Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
US theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kevin Smith
Produced by	Scott Mosier
Written by	Kevin Smith
Starring	Seth Rogen Elizabeth Banks Craig Robinson Jason Mewes Traci Lords Jeff Anderson Katie Morgan Ricky Mabe
Music by	James L. Venable
Cinematography	Dave Klein
Editing by	Kevin Smith
Studio	View Askew Productions
Distributed by	The Weinstein Company
Release date(s)	October 31, 2008 (2008-10-31)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$24 million[1]
Gross revenue	$41,985,547[1]

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a 2008 romantic comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, and distributed by The Weinstein Company. It is Smith's second film (after Jersey Girl) not to be set within the View Askewniverse and the first not set in New Jersey. It was released on October 31, 2008.

Plot

In the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville, Pennsylvania roommates Zack Brown and Miriam "Miri" Linky, have been friends since the first grade. Despite Miri working at the local shopping mall and Zack working at a coffee shop, they have not paid their utility bills in months, with Zach devoting much of his free time to a fanatic following of the Pittsburgh Penguins and his status in the community hockey team "Monroeville Zombies". After work, their water gets turned off before they go to their high school reunion. At the reunion, Miri attempts to seduce her attractive former classmate Bobby Long, while Zack strikes up a conversation with Brandon St. Randy, who reveals that he is a gay porn star, and Bobby's boyfriend. After returning home from the reunion, the apartment's electricity is turned off. Inspired by a successful viral video that was filmed by a pair of teenage boys as Miri changed in Zach's place of work for the reunion (revealing that she wore "granny panties"), and emboldened by the cultural mainstreaming of porn, Zack convinces Miri that they should film a pornographic movie to make money.

Gathering a group of acquaintances and hired help as the cast and crew, they decide to film a Star Wars parody film, entitled Star Whores. Delaney, the film's producer and Zack's coworker, rents film equipment and a building to use as a studio. When they return to the studio after the first night of filming, the building is being demolished, with all the equipment and costumes inside. Later at the coffee shop, Zack remembers that his boss threatened to install a hidden camera, which Zack finds, and decides to use it to replace their lost film equipment. Zack revamps the film to take place in the coffee shop, filmed after hours.

Despite their insistence to one another that they would not let sex with each other affect their friendship, Zack and Miri soon develop romantic feelings for each other. Later that evening, Zack and Miri are at home when suddenly their power and water is turned back on. The rest of the actors and crew show up and reveal that they pooled their resources to pay one month of their bills, and have come over to throw them a party. At the party, one of the other actresses, Stacey, asks Miri if it is okay for her to ask Zack to have sex as a way to prepare for her scene with him the next day. Although Miri has realized that she has developed feelings for Zack, she tells her it is okay to ask him. When Stacey relates this to Zack, the two retreat to Zack's bedroom, much to Miri's dismay.

The next evening, Zack is preparing to film a scene between Stacey and another actor, Lester, that was supposed to have been with Lester and Miri. Zack is upset when Miri shows up and insists on shooting the scene as originally planned. In the back, Zack asks if she is doing this as a form of retaliation, pointing out that Stacey told him that Miri didn't mind her sleeping with Zack. Miri says that she didn't mind that Stacey merely made the offer to sleep with him. Perceiving this to have been some type of test, Zack admits that during their sex scene there was an emotional connection between them, and that he loves Miri. When Miri does not reciprocate, Zack storms out of the coffee shop, quitting the film and his job. When Miri returns home later, she finds Zack has moved out of the apartment.

Three months later Delaney goes to see Zack who has moved on to an exterior concessions job at Mellon Arena during Pittsburgh Penguins games, and convinces him to come home with him to see the unfinished movie. Zack takes him up on the offer and visits Delaney and Deacon, the cameraman, and learns that Miri never filmed the scene with Lester. Zack goes to Miri's apartment and reveals to her that he never slept with Stacey; instead, they talked about Miri all night. He pours his heart out to Miri, telling her that he loves her, which she reciprocates. They marry, and with the help of Delaney and his settlement, start their own video production company, Zack and Miri Make Your Porno, which makes amateur videos for couples.

