The bluntly titled “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” is a cheerfully vulgar love story or a sweet-hearted sex farce, however you want to look at it. Very much of a piece with Kevin Smith’s previous down-and-dirty working-stiff comedies, the raucous humor here also neatly dovetails with the pants-down funny stuff recently popularized by Judd Apatow. That, and the presence of Seth Rogen doing what he does best, bodes well for this MGM/Weinstein offering, which looks to pocket some nice change in fall release and prove a very popular home-viewing title down the line.

If there were any doubt that anyone can make a movie now, “Zack and Miri” dispels it, as the lead characters do it — and the nasty — for the sole purpose of making money. Friends since first grade, Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have long lived together in a low-end Pittsburgh house but have never been an item, as that would somehow seem weird.

Smith opens the floodgates for the sex and potty humor at the outset. There’s scarcely a line of dialogue that doesn’t feature the F-word, A-word, one of the C- or P-words or some variant of them, and it isn’t long until you have to either decide that it’s all intolerably stupid or, more likely, succumb to the downright silliness of it and enjoy the overdose. 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.

An unlikely night-before-Thanksgiving high school reunion sees Zack push for a bathroom quickie with a married former classmate, while Miri embarrasses herself by propositioning the handsomest guy in the room, Bobby Long (Brandon “Superman” Routh), before discovering he’s not only gay but also a big porn star, who’s in from L.A. with his b.f. (an amusingly upfront Justin Long).

Inadvertent celebrities when both their asses turn up on You Tube thanks to an opportunistic kid with a videophone, Zack and Miri, their rent overdue and the water and power cut off, have got to find a quick fix for their financial quandary. The title explains their solution, but the big discussion centers on whether or not they can bring themselves to do the deed on camera. Of course they can.

Still, Zack plans the scenario so Miri won’t be having sex with anyone else in the film, which initially takes shape as a sci-fi takeoff called “Star Whores” (wait, didn’t Mel Brooks long ago do “Spaceballs”?). Zack assembles a motley crew, consisting of “producer” and casting director Delaney (Craig Robinson), his longtime fellow coffee-shop workmate, who’s comically oversensitive to any perceived insult to his blackness; Lester (Jason Mewes), a young man who can be ready for action at the snap of the fingers; Bubbles (porn legend Traci Lords), who lives up to her name in more ways than one; Barry (Ricky Mabe), a pliable young fellow; Deacon (Jeff Anderson), who qualifies as d.p. by having photographed high school football, and Stacey (“Porn 101” star Katie Morgan), who will do specialty acts.

As lensing gets under way despite an initial setback, Zack can’t believe how much fun filmmaking is, and Miri tells him he actually seems ambitious for the first time in his life. When the time comes for their big scene, for which they never rehearsed at home, it goes differently than either of them would have expected, leading both to assess their relationship in a new way.

What the scene really is, however, is yet another fantasy, now explicit and familiar due to the Apatow stable’s output, of a chubby, geeky guy getting it on with a gorgeous young woman and her digging it. Naturally, chubby, geeky guys will dig the sight of it. Resolution shows there’s both a closet romantic and a good little Catholic boy still deep inside Smith somewhere.

Chemistry between Rogen and Banks is excellent; he bangs out the crude talk with well-practiced, nonchalant expertise, and she’s totally game, throwing it right back at him. Robinson’s deadpan outrage and acceptance of insanity see him neatly underplaying everyone else, and everyone else pitches in to create a nutty group portrait of try-anything common folk.

Dead-of-winter Pittsburgh locations create a sense of ever-present adversity that’s funny in itself; pacing is ultra-snappy, production values what they need to be. A post-fade-out faux promotional video is worth sticking around for.

For the first time anywhere, this review also reveals that there’s bonus material to stick around for during the credits, a practice we’ve always quite fond of. And we love hearing that the pacing is “ultra snappy”, which gives a nice pat on the back to Smith the editor as well as Smith the writer-director. Just all-around great news, and the film we are counting the days ’til we can see. Ah, how we miss that Red Bank editing suite! Looking back at this, we don’t think we could have asked to see a better review than this. Exactly the result we wanted, so there’s our first A+. “Zack And Miri Make a Porno” takes over theaters on October 31st, 2008!

First up, gossip king/queen Perez Hilton posted up a flattering story on the banned poster, and seems to be looking forward to the film — A rare bit of positive press on a widely read site that normally spreads a lot of negative stuff. IMDB news also picked up the story late in the week.

G4TV picked up the poster story as well. If you prefer moving news, check it out in their video wrapup (plus you get to see that cute girl they always have presenting it, always a bonus).

Of final interest for this story, has anyone seen the “Good Luck Chuck” teaser poster which was MPAA-approved? Compare and discuss. Kudos to Chuck K.

UPDATE: Seems our friends over at joblo.com thought the same!

By the way, we’re eagerly awaiting our chance to own a signed copy of one of these through the Stash — We’re hoping the gang can get a bunch. We’ll keep you posted. It’ll certainly be a collector’s item well worth owning.

Rogen shows some skin in Smith’s `Zack and Miri’

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer

TORONTO – All Seth Rogen really wanted when he came to Hollywood was to make a movie with Kevin Smith.

