Zack and Miri Make a Porno Archives - The Playlist

Kevin Smith Teabags Weinsteins For Failing His ‘Porno’

Adam Sweeney — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Let the blame game begin, as is usually the case when a film doesn’t live up to expectations. For filmmaker Kevin Smith, that film would be “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.” The highly discussed film, at least in movie blogs, made $31 million dollars domestically, which some critics see as a poor outing compared to the film’s $24 million dollar budget. So who’s to blame for the film’s performance? If you listen to Smith, the answer comes in the lack of support shown by The Weinstein Company in the promotion of the film.

Continue reading Kevin Smith Teabags Weinsteins For Failing His ‘Porno’ at The Playlist.

Geekbeat: Soundwave Jets in, Dinobots Are Out for “Transformers 2”

Adam Sweeney — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:05:00 +0000

It’s bad enough that Grimlock and the Dinobots won’t be in “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen”, but now it seems like nearly every Decepticon in the Transformers movie franchise is a freaking jet. Need proof? Empire Magazine has new pictures of the toys for Transformers 2. They include Bumblebee, who we’ve seen before, and new images of the Decepticon formerly known as a ghetto blaster, Soundwave. Could Michael Bay have not made one of the coolest Transformers ever into an iPod at least?

Continue reading Geekbeat: Soundwave Jets in, Dinobots Are Out for “Transformers 2” at The Playlist.

Is Kevin Smith Capable Of Making A Real Film? He’ll Sure As Hell Try With “Polemic” Horror, ‘Red State’

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:19:00 +0000

As harmless and light as Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” was, it was also still as inept and sophomoric as anything he’s ever done. We didn’t mind it, it was less annoying than most of his films and rather sweet at times, but we don’t disagree with anything Lisa Schwarzbaum said in her Entertainment Weekly review. She calls the premise “inconsequential and puerile” and says, “a Smith production is always noisy, shambling, and liberally smutty on the outside while conservatively gooey on the inside (and always, proudly, a visual eyesore, as if compositional coherence signifies selling out to the Man).”

Ha, it’s kind of true and Smith doesn’t exactly argue.

Continue reading Is Kevin Smith Capable Of Making A Real Film? He’ll Sure As Hell Try With “Polemic” Horror, ‘Red State’ at The Playlist.

‘HSM3’ Tops Box-Office Again, Smith’s ‘Porno’ Underperforms And Underwhelms

Rodrigo Perez — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:18:00 +0000

As you might have guessed, “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” topped the box-office again for the second weekend in a row taking in a $15 million dollar total and bringing its cumulative gross so far to almost $62 million.

Conversely, Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make A Porno,” vastly underperformed considering it was on 2,735 screens only taking in a $10.7 million total and some, including even the Weinsteins themselves think this estimate is too high, perhaos a million dollars too high.

Continue reading ‘HSM3’ Tops Box-Office Again, Smith’s ‘Porno’ Underperforms And Underwhelms at The Playlist.

Weekend Box Office Options for October 31st: ‘Zach and Miri,’ ‘Changeling,’ ‘RockNRolla,’ More

Seth Valentine — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:15:00 +0000

Well, another week behind us and another weekend of film-going ahead. Though it seems unlikely that “High School Musical 3” will abdicate its top spot at the box for any of this week’s challengers, there’s a few new pictures out there that should definitely appeal to those of us who have already navigated the tricky waters of puberty. So, without further ado, this weekend’s openings:

“Changeling,” the newest effort from American cinema stalwart Clint Eastwood, opens in wide release this weekend.

Continue reading Weekend Box Office Options for October 31st: ‘Zach and Miri,’ ‘Changeling,’ ‘RockNRolla,’ More at The Playlist.

Seth Rogen Is Correct: ‘Zack And Miri’Is Tame, Not NC-17 Worthy In The Least

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:44:00 +0000

“I honestly feel like if people saw it they would have been like, ‘This is NC-17?’ And they would have been disappointed,” Seth Rogen told Reuters about Kevin Smith’s upcoming “Zack & Miri Make A Porno,” romantic comedy that comes out this weekend.

Can we get an Amen? ‘Porno’ is extremely tame and hardly deserves an R-Rating, but then again the dialogue does sport tons of F-bombs and dick-in-mouth sex jokes, but give us a break.

Continue reading Seth Rogen Is Correct: ‘Zack And Miri’Is Tame, Not NC-17 Worthy In The Least at The Playlist.

