“Zack & Miri Make A Porno” is a tender and offensive romantic comedy with an awkward love story that is hard not to like.

But there’s a clear reason this movie originally received an “NC-17″ rating, it was changed to a “R” rating after an appeal to the MPAA.

*** THIS MOVIE IS NOT FOR KIDS *** (I don’t know if I can make it any more clear)

BEWARE: FEW PEOPLE WILL TOLERATE THIS MOVIE – PEOPLE WHO AREN’T EASILY OFFENDED BY EXPLICIT ADULT JOKES… AND KEVIN SMITH FANS…

ALSO: I’M REMINDING KEVIN SMITH OF HIS OWN ADVICE (see below “THE BOTTOM LINE”)….

“Zack & Miri Make a Porno”

(2008) (rated: R (on appeal, originally NC-17) for strong crude sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity and pervasive language) (1 hr, 41 min)

Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Seth Rogen, Jason Mewes, Brandon Routh, Justin Long, Jeff Anderson, Ricky Mabe, Craig Robinson, Katie Morgan, Traci Lords

Director: Kevin Smith

Genre: RAUNCH-ROM-COM (Raunchy/Romantic/Comedy)

The Plot: Lifelong platonic friends Zack and Miri look to solve their respective cash-flow problems by making an adult film together. As the cameras roll, however, the duo begin to sense that they may have more feelings for each other than they previously thought.

MY TAKE:

Its rare to feel like you saw a nice romantic comedy and feel dirty afterwards… this is one of those times you feel both.  This movie goes for the shock… and keeps going.  Kevin Smith has had controversy follow him before with “Dogma”… and this is sure to envoke more for the filmmaker.

This is the most over-the-top raunchy romantic comedy this year... that tried to be different from other ROM-COMS, other RAUNCH-COMS, and one of Kevin Smith’s last movies.

It has a love story, but its not as mushy as “Jersey Girl”, but with more vulgarity and sexual references than any other Kevin Smith movie… even more than recent RAUNCH-ROM-COMS “40 Year Old Virgin” and “The Heartbreak Kid”.

Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen join Kevin Smith and his friends Jason Mewes and Jeff Anderson for this movie that could have had an alternate title: “Jay and Silent Bob Make a Porno”. Jay’s (Jason Mewes) full frontal nudity scene could have been worse – it could have been Silent Bob naked – and we know nobody wants to see that.

Banks is good in her role as the long-life friend and apple of Rogen’s eye, but Rogen seems to be playing the same character we’ve seen before in his other movies… or he’s not acting and just being himself.

Craig Robinson (Daryl from “The Office”) steals the scenes he’s in with one-liners and his cracked wisdom.

The relationships between the characters were well-developed, the storyline was good, the shooting/editing was good, but the adult themes took away from the plot… themes that could have been cut down to be “PG-13″ or a softer “R”… without hurting the story.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

While this movie gets back to what Kevin Smith and his fans are used to, it could have been better if it wasn’t so close to being NC-17 with its pornographic content… I give it 6.0 out of 10…. and I’d like to remind Kevin Smith of his own advice from his 2001 movie “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” when Holden McNeil (played by Ben Affleck) says “why in God’s name would I want to keep writing about characters who’s central preoccupation is weed… and dick and fart jokes… you gotta grow man!”

Also check out the preview by Jeffrey Lyons (NBC) – coincidentally, he uses “tender” and “raunchy”

So what did you think?  Please post a comment!

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“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” poster courtesy The Weinstein Company

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