Nor is it half great, but hey, it’s Kevin Smith, sometimes you’ve got to give this overrated, sort-of funnyman a break. “Zack and Miri Make A Porno,” looks surprisingly a lot less than a Judd Apatow retread than we expected. According to EW (via /Film), this poster is Canadian only and not approved by the school marms that are the MPAA. And it’s hard to totally hate on it when it has one of our favorite ultra wussy bubblegum songs used in it, “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies. Oh yeah, Craig Robinson, from “The Office” and the Apatow gang stars as well, which is a bit of another casting appropriation, but whatever, we love him (even if he is on drugs).
Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Banks) have been friends since youth. They live like cozy siblings in a rundown shared house. Zack’s job serving coffee at the local latte palace doesn’t exactly make him rich, so when both he and Miri hit their debt ceiling, they’re forced to come up with a plan. Inspired first by Miri’s accidental YouTube debut in her “granny panties,” then by a random conversation at a high-school reunion, Zack and Miri decide that the best way to score quick money is to make an adult film they can sell on the Internet. Together. For real.
‘Zack and Miri’ debuts next week at the Toronto Film Festival and comes out in theaters proper on October 31. Smith won an earlier battle against the MPAA when he finally won himself a proper R-rating after the sewing circle over their objected to his infantile approach at porn and was threatening to slap him with the dreaded NC17 rating.