ZACK AND MIRI - Format: DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

You have to respect a filmmaker like Kevin Smith who can get a film greenlit by simply uttering the title Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Then for him to make the funniest and sexiest film of his career on top of that is just icing on the cake, because, while Smith is one of the few filmmakers I truly enjoy and celebrate his entire catalog, Zack and Miri Make a Porno is, I believe, his best work to date.

The film is, as you would expect, really about two characters - Zack Brown (Seth Rogen) and Miri Linky (Elizabeth Banks) - who, due to their financial woes, actually do wind up making a porno to get them out of their massive debt. The film is, as you wouldn't expect, about a whole lot more than just that. While Smith has been a master purveyor of raunchy humor throughout his career, it's probably the tamest movie about porno ever. Yes, they do feature some sex scenes and you do see some boobs (amazing ones at that, from real-life porn star Katie Morgan in her legit film debut), but the film is really about Zack and Miri, two lifelong friends who discover through their porn venture that they actually do love each other after all these years. Zack and Miri really haven't done anything since high school and, when they go to their 10-year high school reunion and meet a gay porn star Brandon St. Randy (the hilarious Justin Long) - who awkwardly turns out to be the boyfriend of Bobby Long (Brandon Routh), the guy Miri wants to hook up with - they start thinking about ways to pay off their bills (their power and water in the apartment was just shut off) and after Miri was videotaped in some of the biggest panties known to exist, which makes her a pseudo-web-celebrity, making a porno seems to be the best option and they go on this bizarre journey where they learn a whole lot more than just how to shoot people f^&*ing.

What I really dug about this movie is how, even though these are some pretty extreme situations, it all feels incredibly grounded and real. Rogen and Banks simply shine as the two title characters and their chemistry is really charming together. They both have this sort of everyman (or everywoman) sort of quality to their acting styles that really authenticate their performances. Even their boisterous laughs are perfect and these two really are a joy to watch. It also helps that this writer-director Kevin Smith's best script and directorial effort to date, which is also the first that didn't feature his signature characters Jay and Silent Bob, although we do get another wonderful appearance by Jason Mewes as Lester, a hapless dude who finds his way into the porno Zack and Miri are making. Smith gives us what's really a very sweet and honest story about friends finding love, only it takes them making a porno to really discover that. It's also amusing seeing how they go about making this incredibly low-budget porn flick, and I have to wonder if some of this material was borrowed from the real-life experience of Smith making his first film, Clerks, since he actually worked at the Quick Stop and shot the film there at night, when the store was closed, with his friends.

Aside from the amazing Rogen and Banks, the rest of the cast is just filled to the brim with talent. Craig Robinson steals scenes aplenty as the eccentric "producer" Delaney, whose delivery ranges from delightfully deadpan to outrageously erratic and is a blast to watch. We get some great stuff from another Smith stalwart Jeff Anderson (of Randall fame from both Clerks flicks) as the cinematographer Deacon, Ricky Mabe as the quirky young actor Barry, Jason Mewes in his most revealing role to date as Lester, real-life porn star Katie Morgan as the stripper-turned-porn actress Stacy and the legendary Traci Lords as Bubbles, a stripper with a very unique talent. Each of these actors were simply perfectly cast and it seems that the gorgeous Morgan could pull a Traci Lords herself, segueing a career in porn to making legit films because she actually delivers a charming little performance here. The places you can find talent these days...

The real star of the show here is Kevin Smith as he continues to impress with super-funny writing, slick storytelling and direction that seems to improve with each film he does. While it might be odd to see a Kevin Smith film without his constant characters Jay and Silent Bob, Smith really shows us here that he's no one-trick pony. Jersey Girl, considered by many to be Smith's worst film (which I would agree with, even though I kinda liked it), was the only other film that didn't feature Jay and Silent Bob and I'm sure that many thought he couldn't make a good film without those characters, but Smith truly proves that not to be the case here. While we do get plenty of doses of Smith's particular brand of humor, it's only enhanced even more with this amazing and diverse cast and writing that has graduated past the snoochie boochies of the films of his past... even though I thought those were hilarious too. It's funny because while it is Smith's most mature film, we do see some crazy sex scenes and some low-brow humor moments as well, but they aren't as central to the film as we've seen before. It really is the best of both worlds, immature and mature, low and high brow, if you ask me.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno was Kevin Smith's highest-grossing film to date, which is truly fitting since it's the best film he's made, as far as I'm concerned. It's got a lot of humor, a lot of heart, a lot of sex, a lot of craziness and it's just a wonderful entertaining ride that will take you by surprise if you were expecting something different by the title.

