BEFORE: Seth Rogen carries over from last night, but I move from struggling comedians to wanna-be porn actors. After this, I'll have seen every Kevin Smith film except "Chasing Amy" (scheduled for February) and "Cop Out" (which I just taped off of cable tonight).
THE PLOT: Lifelong platonic friends Zack and Miri look to solve their respective cash-flow problems by making an adult film together.
AFTER: Hmm, I'm kind of torn on the premise of this one. On one level, it's a round-about way to flip the standard Hollywood love story on its ear - there are plenty of cases where sex between two characters comes first, and then love follows. Hell, for that matter there are plenty of cases where simulated movie sex comes first, and then a relationship between the actors follows. So in a sense that sort of justifies it.
But, story-wise it's a long leap from "We're short on the rent money" to "Let's make a porno film." It seems there should be some steps in-between, like getting a better job, or volunteering for medical experiments.
There is some heart here in the love story, if you can see past all the dick jokes, and ass jokes. But bad acting, even intentional bad acting in the film-within-a-film, can still be painful to watch. Seth Rogen's delivery seemed more sincere in "Funny People", which was shot a year later. Maybe they just chose some of the wrong takes - Kevin Smith acted as his own editor on this film, which to me often seems like a conflict of interest. As much as I support his indie spirit, another eye in the editing room might have chosen different takes. (Same goes for Kevin Smith's tweets, which are desperately in need of some editing)
While not set in Smith's usual Askew-niverse, this could also have easily been "Clerks 3", with Rogen in the Dante role, if Dante and Randall had moved from Mooby's to the coffee shop, and if Rosario Dawson had been available. 50% of the main cast of "Clerks" was in this film, anyway.
And the "Star Wars" porn spoof attempted in this film is actually possible, as long as Mr. Lucas' lawyers don't find out about it. The same parody laws that protect song samplers and comedians have now made it possible for there to be porno versions of everything from "Three's Company" to "The Brady Bunch", and from "CSI" to "Star Trek". Come on, you know Kirk was boning every alien chick he could, now you can actually see him (or a facsimile of him) doing it. Too much city and not enough sex in "Sex and the City" for your taste? Just watch the porn version...
Also starring Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Brandon Routh, Justin Long, Jason Mewes, with cameos from Jim Norton, Traci Lords, Tyler Labine, and Tisha Campbell-Martin.
RATING: 6 out of 10 sacks (of coffee beans!)
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