Kevin Smith Goes All ’90s With ‘Zack And Miri Make A Porno’ Soundtrack; Disc Due Nov 11

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:19:00 +0000

There’s generally no accounting for taste when it comes to Kevin Smith, but the “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” soundtrack has some decent tunes on in. Sort of. The film leans heavily on bad ’90s nostalgia hits like Primus and Marcy Playground, but even some of those types of one-hit wonder tracks are ok (Len’s “Steal My Sunshine,” while kind of annoying now, is a decent pop song, we suppose). The nostalgia makes sense too considering, ‘Porno’ starts off at a high school reunion and what follows kick starts the narrative off into high gear, but the use of Primus at the beginning is haphazard, out of nowhere and odd.

Continue reading Kevin Smith Goes All ’90s With ‘Zack And Miri Make A Porno’ Soundtrack; Disc Due Nov 11 at The Playlist.

Danny Boyle Responds To ‘Slumdog Millionaire’s MPAA R-Rating; Looks Like Appeals Have Failed, Still Is Stuck R-Rated

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:02:00 +0000

Press for “Slumdog Millionaire” began today in New York and unfortunately we were too occupied with the dayjob to participate. But Cinematical spoke to director Danny Boyle and got his reaction to the unfortunate news that the film was slapped with an R-Rating — a seemingly grossly unfair move considering its joyful and exuberant tone. Sure, there’s some violence in the film, but “The Dark Knight” gets a PG-13 and ‘Slumdog’? The MPAA hypocrisy in standards is well-documented.

Continue reading Danny Boyle Responds To ‘Slumdog Millionaire’s MPAA R-Rating; Looks Like Appeals Have Failed, Still Is Stuck R-Rated at The Playlist.

Kevin Smith Developing New Father/Son Sci-Fi Flick

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:29:00 +0000

Things are looking up for Kevin Smith. His “Red State” horror might not be getting off the ground anytime soon, his sci-fi film “Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers,” isn’t apparently going anwhere and his upcoming comedy “Zack and Miri Make A Porno,” is getting cockblocked by conservative newspapers and radio stations that refuse to run ads for the film simply because it has “Porno” in the title.

But a new sci-fi comedy (that has nothing to do with ‘Ranger Danger’) has been greenlit.

Continue reading Kevin Smith Developing New Father/Son Sci-Fi Flick at The Playlist.

WFF Review: Kevin Smith’s ‘Zack And Miri Make A Porno’ Is Mostly Endearing

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:40:00 +0000

Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” is pretty much everything you’ve already heard. It’s probably the directorially-challenged filmmaker’s sweetest movie and perhaps his most vulgar, but that latter part might be debatable (we didn’t see “Clerks 2” and we’re not sure we’ll bother).And considering all we heard about the vulgarity, the film is rather tame (aside from one, ahem *chocolate* scene that’s indubitably gross).

That’s not to say it’s a fantastic film.

Continue reading WFF Review: Kevin Smith’s ‘Zack And Miri Make A Porno’ Is Mostly Endearing at The Playlist.

Kevin Smith Says He Wants To Cast Total Unknowns For His Horror Project ‘Red State’

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:16:00 +0000

Kevin Smith was awarded with the “Maverick” award at the Woodstock Film Festival this weekend. Here’s some video of his semi-vulgar acceptance speech (apparently some people were offended and walked out; he did make a bit of playful fun at the expense of Ang Lee who was also there) and video we shot after “Zack & Miri Make A Porno” discussing his may-or may-not happen, horror project “Red State.” Calling the movie “bleak,” Smith said the project is still “looking for money for it.

Continue reading Kevin Smith Says He Wants To Cast Total Unknowns For His Horror Project ‘Red State’ at The Playlist.

Woodstock Film Festivals Thanks Us With Bees, ‘Prince Of Broadway’ Wins Best Film Prize

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:37:00 +0000

We got stung by a bee in the hand this morning in Woodstock coming home from the Woodstock Film Festival. It was a nice time upstate, but fuck, it stings like crazy and is hard to type, so there might not be a lot from us today that’s in-depth, or least not me specifically.

One-handed typing is difficult. We saw Kevin Smith’s “Zack And Miri Make a Porno,” which was better than we expected, “Visioneers” with Zack Galifianakis and “The Great Buck Howard,” with Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt and John Malkovich.

Continue reading Woodstock Film Festivals Thanks Us With Bees, ‘Prince Of Broadway’ Wins Best Film Prize at The Playlist.

CMJ ’08 Announces Film Fest Line-Up: Kevin Smith To NY Premiere ‘Zack & Miri’

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:03:00 +0000

CMJ is generally regarded as an (ailing) music festival, but there’s also a film component too (much like there is at any music festival these days.