We get started out here with some Deleted Scenes... a LOT of them, actually. There are 43 deleted scenes on this, more than I've seen on a DVD in quite some time, especially a comedy. We get some pretty good stuff on here ,but some rather unfunny stuff as well. A lot of these are more alternate takes but there are a some pretty good bits here. There's a great one at the end where we see Zack and Miri start up their own porno-making business that I think would be a wonderful ending. However, after that, they have a way-too-long testimonial with Justin Long and Brandon Routh's characters talking about how Zack and Miri's new company helped them. That part alone is about a half hour long, probably more and all of these deleted scenes run about the same time as the movie, about an hour and 35 minutes or so. There is some great stuff here though, and some things that offer a little better insight into certain situations, but some scenes aren't the greatest.

On the second disc we get into the featurettes that start with Popcorn Porn: The Making of Zack and Miri. We get some really great insights into how the idea for the movie and it really takes us through every aspect of the movie. We even get some great stuff on how unsure Smith was about the film right before they were going to shoot. We get some hilarious stuff from Traci Lords and Ricky Mabe about their unique sex scene, we get all sorts of other stuff from the set, we see stuff from their wrap party at the Improv in Pittsburgh and then some stuff on the film's rating and what they did to get it down to the R rating and their battle with the MPAA. We also get some great stuff from Smith and Co. at Comic-Con, taking the film to the Toronto Film Festival and also of the film's Hollywood premiere. It's an hour and 12 minutes long and it really takes you on quite a journey that shows how this film came to be.

Money Shots: A Series of Webisodes are next and we get 22 of these webisodes, which continues the tradition that Smith started on his last flick, Clerks II, of ding these little websisodes for the flick that were shown online before the flick came out. They're done on the set and they're aptly called Money Shots. They are usually four or five minutes long and we get stuff like brief interviews from Ricky Mabe, a funny spot with Kenny Hotz from Kenny vs. Spenny and these hilarious tiny spots that riff off those The More You Know things they used to show on NBC... but these are called The More You Porno. Get it? There are some great bits here and all 22 spots run for about 47 minutes total. Great stuff folks.

Comic-Con 2008 is next and I'm glad I got to see this because I didn't get to see this actual panel at Comic-Con last year because I was at another panel. It's a great 23-minute panel that's full of laughs, just like everything else here.

Gang Bang: Outtakes, Ad-Libs and Bloopers are next and the hilarity keeps on coming here. We get a nice 12-minute reel of improv/cutting-room-floor goodies that keep the laughs rolling.

The last thing we get is Seth vs. Justin: Battle for Improvisational Supremacy Part I and it's a great way to wrap up these features. It basically has the scene at the reunion between Seth Rogen and Justin Long and it's really just them seeing who can crack each other up the most. It's a wonderful seven-minute reel that caps off some amazing features.

The film is shown in the "matted" widescreen format which preserves the original aspect ratio... whatever that ratio may be, and enhances the flick for widescreen TV's.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital 5.1 format.

Nice work here. The front cover shows Rogen and Banks flanked by all the people they make their porno with, but the funny thing is they're all in weird outfits that they don't even wear in the flick, like Ricky Mabe as a sailor, Craig Robinson as a doctor and Traci Lords as a cheerleader. Crazy. The back has another shot of Rogen and Banks, a great synopsis, a critic's quote, a few smaller pics from the flick and the billing block and tech specs. The odd thing about this, and maybe they were making fun of themselves, because the title is just Zack and Miri, not Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Great job on this packaging.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is my favorite Kevin Smith film to date, and I love them all. We get an amazing cast, wonderful laughs and a film that is much more endearing than you would expect.