Okay, so this is way late of a review to use since Z&M is going out of the theaters, but hey, it’s Thanksgiving. The frat house is full of turkey smell and there’s a whole lot of food to eat. Maybe use this as a guide for whether or not you want this on your DVD cue.
(Spoiler alert) Zack and Miri is about two friends, living together since high school, who decide to make a porno because they are in such dire financial straights. Of course, they’ve never have sex and when they finally do their relationship changes.
The first two acts of the movie are hilarious. Zack and Miri go to their high school reunion where Miri throws herself at her high school crush only to find out he’s dating a gay porn star. Zack gets a hand job from a married classmate. They get home and the lights go out, this after the water got cut off right before they left. On top of everything else, Zack is in a bad position at work and both are debt. In desparation, they get this porno idea.
The second act involves them recruiting people they know to help. Zack gets his buddy to finance it, another friend to film it, etc. They finally settle on “Star Whores” for their movie and rent out a space from a guy played by Tom Savini. But on the day of shooting, their studio gets torn down (Savini having ripped them off). Things look really bad, until Zack gets the idea to shoot another porno at the coffee house where he and his buddy work. Things go great until Zack and Miri have sex for the first time on camera for part of the movie.
Unfortunately, the third act comes to a screeching halt. Realizing that they’re in love, they suddenly don’t want each other having sex with other people in the porno. By the end of the movie, the porno has been completely abandoned, Zack runs away for three months, but then comes running back to profess his love for Miri. Uh, what?
Look, even as a dateless wonder in high school, I knew there were groups of people trading girlfriends and boyfriends like baseball cards. Zack doesn’t have a problem with getting a handjob from a married woman or hitting on married women in the most lewd way possible. Miri doesn’t have a problem fucking and throwing herself at a guy where she just basically says, “Let me fuck you.” Both have been living with each other for about 10 years, so you can assume a good level of intimacy there. And while I can imagine having sex with each other for the first time after a long history would effect their relationship, I have a hard time believe that it would effect the porno. Both characters are set up to be so desparate and to not have a real problem with fucking on camera. So when Zack bolts you have to wonder, “Why doesn’t Miri just talk to Zack?” The answer, unfortunately, is because Kevin Smith needs conflict for the third act. But he already has it.
Additionally, when the rest of the porno cast pay Zack and Miri’s bills for a month it undermines the entire movie. The whole thrust of the movie has been about the bills, not Z&M’s relationship. I guess if Z&M had been less cool with their relationship and more unsure, you might believe that this movie was really about them. But when one of the revelations is that the porno has somehow brought this disparate group of people together as friends, I think the movie was really about how even a porno can bring people together.
Still, even though the third act is a disappointment, there are a few laughs, especially with Jay as pornstar Lester. There are also plenty of titties throughout (although, sadly, not Elizabeth Banks’). Also Randall, from Clerks, has some pretty kick ass lines. (I’d like to see him get his own movie.) Perhaps the extra footage in the DVD will pull it all together. I give this 6 kegs out of ten.
