Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Review in a Hurry: Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks star as friends facing eviction from their crappy apartment who decide to make a porno to pay their bills. While not exactly deep, writer-director Kevin Smith turns this strangely sentimental sex-for-money tale into his funniest movie in years.
The Bigger Picture: Zack and Miri are complete losers—underemployed, unloved, constantly broke, and best friends who have never, ever, ever entertained thoughts of doing the horizontal mambo. Ever. But after a chance meeting with a gay adult film star at their high school reunion (a hilarious cameo by Justin Long), they decide porn is the answer to their money woes. They enlist a band of part-time erotic performers to help. Many, many sex jokes follow.
Zack is the standard Rogen character, a surprisingly articulate slacker, while Banks makes Miri believable as a former ugly duckling turned hot swan. They don't have much chemistry, but that's not as important as their comic timing.
Just like good porn, the movie delivers scene after scene of tension and release, and you leave the theater happy. And maybe a little tired.
The 180—a Second Opinion: From the casting to one totally disgusting poop joke, it almost looks like Smith set out to make a Judd Apatow flick. But the humor feels more heartfelt than the talk about love that follows it.