His dream came true, and more: Rogen got to make a dirty movie with Smith.

Rogen stars with Elizabeth Banks in Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” a romantic comedy with a whole lot of skin showing.

The 26-year-old actor recalled a meeting nearly a decade ago with a prospective agent who asked what his career goals were. That’s when he confessed his desire to work with Smith, whose profanity-spewing raconteurs were an influence on the sort of films Rogen eventually would make himself.

The agent “said to me that’s probably easier than you think. I hadn’t realized that Kevin Smith movies didn’t make any money,” Rogen said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. “To me, he was like Steven Spielberg. I didn’t realize the difference between good movies and movies that make a lot of money.”

With the “Clerks” movies and films such as “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma,” Smith has built a huge cult fan base but has yet to break widely into the mainstream. Rogen, who has scored hits with the similarly adult-themed comedies “Pineapple Express” and “Knocked Up,” thinks “Zack and Miri” could be the one that puts Smith in front of a broader audience.

“Zack and Miri” features Rogen and Banks as lifelong best pals and roommates who discover there may be something more to their relationship when they make a porn flick to pay off their debts. The movie premieres Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival in advance of its Oct. 31 theatrical release.

Smith wrote the script with Rogen in mind, having seen the actor in the acclaimed short-lived TV series “Freaks and Geeks” and later in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” By the time Smith finished the script in spring 2007, Rogen was the cusp of leading-man stardom with “Knocked Up.”

“I started seeing billboards going up with his face on them and I was like, we lost this guy,” Smith said. “This dude was like a supporting actor in `40-Year-Old Virgin’ and he’s just waiting for somebody to give him his own movie.”

But Smith said that when he sent an e-mail to Rogen asking if he would read the screenplay, the actor shot back an answer within 2 minutes.

Rogen read “Zack and Miri” on the beach in Australia while doing press for “Knocked Up” and was eager to sign on from the start.

The comedic sex depicted in “Zack and Miri” is tame by hardcore pornography standards, and the subject matter never gave Rogen a moment’s pause.

“I love porn. I watch tons of porn. The Internet speeds have evolved directly with my sexual drive,” Rogen said. “I almost did it purely based on the title.”

That, and the chance to work with one of his idols.

“Without Kevin Smith movies, I don’t think I would be doing exactly what I’m doing now,” Rogen said.

Click the scans above to read it, or pick up a copy of the Sep/Oct issue of “Creating Screenwriting”.

Kevin Smith’s Banned-in-the-US ‘Porno’ Poster: Exclusive first look!

You know what’s so special about this, the first poster for Kevin Smith’s new flick, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (due out October 31st)? It’s not that the one-sheet drops just before the movie’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival (which it does), or that Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks look so surprised, or that the chocolate-mint color scheme is making me a little hungry for Friendly’s. No, it’s that you’ll only see this poster in Canada.

Even after winning an appeal to overturn Porno’s NC-17 rating, Smith says the MPAA won’t give their blessing to the image shown here—which is eyes-only for our neighbors to the north. “When you’ve got the word ‘porno’ in the title, naturally, the marketing materials are gonna be scrutinized more closely by the MPAA,” says the director. “I understand they’ve got a job to do, but c’mon…this image isn’t that dirty; they’re both fully clad.”

We can just add this to the long list of things we have Canada to thank for, like William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, and the fittingly monikered Peter North. “I’ve always loved Canada and Canadians for giving us hockey,” says Smith. “Now, I love ‘em just a little bit more. For allowing tufts of hair.”

We don’t really get it, either, though hey, it’s a minor loss and maybe just a nice final jab from the MPAA, who kindly left the film intact after an appeal, so we say THANKS to them for that. Of course we could all play the game of finding more offensive posters, but hey, we’re sure they’ll come up with a suitable US replacement. You can bet these will sell online for a decent amount now, so scoop ‘em up — Perhaps the Stash can even find a way to sell some signed ones, as well? Sign us up.

We’ve got a few more shots from the Zack & Miri panel and behind the scenes at the San Diego con, as well as the final batch from the great Stash West “Spaced” signing that we found as a bonus, sitting in the wrong inbox! But of course we’ll just say we MEANT to do that.

As always, click the minis and you’ll get the biggies. And my are they ever glorious. Enjoy, and special thanks to our photographers for their generous contributions.

“We always have a standby line for ticketed special events such as this one. The policy is you have to be present at the theater one hour before showtime (though people sometimes start lining up earlier) to have your name added to the standby list. The list is first-come, first-served, no guarantees. JBFC members are always given priority on the list over non-members.”

So there you have it. How bad do you want in?

In other screening news, Kevin confirms that the Hollywood premiere will be at Grauman’s on October 20th.

More ink on the Woodstock announcement yesterday comes from USA Today as well as Variety. Still no official time or venue for the “Zack and Miri” screening at that festival, but Keivn does also confirm the flick WILL be there, and we’ve heard it’ll close the festival. So, sometime on October 5th. More details as we get them, along with another full post summarizing all the screenings will be in the next update. Now we just need to find a venue in Pennsylvania to host one of these screenings, dang it!