Zack and Miri Make a PornoMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

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So-so

Avg. Critic Score: 56 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

not for kids

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

75

San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Hartlaub
Along with the awkward romantic exchanges that always seem to find their way into Smith's movies, there's also a sweetness that you don't often see in films that average multiple f-words per minute. Read full review
75

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
Naughty and nice is a killer-hard combo to pull off. Stick with Rogen and Banks. They rock it. Read full review
75

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert
Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks make a lovable couple; she's pretty and goes one-for-one on the bleep language, and Rogen, how can I say this, is growing on me, the big lug. Read full review
70

Variety | Todd McCarthy
It would be too much to say that what Smith has come up with here is inspired, but it is pretty funny and very energetic. Read full review
60

The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt
Despite shortcomings and implausibility linked to their roles as written, Rogen and Banks come off with surprising charm and grace. Read full review
50

The New York Times | A.O. Scott
In spite of its sometimes tiresome, sometimes amusing lewdness, follows a gee-whiz romantic-comedy formula that would not be out of place on the Disney Channel. Read full review
50

USA Today | Claudia Puig
Longs to be a smutty film with a heart of gold. Instead, it's a funny concept whose execution does not live up to its potential. Read full review
50

Washington Post |
This was originally rated NC-17, and somehow, I'm thinking that version will survive on DVD. Read full review
42

Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum
A Smith production is always noisy, shambling, and liberally smutty on the outside while conservatively gooey on the inside. Read full review
30

Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern
It's really dumb, even though it starts promisingly and continues, in a self-infatuated way, to consider itself quite bright. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Zack and Miri Make a Porno on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says not for kids Explicit Kevin Smith comedy isn't sexy or funny.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this Kevin Smith comedy about amateur porn filmmakers -- which was rated R on appeal after initially receiving an NC-17 -- is packed with coarse, crude language and situations, including explicit depictions of sex acts and full-frontal nudity. Characters are seen having sex with people they don't know very well, with no mention of safe-sex practices or contraception. In one of the film's more over-the-top sight gags, a character filming a sex scene is sprayed with feces. Language includes every four-letter word under the sun and them some, and there are plenty of body part/function terms and racial/sexual epithets as well. Two homosexual characters (one of whom is portrayed very flamboyantly) are shown in a loving, committed relationship.

Families can talk about the hard-to-negotiate differences between sex, love, and friendship. What does this movie have to say about all three?
Talk about the popularity of raunchy comedies -- why do you think these kinds of movies have become so prevalent? Does this reflect a new openness about sex or an anything-goes permissiveness that cheapens real sexuality?
Talk about why people make pornography -- and why people watch it.

The good stuff

Positive messages: The message that making a porno will solve money problems is obviously problematic. The movie seems to be saying that sex and love and friendship are very different and complicated things.
Positive role models: No parent would want their kids to be doing what the main characters are doing here. However, the lead characters' relationship goes from friendship to sex to love with some sincere (if profane) discussions of what all three mean.

What to watch for

Violence: A punch is thrown in the course of a hockey game, earning the offender a penalty. Some use of phrases like "Take it!" during sex scenes.
Sex: Constant explicit vulgar sexual references and situations, including frequent full-frontal male and female nudity, sexual acts depicted on screen, references to sex acts, and extensive discussions of heterosexual and homosexual activity in explicit terms. Discussion of the challenges of making adult films; discussion of the difference between sex and love, and between fidelity and promiscuity. Sex toys simulating portions of male and female anatomy are discussed or shown on-screen. Kissing. Promiscuous sex with multiple partners, with no mention of contraception or safer sex practices. A scene is set at a strip club. A woman blows a soap bubble with, presumably, her genitals. Discussion of sexual arousal, sexual techniques, and sexual practices.
Language: Pretty much every extremely profane term there is. Constant explicit vulgar sexual references.
Consumerism: Extensive mention of pop culture figures and celebrities, including Oprah, Rosie O'Donnell, Meryl Streep, and more. The filmmaking group's first effort is a pornographic film inspired by the Star Wars series, so there are multiple references to (and naughty variations on) Star Wars character names and plot lines. Films and TV shows mentioned include Amistad, Gandhi, Glenngarry Glen Ross, Buck Rogers, To Catch a Predator, MacGyver, Highlander, Hannah Montana, The Wiz, Girls Gone Wild, Brokeback Mountain, Mad magazine, Ziggy, Spider-Man,Pretty Woman, Sleeping with the Enemy, and Lost. Brands visible on-screen include Mac computers; brands mentioned include Ronald McDonald, Jergens, Nickelodeon, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Ex-Lax, DreamWorks, YouTube, and more.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters drink hard liquor and beer and smoke cigarettes. Characters talk about hoping to drink until they get "alcohol poisoning" and how "I'm gonna binge drink until I black out." Drinking games are played.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.