Cast

• Seth Rogen as Zack Brown
• Elizabeth Banks as Miriam "Miri" Linky
• Craig Robinson as Delaney
• Jason Mewes as Lester
• Traci Lords as Bubbles
• Jeff Anderson as Deacon
• Katie Morgan as Stacey
• Ricky Mabe as Barry
• Justin Long as Brandon St. Randy
• Brandon Routh as Bobby Long
• Tyler Labine as Drunk Customer
• Tisha Campbell-Martin as Delaney's wife
• Tom Savini as Jenkins
• Jennifer Schwalbach as Betsy
• Gerry Bednob as Mr. Surya
• Kenny Hotz as Zack II
• Nicholas Lombardi as Teen 1
• Chris Milan as Teen 2

Production

According to Entertainment Weekly, The Weinstein Company greenlit the project based solely on the title.^[2] Kevin Smith originally wrote the film to be set in Minnesota, where he had previously shot Mallrats, and where he had stated a desire to shoot again. However, for budgetary reasons, Smith opted to shoot in Pittsburgh, and re-wrote the script to take place in the Monroeville suburb.^[3]

The female lead role was written for Rosario Dawson, but Dawson was unable to accept the part, as she had just signed on to film Eagle Eye, whose shooting schedule would have conflicted with Smith's.^[4] Smith wrote the role of Zack, however, with Seth Rogen in mind, based on his performance in The 40 Year Old Virgin.^[5] Shooting concluded on March 12, 2008.^[6]

There are numerous cultural references to Pittsburgh and the film's setting in the neighborhood of Monroeville and Pittsburgh throughout the film, including a drunken Steelers fan, a Penguins Stanley Cup flag, and the cast drinking Iron City Beer throughout the film.^[7] One scene in the film was shot at the Monroeville Mall, while another scene is featured outside Mellon Arena during a hockey game. One scene contains a cameo appearance by Tom Savini. The mall was the setting of Dawn of the Dead, which was Savini's first film as an effects artist. About the scene Smith said, "We got to shoot at the Monroeville Mall, and for a movie buff, that's a very cool thing. We had Tom Savini [in cameo], we shot at the Monroeville Mall, it's as close to a zombie movie as I'll ever get."^[7] In the film, Zack plays hockey, and his team's name is the Monroeville Zombies, which is another reference to the George Romero film.^[8] Even one of the main cast members has Pittsburgh-area roots: porn star icon Traci Lords (who played Bubbles in the film) is a native of Steubenville, Ohio located about a half hour drive west of Pittsburgh.

Music

A song by the band Live, entitled "Hold Me Up", which Smith has said he has been trying to use for over 13 years, appears in an "emotional scene" with Zack and Miri. Smith made a statement about featuring the song in the film:

It's an old song that I first heard in ‘95, when we were putting together the Mallrats soundtrack. It was actually in the film for the first test screening, but Live decided they wanted to hold onto it as a potential single off their next album (which would follow Throwing Copper). When I was editing Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the song had still never surfaced or been released, so I put in a request for it again. Again, I was denied. Third time, apparently, was the charm. Needed a song for that sequence in Zack and Miri and remembered the Live track. This time, the band signed off on us using the track. Took 13 years, but was worth the wait.^[9]

An original song by mc chris called "Miri and Zack" was made especially for the film. An older song by mc chris, "Fett's Vette", was also used in the film, as well as "Sex and Candy" by Marcy Playground and Jermaine Stewart's 1986 hit "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off."^[10]

Distribution

While MGM was originally set to distribute the film, The Weinstein Company solely distributed the film after a deal between the two companies fell through.^[11] With the announcement came the removal of the MGM logo from the advertising for the film, which is the first Weinstein film to be released after the deal was abruptly ended before the scheduled January 2009 date.^[12]

Rating

The Motion Picture Association of America initially gave the film an NC-17 rating for "some graphic sexuality".^[13] Smith appealed the rating, hoping for an "R" rating, and the film was viewed by the MPAA again. In an interview with MTV.com, Seth Rogen commented "It's a really filthy movie. I hear they are having some problems getting an R rating from an NC-17 rating, which is never good." He continued, complaining that "They fight against sex stuff. Isn't that weird? It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that... But you can't show two people having sex — that's too much".^[14] On August 5, the rating was successfully appealed to an R with no cuts.^[15] It attained the rating for "strong crude sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity and pervasive language".^[16][17]

