No. 26: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Throughout his career, Kevin Smith's films, while generally well-liked, have often been criticized for being amateurishly acted, speech-heavy and indifferently directed.

So what does he do for his latest film, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"? He goes out and hires two reliably funny actors (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks), who both happen to come from the Judd Apatow school of improvisation, and have their characters make a film that will by its nature have bad acting and lousy production values.

Kind of a stroke of genius, really. And while the script for "Zack and Miri" doesn't quite live up to zany, profane glee found in some of Smith's other films, the decision to cast Rogen and Banks covers up many of its shortcomings.

The two play a pair of underachievers who have been best friends since elementary school. Their 10-year reunion is at hand, and all they have to show for that time is a couple of low-wage service jobs, an apartment they share and a mountain of unpaid bills. With their utilities being cut off one by one and eviction surely to follow, the pair hatch a plan to shoot a porn film, figuring their classmates probably would shell out $20 bucks a pop just for the sheer curiousity of seeing people they knew in high school having sex in a porn flick.

Will having sex on camera show the two friends show the two that their feelings have evolved beyond friendship? Do I even need to answer that? If you take out the raunch, this is, at its core, a fairly predictable romantic comedy. Rogen and Banks make it work, though, adding some depth to the insecurities and jelousies that the pair feel as the big day approaches. In the final, awkward interactions before their scene together is to be shot, the pair find a level of sweetness and heart that you wouldn't expect from a film with this title. Banks in particular does a great job making a character who could have come across as little more than a male wish-fulfillment fantasy into a believable, moving character. It may never reach the heights of something like "Knocked Up," but for what it is, the relationship aspect works much better than you'd expect.

So it's romantic. But you're saying, this is a Kevin Smith movie. Is it funny? Well, it's funny enough. Smith manages to pack enough jokes into the movie, that even though half of them don't really hit, that still leaves a steady enough stream of chuckles and a bunch of his usual quotable lines, not just from Rogen and Banks, but Craig Robinson (Darryl on "The Office") as well. As with "Clerks 2" he does have one scene toward the end of the film that manages to leapfrog any line of good taste without actually being funny, leaving you cringing more than laughing. But the movie recovers quickly enough, although I really could have lived without ever watching a scene like that in a movie.

On the whole, "Zack and Miri" probably isn't as fresh or insightful as some of Smith's previous work. Still, however, you've got a rom-com where both the romance and the comedy work well enough. That has to count for something.

B