Daily Plastic: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Movie	Our Take	Other Takes
Zack and Miri Make a Porno Trailer . IMDB	Smith's sweetness surprises critics who are busy mistaking his crassness for wit or subversion. Robert Davis Daily Plastic	Sweetly raunchy. Again. Smith’s reliance on the same old reference-heavy raunch is a classic case of overcompensating; he’s a Jersey loser-jock embarrassed by his sentimental streak. He might crash cars into churches but, beneath that superficial veneer of adolescent bawdiness, he’s a sappy, conservative filmmaker in a juvenile state of denial. Henry Stewart The L Magazine Mr. Smith has been tinkering with the dirty-mind/soft-heart combination for quite some time, forming a link of sorts between the humanist sexual anarchy of John Waters and the smutty Victorianism of Judd Apatow. A.O. Scott New York Times The Film Within / Without [Smith] appears to have poured his creative energy into the cheerful come-on of the title and left nothing in reserve for the movie. He fails to wring any memorable comedy from shoestring porno filmmakers because his own filmmaking is just as amateurish and slovenly. Michael Sragow Baltimore Sun It's really dumb, even though it seems to consider itself quite bright.... [It's] a fine idea for the right filmmaker, and so is the pairing of Rogen and Banks. Still, Kevin Smith slathers his patented slob aesthetic indiscriminately. Star Whores, the porn movie within the movie is predictably crude and nonsensical, but so is the movie that surrounds it. Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a prime example of what happens when a filmmaker creates a movie based solely on a premise without thinking about plot or plausibility or personality.... For better examples of the kind of raunchy comedy Smith's trying to make here, older teens will hopefully understand how both the craft and the comedy are superior in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. James Rocchi Common Sense but ... it’s way more fun than the film that made Seth Rogen a plausible leading man, Knocked Up. Karina Longworth SpoutBlog Kevin Smith’s career is one of the mysteries of American film culture. He’s eight movies into his career — eight! — and he has shown zero progress.... Unabashedly riding the Judd Apatow wave, Smith’s latest is this month’s high-concept raunchfest-with-a-heart-of-gold — a genre that’s had a good run but like a limping thoroughbred now needs to be put out of its misery. Elbert Ventura Reverse Shot

Sweetly
raunchy.
Again.

Smith’s reliance on the same old reference-heavy raunch is a classic case of overcompensating; he’s a Jersey loser-jock embarrassed by his sentimental streak. He might crash cars into churches but, beneath that superficial veneer of adolescent bawdiness, he’s a sappy, conservative filmmaker in a juvenile state of denial.

Henry Stewart
The L Magazine

Mr. Smith has been tinkering with the dirty-mind/soft-heart combination for quite some time, forming a link of sorts between the humanist sexual anarchy of John Waters and the smutty Victorianism of Judd Apatow.

A.O. Scott
New York Times

The Film
Within /
Without

[Smith] appears to have poured his creative energy into the cheerful come-on of the title and left nothing in reserve for the movie. He fails to wring any memorable comedy from shoestring porno filmmakers because his own filmmaking is just as amateurish and slovenly.

Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

It's really dumb, even though it seems to consider itself quite bright.... [It's] a fine idea for the right filmmaker, and so is the pairing of Rogen and Banks. Still, Kevin Smith slathers his patented slob aesthetic indiscriminately. Star Whores, the porn movie within the movie is predictably crude and nonsensical, but so is the movie that surrounds it.

Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a prime example of what happens when a filmmaker creates a movie based solely on a premise without thinking about plot or plausibility or personality.... For better examples of the kind of raunchy comedy Smith's trying to make here, older teens will hopefully understand how both the craft and the comedy are superior in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

James Rocchi
Common Sense

but

... it’s way more fun than the film that made Seth Rogen a plausible leading man, Knocked Up.

Karina Longworth
SpoutBlog

Kevin Smith’s career is one of the mysteries of American film culture. He’s eight movies into his career — eight! — and he has shown zero progress.... Unabashedly riding the Judd Apatow wave, Smith’s latest is this month’s high-concept raunchfest-with-a-heart-of-gold — a genre that’s had a good run but like a limping thoroughbred now needs to be put out of its misery.

Elbert Ventura
Reverse Shot