At last heeding the demands of impassioned fanboys, Seth Rogen and Kevin Smith made a movie together. And though it could never have lived up to the expectations of diehard Kevin Smith fans, audiences will still laugh their asses off, and possibly hurl when they see how constipation can impact anal sex scenes.
The story is all in the title - two platonic friends, Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are broke and resolve to make a porn flick to pay the bills. If you've never seen Clerks.,"" ""Mallrats"" or anything from the Kevin Smith canon before, consider ""Zack and Miri"" to be your gateway drug. Audiences get a taste of the Jersey Trilogy staples, but the movie remains accessible for moviegoers who don't know what ""snoogans"" means.
Smith's raunchy dialogue colors every scene with a brown coat of filth and F-bombs. Plus the man's encyclopedic knowledge of sex acts adds legitimacy to a movie about filming them.
Unfortunately, Rogen doesn't get a chance to debate the semantics of ""Star Wars"" or comic book sex with a hetero lifemate. In fact, there are few inane conversations, which drove previous Smith films ""Clerks."" and ""Mallrats"" along in lieu of a plot. ""Zack and Miri"" spends little time on off-topic rants, something that Smith fans will sorely miss. Trimming the fat keeps the story moving, though, which means we get to see more porno action.
Smith still pours himself into the script, with evident dashes of personal history. For example, after losing their first batch of sets, Zack decides to shoot the movie in the coffee shop at night. ""Clerks."" was filmed late at night inside the convenience store that Smith worked at by day, and Zack and Miri's first foray into porn seems to borrow heavily from Smith's first foray into filmmaking. It makes you wonder how close ""Clerks."" was to being a porno set in a convenience store.
Since at this point we realize that Zack is an alternate universe version of Smith, we can guess how it ends. Smith has said that when he has sex with someone, he wants to marry them. Zack and Miri's scene together is passionate, adorable and awkward - an awkwardness that pervades the last half of the film. The chemistry in their complicated friendship is a testament to the acting chops of Banks and Rogen, solid even in the most absurd comedies.
The supporting cast is stellar but doesn't get nearly enough screen time. Jason Mewes is a horny, naked Jason Mewes, but not much else. Traci Lords barely gets enough on-screen time for us to recognize her as the celebrated porn star, while Jeff Anderson, the beloved Randal of ""Clerks.,"" only gets a cameo. Craig Robinson steals every scene he's in, but that's not nearly enough. At least he gets to be Oprah-rich.
The end result is a film that will leave you wanting more of everything: more of these characters, more raunchy dialogue and more graphic sex. It might end a bit prematurely, but what we get is still heaven.
Grade: AB
