Zack and Miri Make a Porno, 2008 - Movie Review

Director: Kevin Smith
Starring: Seth Rogan, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Jason Mewes
Running Time: 102 minutes
Score: 9 /10

This review by Alex Billington.

To say I enjoyed Zack and Miri Make a Porno would be inaccurate. I loved it, every last second, right down to the mushy story about love and relationships that Kevin Smith gets to in the end. It's hilarious, it's saturated with sex, and it's charming, too. To be honest, I think Kevin Smith has actually taken a gigantic step forward, away from his previous films like Clerks and Dogma, and ventured into new comedic territory that used to only be reserved for Judd Apatow. I thought Seth Rogen might not be able to keep up his consistently strong comedic performances, but he's outdone himself and even topped Pineapple Express this time. Zack and Miri isn't exactly as reflective as Clerks II, but it's definitely sweeter.

If you haven't figured out what the film is about simply from the title, then I don't think I should be explaining it to you anyway. Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are lifelong best friends who have never been anything more than just that. The two have been roommates for years but haven't really progressed in life, so when they run out of money for water and electricity, they decide to shoot a porno together in order to make some quick cash. Borrowing funds from a fellow co-worker (Craig Robinson), the two scoop up other wanna-be pornstars and get down-n-dirty. But as anyone might expect, for these two friends, fucking is more than just a way to make money. Remarkably, Rogen and Banks have perfect chemistry and feel like true life-long friends captured on camera.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is easily one of the best comedies I've seen in a long-time. Thanks to Kevin Smith, it's so easy to get into and so easy to laugh at, making it one of the lest challenging films to simply sit back and enjoy, which is a delight here in Toronto. I don't care that Elizabeth Banks never showed her tits because she's a respectable actor or that we otherwise literally got a full on Jason Mewes-on-Katie Morgan porno, because I was able to simply enjoy the enduring story that Smith put together himself. And I don't care that Seth Rogen doesn't become a hit porno producer in the end (don't worry it's not a spoiler) because the story told within this 102 minutes was thoroughly entertaining anyway.

I'm anxious to see Zack and Miri again, but not for the typical reasons. I think there is something new to gain every time and I want to see how much I missed by laughing so much. Kevin Smith's brilliance shines through yet again in Zack and Miri and Rogen and Banks, in addition to a hilarious ensemble lead by Craig Robinson, pull off wonderfully amusing performances. Zack and Miri is a comedy that will not even come close to letting anyone down. Instead, it's an instant hit that has so much more to offer than just cheap laughs.

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Pineapple Express, 2008 - Movie Review

Director: David Gordon Green

Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez,

Running Time: 111 minutes

Score: 9/10

This review from Filmjack3

It's a given that when you go to a Judd Apatow movie now (and he's only directed two, but they're still 'movies' anyway, despite the growing stable of directors) you'll know what to expect more or less. After 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Walk Hard, and to a lesser extent Forgetting Sarah Marshall, there's an expectation- if you're tuned into the sensibility of off-the-wall, filthy but improvisational comedy- for it to be good, or even awesome in whatever 'fold' of comedy its in. Pineapple Express, for the Apatow fan, is as awesome and dumb and illogical and purely enjoyable as comedies get this year, let alone for its 'fold', which in this case is the pot comedy cross-pollinated with ridiculous 80s action flick.

It's awesome, for one thing, because the screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (also responsible for Superbad) don't give a crap about making anything too, um... should I say realistic? Maybe plausible is more the word in this case, as realism implies that there isn't spoof going on here, which there is, in the kind of subtle AND over the top craziness that one loves to see done right. In this case the movie starts out with an amazing opening scene set in "1937 - The United States", where a secret government test is being done on the effects of marijuana on a soldier (which, oddly enough, make the soldier act and talk like someone in the 21st century, which makes it funnier), and there's a slight reefer madness tint to it.

Then, after the initial set-up- where Dale (Rogen), a subpoena deliverer and frequent pot smoker, gets in hot water for seeing a murder take place by a villainous drug dealer caught in a war with 'Asians', and then implicates his drug dealer Saul (very uncharacteristic James Franco) by leaving 'evidence' behind of the film's title- the writers kick things off into a sly, really insane take off on 80s action thrillers. Make no mistake, they're true to the sources: this might be one of the most violent comedies ever made, a hard, capital R where the least violent bit was shown in the trailer with Franco badly, uproariously kicking his foot through the windshield during a high-speed chase.

But one might ask, is the cartoonish violence enough to make it awesome? Not quite - what really clicks for a viewer who wouldn't touch pot with a ten foot mouthpiece are the actors and how much serious fun they take the material. Rogen and Franco, the latter of which giving his best performance yet (yes, best performance, see it and see what I mean compared to his so-so Spiderman parts), click instantly and work off one another in that great, somewhat predictable buddy-comedy mold. They bond, they argue, they separate for a bit, and then finally come back together for that show-stopping finale. To reveal what happens there, of course, would ruin all the fun, but everyone involved in the cast (Danny McBride, Rosie Perez, Gary Cole, Ed Begley Jr, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson, and all those Japanese or Chinese or Vietcong I can't remember) pitch in for scene after scene that never fails to rise some laughs.

In fact Pineapple Express is so funny, so relentlessly action packed and loaded with the kind of dialog that's brilliant for being so natural in its crude and stupidity (again, an Apatow trademark), that it's incredible to think the director is David Gordon Green. This is almost akin to, though not to make a complete comparison, Terence Mallick or Darren Aronofsky helming a Mel Brooks production. What compelled him to take on a raucous pot-action comedy that continuously tops itself I can't totally say (save for just wanting a change of pace in genre and control over material). But it's equally incredible that he manages to get in some moments of his own sensibility into the film in those little moments when Rogen and Goldberg don't have a lot going on, when the visual aspect can be emphasized. Not to mention, on top of this, he's able and ready to direct "genre" material without making it too serious.

It's an artistic statement AND one of the most memorably brutal climaxes in recent movie history, and I loved nearly every "what-the-hell" minute of it. Where else will I get to see bullet-strewn drug dealers and ears partly chopped off treated with the reverence of the Daily Show?

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Monsters vs Aliens - Poster for Dreamworks 3D Animated Movie

This is the poster for Dreamworks sci-fi animated movie, Monsters vs Aliens. The basic plot is that aliens are invading Earth so we get the giant monsters based on the 1950's sci-fi movies to fight back. Reese Witherspoon is voicing the character of Susan Murphy aka. Ginormica, a modern day California girl who is bit by a meteor on her wedding day and grows to be 49 foot, 11.5 inches tall! Joining her to fight the evil alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) are Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D (Hugh Laurie), the jellylike B.O.B. (Seth Rogan) and the half-ape, half-fish Missing Link (Will Arnett). Kiefer Sutherland is General W.R. Monger and Stephen Colbert is the President.

Sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun

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Pineapple Express - Poster and Trailer

I am really looking forward to this one. A couple of stoner dudes witness a cop committing murder and hilarious consequences ensue. Sounds like it could have been a Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor kind of movie. Directed by David Gordon Green, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. Due out in September 2008.

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