Movie Review: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2009) 

Directed by Kevin Smith

Written by Kevin Smith 

Starring Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Tracy Lords

Release Date October 31st, 2009

Published October 30th, 2009

The loquacious Kevin Smith is back with Zack and Miri Make Miri Make a Porno. For his first feature since 2006's Clerks sequel, Smith has ripped a page from the current king of comedy Judd Apatow. Stealing two of the Apatow repertory company, Seth Rogan and Elizabeth Banks, Smith goes for the same mix of foul mouthed maturity that Apatow has turned into a cash machine.

Zack (Seth Rogan) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have been friends since the first grade. Now nearing 30 they find themselves stranded together in go nowhere lives, living in an apartment they can barely afford in a sex free friend zone. When the power and water get shut off and it looks like they may be booted from their apartment, they need a cash money idea and they need it now.

Over a few beers and following a bizarre encounter with a gay porn star (Justin Long) at their high school reunion, Zack hits on an idea. Make a porn movie. Miri is dubious of the idea but with no idea of her own she allows Zack to convince her if he can find the cash to fund the production. Enter Zack's co-worker Delaney (Craig Robinson).

Delaney has money he saved up for a flat screen TV. When Zack tells him that producing a porno movie could double that amount, and that a producer has to handle auditions involving nudity, he jumps at the chance. Zack writes the script and a ragtag bunch including the impressively tumescent Lester (Jason Mewes), the aptly named Bubbles (Tracey Lords) and bubble headed stripper Stacey round out the cast for what will be a star wars themed porno movie.

Issues arise and force things in a different direction but the biggest surprise of the shoot for Zack and Miri is their reaction to their own love scene which uncovers feelings both have ignored for many, many years.

Kevin Smith directs Zack and Miri with his usual ear for tight, funny, foul mouthed dialogue. Zack and Miri may in fact be even more foul than usual for the master of the f-word laced invective. The curse per line average on Zack and Miri is enough to make the great Sam Peckinpah cringe. It works however because stars Steth Rogan and Elizabeth Banks treat the dialogue as completely second nature. An old hat sort of patter that only old friends could share. Best of all, it's not just foul, it's funny.

That said, Zack and Miri isn't without excess. The casting of Brandon 'Superman' Routh and Justin Long as a gay couple and a scene so filthy that some may have to leave the theater in disgust aren't funny and are really unnecessary. In the case of that truly disgusting scene, Smith is even clumsy in his dialogue, setting the scene twice and tipping his hand repeatedly. I appreciate the warning Kev but the scene was still unnecessary.

Seth Rogan has grown quickly into one of the most likable actors working today. Whether it's his foul mouthed teddy bear veneer or his real talent for dramatic moments, Rogan earns every inch of your sympathy and care even as he can repel some viewers, not me but some, with his overly energetic cursing. Rogan may be an unlikely romantic leading man in the classical sense but in the post irony era Rogan's obscenity laced sincerity is the picture of the modern romantic icon.

Working with a maestro dirty word, Kevin Smith who has made a career of mixing troubled romance with manchild curse-laden coming of age, Rogan is right at home. His ease puts the rest of the cast at ease as seen in Elizabeth Banks' awkward but sweet performance and Craig Robinson's cantankerously loving turn as Zack's other best friend.

Robinson's briefly glimpsed relationship with his wife (Tisha Campbell) reminds me of a quote I heard recently, a well known woman was asked about divorce and said "Have I thought of divorce? No. Murder yes, but not divorce.

Zach and Miri make a Porno is not Kevin Smith's strongest effort. The casting invokes way too much of Judd Apatow's oeuvre and the disturbing sex scenes often cross that barrier between hilarious and creepy. Nevertheless, few writers have Smith's ear for the way characters speak, the way they interact. The dialogue is so natural and so naturally funny that you can't help but get caught up in the fun.

Yes, you will likely walk out of Zack and Miri Make A Porno cursing up a storm, in a good way. Just wait till you  get back to the car to start dropping those F-bombs.