Promotion

The Canadian release poster. This poster has been banned for use in U.S. theaters by the MPAA.^[18]

On May 30, 2008, the first teaser trailer for the film was released on Smith's website, silentbobspeaks.com.^[19] The teaser depicts Rogen and Banks' characters as they hold auditions. In his online diary, Kevin Smith insisted it was strictly a teaser, mentioning, "There ain't a frame of footage in this puppy that's in the actual flick, so feel free to watch it without fear of 'spoilers'. This is just a little something to give you a bit of a feel for the flick."^[19] On July 21, however, the video was removed from the website following an order by the MPAA because it was designated a "teaser trailer" without passing through MPAA certification.^[20] On September 2, 2008, a red band trailer of the film was released at IGN.^[21]

A poster for the film (pictured right) released in September 2008, which suggests the title characters are performing oral sex on each other, was banned for use in US theaters by the MPAA.^[18] The poster used in the US lampoons the film's explicit subject matter by featuring stick figures, with the explanation in the poster's text this is the only image that can be shown.

Despite this restriction, many media outlets refused to run the poster, or any ad that includes the word "porno" in the title, including a number of newspapers, TV stations, cable channels, and city governments, some of which responded to complaints about the ads at baseball stadiums and city bus stops. Many theaters displayed the film's title on their marquee as merely Zack and Miri. Weinstein Company marketing head Gary Faber stated that the ad was accepted in most of the outlets that were offered it, but that the studio would consider variations of the title for outlets that rejected it, including one version of the poster without the title that bears the slogan, "Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks made a movie so outrageous that we can't even tell you the title."^[22]

On November 10, 2008 The Weinstein Company announced that it would be re-launching the U.S. ad campaign for the film, with the main focus being a new poster that featured Rogen and Banks in a meadow with animals rendered in the style of children's animated cartoons. However, the new poster also took a jab at the controversy surrounding the image of the second poster—namely the controversy surrounding the use of the word "porno" in an image so seemingly kid-friendly—by including the statement "A poster for everyone who finds our movie title hard to swallow".^[23]

DVD

Although some copies of the February 2009 "2-Disc Edition" DVD were originally released under its full intended title in the United States, the controversy continued as some DVDs continued to display the censored title used to originally promote the film (i.e. Zack and Miri). The cover uses neither of the previous poster images, but instead a photo montage of the principal actors in the film on a white background. The re-release includes a series of webisodes called Money Shots, as well as other exclusive content.^[24][25]

Reception

Box office

The film opened #2 behind High School Musical 3: Senior Year with $10,682,000 from 2,735 theaters with an average of $3,906.^[26] Both Smith and producer Scott Mosier were disappointed by the film's poor box office performance;^[27] according to Smith:

“That was supposed to be the one that punched us through to the next level. Everyone thought it would do $60 (million) to $70 million, and it wound up doing Kevin Smith business. I was like, ‘I’m done.’ If I were to write at that point in my life, it would about the poor fat kid whose movie didn’t make enough money."^[28]

The consistently bankable Rogen^[29] also experienced his "worst box-office opening ever".^[30] As of January 8, 2009, the film has grossed $31 million in North America and $5 million overseas. As of September 2009^[update], the film had grossed almost $42 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo.^[31]

Critical

Based on 105 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has a "fresh" rating of 65 percent^[32] and a mixed rating of 50% from "top" critics based on 34 reviews.^[33] Based on 31 reviews, Metacritic gave a score of 56, which equates to a "Mixed or average reviews" rating.^[34] Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune said the film, "pushes its R rating pretty hard, though as with most Smith characters this side of Silent Bob, there's a lot more raunch in the talk — the sheer, voluminous, often hilarious verbosity — than in the action."^[35]

References

External links

• Official website
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno at the Internet Movie Database
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno at Allmovie
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno at Box Office Mojo
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno at Rotten Tomatoes