Zack and Miri Make A Porno

The 2008 comedy stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks and is helmed by veteran director, Kevin Smith. Zack and Miri are two slacker best friends who are unable to pay for the basic necessities of their apartment like water and electricity. After encountering a gay porn star at their high school reunion, they decide making a porno will solve all their financial problems. However, opting to star in the film as well happens to be their demise when sex complicates their long-lasting friendship.

Zack and Miri Make A Porno is amusing to a point. The comedy is raunchy and explicit, however one can conclude as much from the title alone. There’s a lot of mild funny but only one big laugh out loud moment (I won’t ruin it, but it involves feces). Jokes like Star Whores and Justin Long’s cameo role as gay porn star Brandon St. Randy almost make the film worth the price of admission (see youtube clip below). The humor ends where the plot begins. Zack and Miri easy-going relationship made more complicated by sex comes off as a contrived attempt to bring an emotional storyline into the mix. Not only does it falls flat, but also halts the production of the porno and leads us to an uninspired and unfulfilling ending.



Little cultural introspection can be drawn from the events of the movie, but the controversy that took place in the real world says a lot. The initial movie poster showing both Zack & Miri possible receiving oral sex was banned by the MPAA, forcing producers to smartly release a new poster with stick figures and the clever tag ‘Seth Rogen & Elizabeth Banks made a porno so titillating, this is all we could show’. Even with the change many outlets refused to display the poster or even show the movie due to the word “porno”, however the same outlets had no trouble promoting the graphically violent Saw 5, which was released the same weekend. Despite the increasing liberal attitudes towards sex, America still finds the subject somewhat more taboo than supporting the portrayal of horrific and senseless violence.

THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE:
The only two black characters in the film come off as stereotypical archetypes. The first being Craig Robinson who plays Zack’s co-worker at the coffee shop and producer due to his financial contributions. Near the end, Robinson’s character becomes “Oprah rich”. One could see this as a positive portrayal of a black man’s success, however Robinson’s character doesn’t get this money from working hard. Instead, he wins a lawsuit. And even worse, he is counting on the lawsuit so he can quit his job. The Stereotype: Lazy Negro looking for a handout. Robinson’s character also comes off as sensitive to perceived racial jokes. When a white customers asks for ‘coffee, black’, Robinson tells him, “after I’m talking, white’. He also calls his boss racist for asking him to work on Black Friday. No doubt a response to the common stereotype in black films of the unmercifully racist white lady who clutches her purse and gladly calls blacks niggers.

The second character is Delaney’s wife, played by Martin’s Tisha Campbell-Martin. Despite the surprise cameo and Tisha’s aggressive performance, this character is a worse perpetrator of racial stereotypes than Robinson. Tisha curses relentlessly, screams, is overly sexualized (even asking Rogen if he wants to sleep with her), and in a short, a raging bitch. The angry mad black woman stereotype has never been shown this forcefully and frankly, both Tisha & Kevin Smith should be ashamed for having been apart of it.

Extras:

Zack and Miri Make A Porno topped the box office it's first three days of release, the first time ever for Kevin Smith. It opened #2 behind High School Musical 3: Senior Year becoming the second biggest opening weekend for Smith behind Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. However, the film eventually surpassed Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back to become Smith's most successful theatrical release. 

Rating: 
= 2 Stars

 = 1 Black Fist