Running Oct 21-25, CMJ’08 has announced its film festival plans and the biggest news is Kevin Smith will host the New York premiere of his upcoming comedy, “Zack And Miri Make A Porno” which obviously stars Seth Rogen (“Knocked Up,” “Pineapple Express”) and Elizabeth Banks (“The 40 Year Old Virgin,” “W.”) [ed.

Continue reading CMJ ’08 Announces Film Fest Line-Up: Kevin Smith To NY Premiere ‘Zack & Miri’ at The Playlist.

‘Zack And Miri’ Get Emasculated; Make A Stick-Figured Poster

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:58:00 +0000

They’re probably not that new at this point, but the newest stick-figure poster for Kevin Smith’s “Zack And Miri Make A Porno” is slightly amusing and makes sly digs at not only the Canadian version of the film’s poster (the version on the left above, that the U.S. is not allowed to use), but at the MPAA and the hard time they gave them with an almost X-rated rating.

Either the poster (like the film) was slightly neutered (hence the reason you won’t see the Canadian version except for online), or Smith just tried to be self-deprecating about it.

Continue reading ‘Zack And Miri’ Get Emasculated; Make A Stick-Figured Poster at The Playlist.

Trailer: R-Rated ‘Zack And Miri Make A Porno’ Is Not Half Bad For A Kevin Smith Film

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:07:00 +0000

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.

Continue reading Trailer: R-Rated ‘Zack And Miri Make A Porno’ Is Not Half Bad For A Kevin Smith Film at The Playlist.

Woodstock Film Festival Gets New Mike Leigh, Kevin Smith, Michel Gondry, Kelly Reichardt, ‘Pride And Glory’ & More…

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:36:00 +0000

The 9th annual Woodstock Film Festival has announced its line-up. The fest which runs October 1-5 boasts an impressive 150 films. We’re actually thinking of going this year, as its not that far. IndieWire does a breakdown of the bigger named films, so all credit to them:

Gavin O’Connor’s “Pride and Glory,” Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” and Marc Abraham’s “Flash of Genius,” while the fest will close with two, the East Coast Premieres of Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” and Sean McGinly’s “The Great Buck Howard.” Other films screening at Woodstock include Kelly Reichardt’s “Wendy and Lucy,” starring Michelle Williams, the U.S.

Continue reading Woodstock Film Festival Gets New Mike Leigh, Kevin Smith, Michel Gondry, Kelly Reichardt, ‘Pride And Glory’ & More… at The Playlist.

Short Cuts: Kevin Smith, I Love You Phillip Morris, Towelhead; More…

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Another super-slow morning.

“It’s not titillating in the least. If you’re turned on by this, then we didn’t do our job very well.”- Kevin Smith says the porn in “Zack & Miri Make A Porno” is meant to be outrageous, not give you a boner. [AP]

“I think ‘The Osbournes,’ to a degree, tarnished the public’s perception of my dad as a bit of a senile, funny, bumbling guy. Yeah, my dad can be that guy, but it’s not [all] him.” – Jack Osbourne is making a documentary about his father Ozzy Osbourne.

Continue reading Short Cuts: Kevin Smith, I Love You Phillip Morris, Towelhead; More… at The Playlist.

New Photos From ‘Burn,’ ‘W,’ ‘Revolutionary Road,’ ‘The Road,’ ‘Benjamin Button’ & More…

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:43:00 +0000

We’re breaking our rule about posting photos for the sake of posting photos cause well, it’s the end of the day, we’re leaving and we’re admittedly excited about the fall film schedule (as we are every year). EW has a ton of new photos from the fall seasons, the flicks – and photos – that interest us the most are here. Shots from “Revolutionary Road,” with Leonardo and Kate Winslet, the Coen Brothers’ “Burn After Reading,” Clint Eastwood’s “The Changeling,” Viggo Mortensen in “The Road,” Brad Pitt in David Fincher’s “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” – speaking of that one, no fall film fest inclusion?

Continue reading New Photos From ‘Burn,’ ‘W,’ ‘Revolutionary Road,’ ‘The Road,’ ‘Benjamin Button’ & More… at The Playlist.

Kevin Smith Wins Appeal With MPAA

Spencer Martin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:06:00 +0000

Remember that film we talked about yesterday, by that guy Kevin Smith? Well, his most recent movie “Zach and Miri make a Porno” had recently received an NC-17 rating, much to the dismay of its star Seth Rogen. But Smith took up an appeal on the ruling, he came out victorious, and the movie will now be released as is with an R rating.

This is significant for Smith because with an NC-17 rating exhibition can be a problem and the film will never make any money, placing a giant stain on the directors bankability.

