Cult director Kevin Smith ("Clerks", "Dogma") has managed to mix a bittersweet love story with some cruder humor before with "Chasing Amy". With his latest effort, "Zack and Miri make a Porno", he treads similar paths, showing no fear of working simpler zaniness into his script.
The film tells the story of Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks), who have been close friends since their high school days and live in a shared apartment. Permanent lack of money makes life difficult for the two for a long time, but it has never been so dramatic as now. While the wind whistles around the corners in freezing sub-zero temperatures outside and the rest of the country cozily celebrates Thanksgiving, Zack and Miri have their electricity and water cut off. Meeting Miri's former high school crush Bobby Long (Brandon Routh) and his partner, porn star Brandon St. Randy (Justin Long) gives the desperate friends a saving idea. They want to shoot a prono together. After all, they've known each other long enough that a little sex won't destroy their friendship right away. But if only it were that simple.
That a movie called "Zack and Miri make a Porno" is not without a few raunchy jokes and some naked flesh should be obvious. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the dialogues are sometimes extremely crude and here and there a piece of clothing falls and exposes a naked body. But what's really surprising is how much heart this film has. That being said, the amateurish attempt by Zack, Miri and their friends to shoot their masterpiece after hours at the coffee shop where Zack works is incredibly hilarious. The love story Kevin Smith hides behind it is full of warmth and also somehow feels genuine and far from typical Hollywood kitsch.
Whether it's Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, or supporting actors Jason Mewes, who has appeared as Jay alongside the Silent Bob played by Smith in various films, or ex-porn queen Traci Lords, Smith has shown a good hand with the cast throughout. But the real highlight is a cameo appearance by Justin Long ("Die Hard 4") as gay porn star Brandon St. Randy. Long, who used to love playing the shy, slightly goofy outsider, pleases here with a completely over-the-top performance that deliberately caters to every stereotype, only to somehow come off as refreshingly irreverent and honest precisely because of it.
Unfortunately, much of the original script's wordplay is lost in the dubbing. In addition, the famous F-word, which is uttered at least once in almost every sentence in the original English version, comes across as much more vulgar and cheap in German than in the English language version. So if you have the opportunity to see the film in the English version, you should definitely do so - even if the German dubbing is not as bad as it could have been.
It's not the German dubbing, however, that Smith, who once again expresses his love for STAR WARS, goes a little too far in some scenes, and especially in an unsavoury sequence towards the end. Raunchy jokes are all well and good, especially when they are presented as charmingly as they are here. The little slips into crudity that Smith allows himself are not only completely unnecessary, but also a bit counterproductive. Fans of the director will hardly hold this against him, but the overall impression of "Zack and Miri make a Porno" is a little damaged. Because without said slips the film would be just refreshingly different, irreverent and yet likeable and romantic in its very own way. So there is still a slightly pale aftertaste, which the beautiful finale can just cover.
And so: for fans of Kevin Smith and / or Seth Rogen, and for all those who want to see a romantic comedy of a completely different kind and can also accept the one or the other zote, for all these viewers "Zack and Miri make a Porno" is absolutely worth seeing in any case!
Original title: Zack and Miri make a Porno
Directed by Kevin Smith
Length: approx. 102 min.
FSK: age 16+
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
