Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a 2008 romantic comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, distributed by The Weinstein Company, and starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. It is Smith's second film (after Jersey Girl) not to be set within the View Askewniverse and the first not set in New Jersey. It was released on October 31, 2008. The poor box office performance of the film damaged Smith's relationship with producer Harvey Weinstein after Smith blamed Weinstein for not spending enough to market the movie, an allegation Weinstein denies.

The Plot

Zack Brown (Seth Rogen) and Miriam "Miri" Linky (Elizabeth Banks) are roommates in Monroeville, Pennsylvania (a Pittsburgh suburb). They have been friends since the first grade. Despite Miri working at the local shopping mall and Zack working at a coffee shop, they have not paid their utility bills in months, with Zack devoting much of his free time to a fanatic following of the Pittsburgh Penguins and his status in the community amateur hockey team, the Monroeville Zombies. After work, their water gets turned off before they go to their high school reunion.

At the reunion, Miri attempts to seduce her attractive former classmate Bobby Long (Brandon Routh), while Zack strikes up a conversation with Brandon St. Randy (Justin Long), who reveals that he is a gay porn star, and Bobby's boyfriend. After returning home from the reunion, the apartment's electricity is turned off. Inspired by a successful viral video that was filmed by a pair of teenage boys as Miri changed in Zack's place of work for the reunion (revealing that she wore unattractive underwear, "granny panties"), and emboldened by the cultural mainstreaming of pornographic entertainment, Zack convinces Miri that they should film a pornographic movie to earn money.

Gathering a group of acquaintances and hired help as the cast and crew, they decide to film a pornographic Star Wars parody, entitled Star Whores. Delaney (Craig Robinson), the film's producer and Zack's coworker, rents film equipment and a building to use as a studio. When they return to the studio after the first night of filming, the building is being demolished, with all the equipment and costumes inside. They are told that the man that rented it to them had run off with the money. Later at the coffee shop where Zack works, he realizes that his boss threatened to install a hidden camera, which Zack finds, and decides to use it to replace their lost film equipment. Zack retools his film to take place in the coffee shop, revamping the film to one with a coffee shop motif, Swallow My Cockuccino, and the group shoots the film after hours.

Despite their insistence that they would not let sex with each other affect their friendship, Zack and Miri soon develop romantic feelings for each other. When it comes time for Zack and Miri to have sex on camera, they find that instead of the clinical sex enacted by the actors in the other scenes, their interlude is romantic and heartfelt. Later that evening, Zack and Miri are at home when suddenly their apartment's electricity and water service return. The rest of the actors and crew show up and reveal that they pooled their resources to pay one month of their bills, and have come over to throw them a party.

At the party, one of the other actresses, Stacey (Katie Morgan) asks Miri if it is okay for her to ask Zack to have sex. Although Miri has realized that she has developed feelings for Zack, she tells her it is okay to ask him. When Stacey relates this to Zack, the two retreat to Zack's bedroom, much to Miri's dismay.

The next evening, Zack is preparing to film a scene between Stacey and another actor, Lester (Jason Mewes), that was supposed to have been with Lester and Miri. Zack is dismayed when Miri shows up and insists on shooting the scene as originally planned. In the back room, an incredulous Zack asks if she is doing this as a form of retaliation, pointing out that Stacey told him that Miri did not mind her sleeping with Zack. Miri corrects him, clarifying that she did not mind that Stacey merely made the offer to sleep with him. Perceiving this to have been some type of test, Zack admits that during the sex scene they filmed together, they were actually making love and that there was an emotional connection between them, and that he loves Miri. When Miri does not reciprocate, Zack storms out of the coffee shop, quitting the film and his job, and moves out of the apartment.

Three months later, Delaney goes to see Zack, who has moved on to an exterior concessions job at Mellon Arena during Pittsburgh Penguins games. Delaney convinces him to come to Delaney's home to see the unfinished movie and help complete it. Zack agrees, and as Delaney and the cameraman Deacon (Jeff Anderson) explain, Zack learns that Miri never filmed her sex scene with Lester. Zack goes to Miri's apartment and reveals to her that he never slept with Stacey; instead, they talked about Miri all night. He pours his heart out to Miri, proclaiming his love for her, which she reciprocates.

In the epilogue, the audience learns that Zack and Miri are married, and with the help of Delaney and his worker's compensation settlement, they start their own video production company, Zack and Miri Make Your Porno, which makes amateur videos for couples.

Reviews

Based on 105 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has a "fresh" rating of 65 percent and a mixed rating of 50% from "top" critics based on 34 reviews. Based on 31 reviews, Metacritic gave a score of 56, which equates to a "Mixed or average reviews" rating. Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune said the film, "pushes its R rating pretty hard, though as with most Smith characters this side of Silent Bob, there's a lot more raunch in the talk — the sheer, voluminous, often hilarious verbosity — than in the action." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie 3 stars out of a possible 4 stars and stated that, "Somehow Kevin Smith's very excesses defuse the material. He's like the guy at a party who tells dirty jokes so fast, Dangerfield-style, that you laugh more at the performance than the material." In retrospect, Smith explained why the film never fully caught on with the public and felt so "second-hand" by saying that, "Zack and Miri [Make a Porno] is literally me adulterating my own story...the story of how I made Clerks, with porn."

The Cast

Elizabeth Banks as Miri
 Seth Rogen as Zack
 Craig Robinson as Delaney
 Gerry Bednob as Mr. Surya
 Edward Janda as Customer

Jennifer Schwalbach Smith as Betsy
 Kenny Hotz as Zack II
 Brandon Routh as Bobby Long
 Anne Wade as Roxanne
 Justin Long as Brandon
 Tom Savini as Jenkins
 Jeff Anderson as Deacon