Movie Review Hot Tub Time Machine

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) 

Directed by Steve Pink

Written by Josh Heald, Sean Anders, John Morris

Starring John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Rob Corddry, Chevy Chase, Lizzy Caplan

Release Date March 26th, 2010 

Published March 25th, 2010

When The Hangover became the breakout comedy of 2009 it was inevitable that movies about 4 overgrown juveniles getting drunk while on vacation for whatever reason would become a trend or even its own sub-genre. Just watch the DVD shelves, it's coming. The first of what may be perceived as a Hangover knockoff to arrive in theaters is Hot Tub Time Machine.

John Cusack stars as Adam an a-hole insurance salesman who has clearly done something to make his girlfriend leave him; his house has been ravaged by her moving out. Adam's buddy Nick (Craig Robinson) has it worse, working as a dog groomer with a wife he knows is cheating on him. Even still, their pal Lou is in worse shape; he may or may not have tried to kill himself while rocking out to Motley Crue.

As a way of cheering up Lou, Nick and Adam have planned a getaway to the ski resort where they spent many weekends in their hopeful youth. Tagging along is Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) who has spent far too much time on his computer -his Second Life character is spending three years in prison- Adam figures he needs some human contact.

The resort was once a hotspot but now it's a run down dump. On the bright side, after a call to the front desk, the hot tub starts working. It works so well in fact that it becomes a time machine and sends all four guys back to 1986. With the time space continuum at stake, and a physics lesson from the original Terminator movie, the guys agree they must not alter the past or else.

Hot Tub Time Machine plays like The Hangover with time travel. Rob Corddry, best known as a correspondent on The Daily Show, plays the Zach Galifianakis character, replacing creepy childlike naiveté with creepy intensity and slapstick. Cusack is the Bradley Cooper character with all sharp angry humor and Robinson is the sheepish one waiting to break out a la Ed Helms.

The characters don't match exactly; Clark Duke gets far more screen time than Justin Bartha did in The Hangover, but with the binge drinking and wild time schtick the films are certainly in the same vein. Where The Hangover played something of a comic mystery plot for big laughs, Hot Tub Time Machine relies on heavy doses of nostalgia and clever references.

Cusack in and of himself as a reference to multiple 80's classics from Say Anything to Better off Dead to One Crazy Summer. None of those films get a direct name check but Cusack does ski in Hot Tub Time Machine, the black diamond, not the K-12 unfortunately, and listen closely and you might hear someone shouting for their two dollars.

Crispin Glover drops in as another self referential 80's joke; Glover was of course Marty's dad in Back to the Future, a film that earns a few laughs for Hot Tub Time Machine along with any comedy about skiing. And yet still another walking punchline, I mean that as a compliment, Chevy Chase pops up in a funny cameo as the Hot Tub Repairman/time travel guru.

Hot Tub Time Machine then throws in one more fabulous 80's cameo that I don't want to spoil; I'll just say Cobra Kai and leave it at that. Hot Tub Time Machine bursts with aching nostalgia that will either delight or invite a nauseous sort of state as one is reminded just how old they truly are.

Yes, Hot Tub Time Machine is easy to write off as a movie taking advantage of the well plowed path of The Hangover but that film didn't have time travel. That's certainly enough of a difference to allow you to forgive the many familiar elements. John Cusack is excellent as always while the rest of the cast brilliantly has his back.

If I may add a cheesy critic’s one liner to close: Take a dip in the Hot Tub Time Machine. Ha!

Movie Review Table 19

Table 19 (2017) 

Directed by Jeffrey Blitz

Written by Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass 

Starring Anna Kendrick, Wyatt Russell, Stephen Merchant, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson 

Release Date March 13th, 2017

Published March 29th, 2017

Undoubtedly someone will relate to the idea of being invited to a wedding where they are not expected to attend. At least, that is what the producers of the new comedy “Table 19” would like to think. The premise here is that several people have been invited to a wedding where they were just expected to pick a gift off the registry and send that in with their regards. Instead, each of these oddballs decides to attend the wedding and wind up at the table of misfit guests.

Anna Kendrick stars in “Table 19” as Eloise, the former Maid of Honor turned pariah after she was dumped by the Best Man who is also the Bride’s brother, Teddy (Wyatt Russell). Eloise has backed out of the wedding several times since the breakup only to show up on the day of the wedding with everyone concerned she might make a scene. To mitigate her potential meltdown, Eloise is placed as far away as possible, at Table 19.

