Kevin Smith, the writer and director, has a genius that is hard to deny. He writes honestly about how he feels, in a plain, straight-forward style. Of course, what he feels is a) a sweet adoring love for the beer-drinking, just one of the guys type women, and b) an adolescent glee at foul language and filthy jokes.
Just like many, many other people (both men and women) of his generation.
“Zack and Miri Make A Porno” made me laugh, and it made me wish I was Seth Rogen, and made me wish I knew a woman like Elizabeth Banks. Every character in the movie had at least one moment where I busted out a laugh. And even though I detected a strong hint of a double-standard (one of the plot points involves comparing the number of other people Zack and Miri get to have sex with in the course of making their porno), I think that that’s simply more Kevin Smith honesty. And, like a comedy is supposed to, it all turns out well.
The plot itself is thin and essentially summed up in the title – but the comedy all comes from the characters themselves.
Two points of interest when I saw this movie: a pair of women, one of whom was dressed head-to-toe in what appeared to be a modern version of a burkha, walked out of the movie after less than an hour. I wonder what, exactly, they expected based on the title of the movie, and why that surprised them? I’m probably assuming that they were Muslim, and I’ll admit to not being very tuned in to religious concerns, but I don’t recall any specifically anti-Islamic jokes in the movie. My thought is that they were turned off by the overall language and tone, though I could be wrong.
At least they didn’t stay long enough to see the shit that happened to Jeff Anderson’s character (who is more famous as Randal from “Clerks”).
Second, after the credits rolled (I always stay to the end of the credits), a couple were looking for something that had fallen out of one of their pockets, and the guy said to the girl, “Tell me something. If I just finished watching a fucking Kevin Smith movie, why is it that most of the trailers were for chick flicks? I don’t get it.” The girl laughed and said she had no clue.