Review of Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) by Elian D — 10 Sep 2012

I have to admit...I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I'm not a big fan of Seth Rogen at the best of times but I think I can safely say this is his best role so far.

The trailer pretty much tells you everything you need to know - two long time friends find themselves in deep financial difficulties so they decide that their best option is make their own porno...featuring themselves and a rag tag group of 'actors' and production staff. Predictably, what starts out as an attempt to make money becomes a reason for the two leads to look at each other with different eyes and realize that they are perfect for each other etc etc etc.

Funnily enough, its the support cast that makes this film for me. Craig Robinson is pure genius...pretty much every line he says made me laugh. He was closely followed by Justin Long who had a SEVERELY limited screen time...I would quite happily have watch his deep voiced, drama queen persona for 90 minutes straight and would have loved every minute of it.

Jason Mewes was naturally included in this feature and (considering this was the first I've seen him outside of his Jay persona) I was quite happy with his performance. Jeff Anderson was ok but could have done with some dialogue...and that's about it. Every one else did a pretty good job but didn't really do anything to stand out from the crowd.

Although I've seen this type of romantic comedy over and over again (quite a few of them with Seth Rogen) I do honestly think that there's something unique about this particular one that would make me pick it over all others - maybe it's the fact that you can definitely see Smith expanding his repertoire of directing skills with more camera angles and less slap sticky overtones, or maybe it's because the love scene between Rogen and Banks genuinely struck a chord with me (I'm an old romantic...so f*cking sue me). Either way, I would pick this over the usual drivel that we usually see like 'Knocked up' or 'Life as we know it' - it's simple, it's funny and it's straight forward. Overall, another worthy Kevin Smith addition.