Continue reading Kevin Smith Wins Appeal With MPAA at The Playlist.

Seth Rogen Angry That ‘Zach And Miri Make A Porno’ Gets NC-17 Rating

Spencer Martin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:53:00 +0000

Kevin Smith latest film, “Zach and Miri make a Porno” has received an NC-17 rating due to its presumably obscene amount of sexual content and offensively infantile attempts at comedy.

Likely filled to the brim with immature potty-mouthed humor (not even the good kind), even we have to admit that it does seem a little hypocritical that gruesome torture porn B-movies, a la “Hostel,” get away with an R-Rating, while a goofy, puerile movie with lots of sex is considered unseemly.

Continue reading Seth Rogen Angry That ‘Zach And Miri Make A Porno’ Gets NC-17 Rating at The Playlist.

Seth Rogen Might Do ‘Pineapple Express 2’ If You Drive A Dump Truck Of Money To His House; Makes ‘Nyah, Nyah’ Dig At Kevin Smith’s Version Of ‘Hornet’

Spencer Martin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:14:00 +0000

“They’re been wanting us to do a sequel to ‘Superbad’ for so long – but we’ve held off. We eventually said no. But this one, it’s not a precious coming-of-age story like ‘Superbad,’ it’s a weed action-movie and if it did well, and they gave us like $50 million dollars (as opposed to the $26M we got for this one) we could benefit from that,” said Seth Rogen. Throw enough money at Rogen and he will make “Pineapple Express 2,” but not “Superbad,” cause that one is rather close to our hearts.

Continue reading Seth Rogen Might Do ‘Pineapple Express 2’ If You Drive A Dump Truck Of Money To His House; Makes ‘Nyah, Nyah’ Dig At Kevin Smith’s Version Of ‘Hornet’ at The Playlist.

Is The MPAA Giving The Special Olympics Of Film Directors A Problem?

Rodrigo Perez — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:43:00 +0000

Kevin Smith – perhaps the most painfully overrated director in the history of indie geek cinema – is apparently gleefully battling over the MPAA over a potential NC-17 rating for his upcoming guffaw-fest “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” starring Seth Rogen And Elizabeth Banks (clearly aping Apatow obvs).

“They are really fucking around with us. Those dicks! A guy fucking a donkey, they ain’t got no problem with. But a man and a woman having sex they seem to have real issues with, for some weird reason.

Continue reading Is The MPAA Giving The Special Olympics Of Film Directors A Problem? at The Playlist.

Kevin Smith Still Underwhelming While Trying To Channel Judd Apatow

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:05:00 +0000

Do we care about Kevin Smith? Not one iota, but we figured we’d try and enter the cultural conversation that is “Zack And Miri Make A Porno,” because a) we probably should regardless of our feelings on his special-Olympics-like filmmaking and b) because the film does look like wannabe Apatow and even stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks (two Apatow mainstays). This clip is mostly uneventful: Zack and Miri comment on offscreen actors in their porn screen tests and it’s full of Smith’s grade school potty humor comedy which isn’t that funny?

Continue reading Kevin Smith Still Underwhelming While Trying To Channel Judd Apatow at The Playlist.

Kevin Smith Tries To Jack Judd Apatow’s Steez By Casting Troupe Members Rogen and Banks?

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:01:00 +0000

Anyone else frightened/miffed by the fact that Kevin Smith’s new porno-lovestory comedy – the imaginitively titled “Zack & Miri Make A Porno” – is jacking members of Judd Apatow’s acting troupe, specifically “40 Year Old Virgin” co-stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks?

You’ll recall even Smith “friend” Rosario Dawson even bailed on this one early on, but Variety has confirmed that Rogen and Banks are onboard to portray the titular characters. We kinda call some BS on this and think Smith is doing everything he can to borrow some of Apatow’s shine, but we would say that, as we basically believe Smith should be barred from making anymore films.

Continue reading Kevin Smith Tries To Jack Judd Apatow’s Steez By Casting Troupe Members Rogen and Banks? at The Playlist.

File Under: We Told You So; Rosario Dawson Says No to Kevin Smith

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:47:00 +0000

Ahh, schadenfreude.

MTV movies posted a story a few weeks back where Kevin Smith said he would be “flabbergasted” if Rosario Dawson didn’t star in his upcoming sure-to-be masterpiece, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” because he wrote the friggin’ part for her.

Our inside source told us that Rosario had already passed and today came word what we already knew.

“It’s going to be a really interesting film.

Continue reading File Under: We Told You So; Rosario Dawson Says No to Kevin Smith at The Playlist.