this film. Needless to say I have seen the film. To be completely honest I was not impressed in the least.
The movie is about two childhood friends, Zack Brown (Seth Rogen), and Miriam Linky (Elizabeth Banks), who in their mid twenties are working dull retail jobs and living together in an apartment in a Pennsylvania suburb. Soon the two are unable to pay the rent or utilities for their apartment. So in order to stave off their eviction and regain their utilities, the two decide to make a porno. That's basically the entirety of the plot.
The script for this film lacked much of what made me a fan of movies like Clerks and Dogma. Zack and Miri felt like a lazy attempt. Instead of the witty but vulgar jokes we've come to expect from Smith we get just blatant profanities and outrageous situations. It seems like he is trying to illicit laughter from the use of the F-word and sex toys as props such as lightsabers. This might work for maybe a 15 year old male audience but for everyone else it'll seem childish. I will admit there were one or two good lines of dialogue but they were few and far between. I mean Smith's movies never had the most sophisticated jokes but this movie just dumbed down all the jokes. The F-word seemed to pass as a punchline this time around. Smith seemed to try to cover the lack of any real meaningful dialogue with tits and cursing.
One of the few redeeming qualities of the film was that Rogen and Banks had a great chemistry together. They were two believable characters. That's about the only good thing I can really think of to say about the film. Even with that chemistry I couldn't seem to relate to the characters because they were written in such a way that made them seem like characters and not real people.
As is probably know already the film is a love story. But it's so cliche and cheesy it's painful to watch. From the start you can already predict the ending. Now you'll be saying it's the journey and not necessarily the destination so to speak. But the journey isn't really all the interesting either. The film is almost like "When Harry met Sally" ripoff but with no time period changes and more cursing. People say that "Jersey Girl" is Smith's worst film but I'd like to argue that and say that Zack and Miri is actually the worst. "Jersey Girl" although very textbook was enjoyable to watch and to be honest was kind of cute. But Zack and Miri is neither.
There really isn't much else I can say about the film. It doesn't have much substance so there isn't much for me to comment on. Smith films usually have lots of witty dialogue, which this film doesn't have. The plots are usually a bit deeper, the journey is usually a lot more entertaining. This movie seemed like smith trying to put as much profanity and nudity in a film and still get an R rating. Although it pains me to say it this movie is definitely a pass even for fans of Smith.
The movie is about two childhood friends, Zack Brown (Seth Rogen), and Miriam Linky (Elizabeth Banks), who in their mid twenties are working dull retail jobs and living together in an apartment in a Pennsylvania suburb. Soon the two are unable to pay the rent or utilities for their apartment. So in order to stave off their eviction and regain their utilities, the two decide to make a porno. That's basically the entirety of the plot.
The script for this film lacked much of what made me a fan of movies like Clerks and Dogma. Zack and Miri felt like a lazy attempt. Instead of the witty but vulgar jokes we've come to expect from Smith we get just blatant profanities and outrageous situations. It seems like he is trying to illicit laughter from the use of the F-word and sex toys as props such as lightsabers. This might work for maybe a 15 year old male audience but for everyone else it'll seem childish. I will admit there were one or two good lines of dialogue but they were few and far between. I mean Smith's movies never had the most sophisticated jokes but this movie just dumbed down all the jokes. The F-word seemed to pass as a punchline this time around. Smith seemed to try to cover the lack of any real meaningful dialogue with tits and cursing.
One of the few redeeming qualities of the film was that Rogen and Banks had a great chemistry together. They were two believable characters. That's about the only good thing I can really think of to say about the film. Even with that chemistry I couldn't seem to relate to the characters because they were written in such a way that made them seem like characters and not real people.
As is probably know already the film is a love story. But it's so cliche and cheesy it's painful to watch. From the start you can already predict the ending. Now you'll be saying it's the journey and not necessarily the destination so to speak. But the journey isn't really all the interesting either. The film is almost like "When Harry met Sally" ripoff but with no time period changes and more cursing. People say that "Jersey Girl" is Smith's worst film but I'd like to argue that and say that Zack and Miri is actually the worst. "Jersey Girl" although very textbook was enjoyable to watch and to be honest was kind of cute. But Zack and Miri is neither.
There really isn't much else I can say about the film. It doesn't have much substance so there isn't much for me to comment on. Smith films usually have lots of witty dialogue, which this film doesn't have. The plots are usually a bit deeper, the journey is usually a lot more entertaining. This movie seemed like smith trying to put as much profanity and nudity in a film and still get an R rating. Although it pains me to say it this movie is definitely a pass even for fans of Smith.
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