Revisting Kevin Smith’s Zack And Miri Make A Porno
We round up our Kevin Smith retrospective, as Zack and Miri get down to business...
“I’m a guy. You give me two popsicle sticks and a rubber band and I’ll find a way to fuck it like a filthy MacGyver!” – Zack
With his last film, Clerks II, Kevin Smith marked his last visit to the View Askewniverse with a visit to some old friends. And with the door firmly closed on them for the foreseeable future it was time to meet some new characters who lived somewhere other than New Jersey.
Friends since the first grade, Pennsylvanian roommates Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are facing a pile of unpaid bills. Miri works at the mall and Zack works in a local coffee shop, but they are unable to make ends meet and, as luck would have it, the night of their high school reunion their water gets turned off.
At the reunion, Miri seeks out and flirts with her old high school crush Bobby (Superman Return‘s Brandon Routh) while Zack inadvertently ends up striking a conversation with his boyfriend Brandon (Justin Long). After a disastrous night out the pair return home to find that their electricity has also been cut off. Inspired by his conversation with Brandon and the popularity of a YouTube video of Miri in her granny panties taken by two teenage customers at the coffee store, the pair decide to make a porno together to raise money for their bills.
With Zack’s workmate Delaney (Craig Robinson) as producer, they set about auditioning and end up with a rag-tag group including cameraman Deacon (Clerks’ Jeff Anderson), Stacey (real life porn star Katie Morgan), Bubbles (Traci Lords) and Lester (Smith favourite, Jason Mewes).
Together they decide to make a porn version of Star Wars called ‘Star Whores’. Delaney hires the equipment and rents a space to shoot in but when they arrive the next day the lot is being pulled down and the landlord has run off with their money. Down but not out, Zack remembers that their boss at the coffee shop always threatened to put in a hidden security camera which they find and decide to use instead, changing the setting from space to the store and re-naming the movie ‘Swallow My Cockuccino’.
With filming well underway it soon comes to Zack and Miri’s on-screen moment, and when the two finally come together it is far from fake. Later that evening, they are surprised by their friends (who have pooled their money together) when their water and electricity are turned back on. A party ensues and Stacey asks Miri if it is okay for her to sleep with Zack. Although she has feelings for him herself, she agrees and watches sadly as they go into his room.
The next evening the team is getting ready to film a scene with Lester and Stacey when Miri arrives, announcing she is ready to shoot the scene instead. A furious Zack accuses her of doing this just to get back at him and thinks it is some kind of test. He admits that he is in love with Miri, but when she fails to respond, he leaves, quitting the movie, his job and moving out of the apartment.
A few months later, Zack and Delaney meet up again and Delaney tells him that Miri never filmed the scene with Lester. With this news he seeks out Miri and admits he never actually slept with Stacey and they spent the night talking about her. The two finally admit that they love each other and the sound of wedding bells is not far behind, along with their new business, Zack and Miri Make Your Porno.
In many ways, I consider this movie to be Smith’s first real studio movie and there are a number of reasons I say that. Firstly, it stars two of Hollywood’s hottest properties of the moment, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, actors who had never worked with Smith before, and whose presence gave names to put above the title.. Although previously Smith had starring leads (Ben Affleck, most notably) they were already part of the Askewniverse and although their stars had risen, they were still part of the family.
There is also the script which really is widened out for a larger mainstream audience. Gone are the in-jokes and past shared histories from his previous movies and in comes a more broad and wide ranging completed story. And although there are pros and cons to the change in Smith’s style, which in this movie has become far more slick and Hollywood, it is a step he has needed to take both creatively and personally. His filmmaking has grown up, as has his core audience.
Rogen and Banks are likeable enough as the leads, but it is their co-stars who really steal the show. Jeff Anderson keeps his sarcastic persona of Randal from Clerks and is spot on as cameraman Deacon. Jason Mewes puts in a fine performance as Lester and manages to leave the shadow of Jay behind, and Justin Long and Brandon Routh play their roles of gay porn stars perfectly, with extra special mention to Justin Long who I thought was hilarious.
As always, Smith’s influence and distinct style of writing is felt throughout the movie and, although the ending is predictable, you have had enough laughs along the way to more than make up for it.
Although not my favourite of Smith’s films, I think it really was the right film for him at the right time. His next project, A Couple Of Dicks, will be the first he has been director only on and I can’t help but feel he has honed his style in this picture more than any other.
So what’s next for Kevin Smith? Well, as I mentioned, he has just finished shooting A Couple Of Dick’s and he has another couple of movies bubbling away in the background including horror Red State and hockey comedy-drama Hit Somebody.
Whatever the future may hold, however, I will gladly put down my £10.00 to watch any and all of his future projects. And I suspect I’m not alone…
Zack And Miri Make A Porno Key Info:Released: 18th September 2008 (US)/14th November 2008 (UK)Distributed By: The Weinstein CompanyBudget: $24,000,000Box Office Gross: $36,851,125Best DVD Edition: Zack And Miri Make A Porno (2 Disc Edition)
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