Half-Ass Movie Review: Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Nov 17)
It’s always weird to see actual actors in Kevin Smith movies, and this one is no exception. Here, he’s pulled most of his cast from Judd Apatow’s entourage: Seth Rogen as Zack, Elizabeth Banks (the least convincing loser ever) as Miri, Craig (The Office) Robinson as Zack’s friend Delaney. There’s even a brief appearance by Apatow mainstay Gerry Bednob. Fortunately, these people are all very funny. Unfortunately, we’re used to them performing much smarter, making Smith’s dialogue look much worse by comparison.
What’s really jarring here is that their characterizations seem pulled from the Apatow canon. Seth Rogen is playing the same character he played in Knocked Up. Bednob plays the same character he played in 40-Year-Old Virgin. It would be lazy for a writer to repeat himself like that; it’s unforgivably so when one writer repeats another writer.
The fact is that Judd Apatow casts a long shadow over this type of comedy, and comparisons are going to be inevitable. Unfortunately for Smith, he doesn’t have the talent to shake those comparisons. Where Apatow and company write with a certain precision, Kevin Smith seems like a guy who’s just flinging poo at the wall and seeing what will stick. (Literally, in one Zack and Miri scene.)
And to an extent, Apatow satirizes a certain mentality, but it’s exactly that kind of mentality that Smith embraces. Apatow’s characters learn to become better people, Smith’s steadfastly refuse to learn anything because not having a job and smoking weed comprise a lifestyle to be honored. It’s all a little depressing. Apatow takes loving shots at these people, Smith uses them to take shots at everybody else. Of particular note is a scene at Zack and Miri’s High School Reunion (which for unnecessary plot contrivance purposes, takes place on the day before Thanksgiving), where Justin Long and Brandon Routh play a gay couple. The scene is played with a smug “Isn’t the idea of gay sex hilarious?” approach that replaces actual jokes. It’s the sort of thing that was played out halfway though the first episode of Will and Grace. The only thing that salvages the whole bit is Rogen’s reaction. Rogen comes off as an actual dumb guy who’s blazing new ground. “Oh my god, they argue just like people,” he says, which seems like how Kevin Smith probably reacted the first time he interacted with homosexuals.
Even if you can remove Apatow from the equation, Kevin Smith is in a rut. On the one hand, he knows what his fans want, and he delivers. On the other hand, what his fans want are dick jokes, gay jokes, and ass jokes, and that’s all he delivers. Oh, that and references to his previous movies.
(Dear Kevin Smith:
37. We get it. That’s enough now.
Love,
EJ)
And if I may drift into a nitpick for just a moment, I’m getting really tired of the way Smith puts logos for fake products on all of his characters so that he can sell replica clothing. As soon as you see a logo for Mooby or Ranger Danger or Nails Cigarettes, be assured that you can go to Hot Topics and buy that exact shirt. It was funny once, but right around the time the Buddy Christ figures started showing up, it just got crass and obvious. Obvious product placement is irritating. When you’re creating your own products to place, that’s just depressing. I mention this because you will be sick of the Monroeville Zombies logo before the movie is over.
I used to be a big fan of Smith’s. I have the Jay and Silent Bob action figures. I will still defend Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, in fact. It’s the most willfully stupid comedy I’ve ever seen, and it makes me laugh. And then I admired the way he closed the book on that continuity and declared a desire to move on. Said desire lasted for one movie, and then he returned with the shockingly unfunny Clerks 2. Maybe because it’s no longer inherently hilarious when people in a movie talk about other movies, maybe it’s because his few attempts at actually doing something with the camera were all directly stolen from episodes of Scrubs and then executed poorly, or maybe his “Us vs. Them” mentality finally crossed the line from funny to boring, but I hated this movie with a passion. I am still mad at the people who told me it was good.
Zack and Miri is nowhere near that bad, but it’s still a long way from good. The characters are too poorly developed to pack an emotional punch, so Smith trades on our familiarity with the other actors to sell it. Smith has made better movies, and so have the cast. Hell, Seth Rogen has written better movies. The cast does their best with sloppy material, but it’s really Smith regular Jason Mewes and Craig Robinson who provide the laughs here. Mewes’ standard profane motormouth performance remains hilarious, and Robinson is incapable of not being funny. (See: Darryl the warehouse manager, the bouncer from Knocked Up, or the sensitive hitman from Pineapple Express.) These two lift the movie, leaving the end result slightly more effective than it deserves to be.
Score: Two Beans
