Genre: Comedy
Director: Kevin Smith
Cast: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, Ricky Mabe, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes
RunTime: 1 hr 42 mins
Released By: GV
Rating: R21 (Sexual Content And Crude Humour)
Official Website: http://www.zackandmiri.com/

Opening Day: 4 December 2008

Synopsis:

Zack and Miri are two lifelong friends who are deep in debt and enlist the help of their friends to make a porno movie for some quick cash. But as everybody starts "doing" everybody, Zack and Miri realize that they may have more feelings for each other than they previously thought.

Movie Review:

Make no mistake- Zack and Miri have made a romantic comedy. Their story is of two lifelong platonic friends who suddenly realise they may have more feelings for each other than they had imagined.

But also make no mistake about this- Zack and Miri is a Kevin Smith film. So it will take the couple to star in their own self-financed pornographic film for them to realise that they are actually in love with each other.

Yes Kevin Smith is no stranger to controversy (think Clerks, Dogma or Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). Before this movie opened, some cinema owners in Utah refused to screen the movie saying that it will be too crude for viewers. But don’t let that piece of news, or for that matter, the title of this movie turn you off for one bit. Because Zack and Miri is easily Kevin Smith’s most accomplished work to date.

Apatow regular Seth Rogen plays Zack, a scruffy slacker dude (isn’t that usually the case with Seth) working at a Starbucks-like coffee shop called Bean N Gone. His co-worker Delaney (Craig Robinson) is an unhappy husband, no thanks to his verbally explosive wife. The two have great banter, especially in the opening few minutes where they argue with their boss- Delaney accusing his boss of being racist by asking him to work on Black Friday. (How about Nigger Tuesday, he retorts.)

Zack and his decade old flat mate Miri (Elizabeth Banks) however are soon forced to confront their economic woes. They have not paid their bills in months and the water and electricity in their apartment has just been shut off. Desperate for a way out, they turn towards an unlikely source of inspiration- courtesy of a proud star of gay porn named Brandon (Justin Long) whom they meet at their tenth year school reunion and enlightens them of the profitability of the pornography enterprise.

Roping in Delaney as their producer-financier, they start putting together the pieces for their maiden film project, a shining example of amateur filmmaking. And this is where writer-director Kevin Smith really has a field day, from choosing a movie title (Star Whores, anybody?) to character names (Hung Solo, Darth Vibrator and Princess Lay-her) to “titty” auditions to screen tests with modified light sabres (a euphemism for something that is probably best not described here). Indeed, the jokes come flying so quickly that you probably need a repeat viewing to catch them all.

But Kevin Smith has always created characters with a lot of heart and this is no exception. Though denying having any feelings for the other, Zack and Miri find themselves objecting to each other’s obligatory sex scenes with others in their own skin flick. And the only one they film is that with each other- not having sex, but making love. Yes, Kevin Smith turns raunchy into romantic, and does so with great panache.

As Zack and Miri, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are terrific in their roles. The duo share great chemistry together, their every word and gesture always convincing as best friends who after so many years have known each other’s likes and dislikes, idiosyncrasies and all such that they now pick up after one another, accommodating each other whenever and wherever possible. Their greatest accomplishment is making you wish you had a friend like them.

Indeed, this is best described as Kevin Smith’s return to form after somewhat disappointing turns in Jersey Girl and Clerks II. It has everything you have come to love from the View-Askewed writer-director- lewdness, lewdness and more lewdness, but also simultaneously great characters and a matchlessly witty script.

While Zack and Miri went off making a Porno, Kevin Smith has here made what we hope will become a Clerks-like classic.

Movie Rating:

(Kevin Smith made a movie so delightful we can give it nothing less than...)



Review by Gabriel Chong