Joining Eloise are a random assemblage of guests including Jerry and Bina Kepp, (Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow) business acquaintances of the Bride’s father, Jo (June Squibb), the Bride’s former Nanny, Renzo (Tony Revolori) an awkward teenager, and Walter (Stephen Merchant), a business associate of the Groom’s father. Walter is fresh out of prison and hoping no one knows about his prison stay or how he got there; why he came to the wedding or was invited is anyone’s guess.

“Table 19” has the appearance of a movie but not the story of a movie, at least not a good one. At times the film feels like each actor was given one idea for a character and then told to improvise some comic situation. Unfortunately, despite a very talented and game cast, no one, not even the lovely Anna Kendrick finds much beyond one note to play and that one note is rarely ever funny.

Stephen Merchant is a very funny and talented man but his Walter is an absolute comic dead zone. Walter’s one note is that he is just out of prison and hoping no one notices. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know how to lie properly so he keeps stumbling into awkward and contrived conversations that the makers of “Table 19” apparently believed were hilarious. They are not hilarious, tedious is the more apt description as Merchant plays the same awkward gag over and over until you wish his character would just leave the rest of the movie alone.

Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow have a slightly different problem, they are way more interesting than the one note characters they are given to play. As a married couple seemingly headed for a breakup, Robinson and Kudrow at times seem to border on a much better movie, a more European style character comedy where we might explore their marital problems with a wedding in the background. I kept dreaming of that far funnier movie while “Table 19” forced Kudrow to carry one joke through the movie, she has the same color jacket as the catering staff. Ha Ha.

And finally, there is Kendrick who should be the star here but is instead treated as a member of a wacky ensemble. Unfortunately, that ensemble isn’t funny or even all that interesting while Kendrick is her usual appealing self, her charisma and beauty calling for our full attention while the film forces us to endure her one-note table mates to ever more unfunny situations and dialogue.

I had high hopes for “Table 19.” Anna Kendrick, to me, is a genuine movie star and I wanted to see where she might lead this story. Sadly, the wacky, one note ensemble strands her in the role of straight-woman to a group of terribly unfunny side characters. There is a very funny Anna Kendrick wedding comedy trapped inside of “Table 19” trying to get out but is entirely thwarted by the filmmakers. 

The Bride's parents were right, these wedding guests should have just stayed home.

Movie Review Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express (2008) 

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg 

Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Bill Hader

Release Date August 6th, 2008 

Published August 5th, 2008

Pineapple Express is arguably the Citizen Kane of stoner movies. In this tiny comedic sub-genre there is little competition to overcome, nevertheless this witty, oddly violent pot comedy squeezes more laughs out of its stoner heroes than 2 Harold and Kumar movies combined. That is likely because of the behind the scenes all star team involved.

The guys behind Superbad and Knocked Up, writer, actor Seth Rogen, his writing partner Evan Goldberg and producer Judd Apatow combine their talent for stoners with a heart of gold with the tremendous directorial skill of indie veteran David Gordon Green to create a stoner comedy that, at the very least, is better than any of the stoner comedies to come before it.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a pot smoking, talk radio loving, process server who spends his time in costume delivering subpoenas for a living while really living for his next hit. Dale's dealer is Saul (James Franco) a sweet, good natured drug dealer who thinks Dale is his friend when in reality, they wouldn't know each other if Saul didn't sell pot.

Saul has just come into possession of some new weed called Pineapple Express. It is supposed to be grown in such a unique way that it actually gets you higher than any other pot in existence. Saul sells some to Dale who is unfortunately smoking it in front of the home of another drug dealer, Ted Jones (Gary Cole), when he witnesses the dealer kill a man.

Leaving behind his rare weed, Dale is convinced that the joint can be used to find Saul and if they find Saul, that would lead to finding him. And he's right. Ted and a corrupt police officer, played by Rosie Perez, identify the weed and go after Saul who goes on the run with Dale and well, a whole lot of stuff happens and a whole lot of stuff gets smoked.

Pineapple Express is the rare comedy that zigs when you think it will zag. Unpredictability is the film's hallmark as instead of just bumbling through a series of gags, director David Gordon Green goes for edgy comedic violence and often leaves your jaw dropped with it. Some of the violence is painfully funny, some of it is shocking but all of it serves the purposes of the plot that propels from one entertaining scene to the next.

Seth Rogen and James Franco make for a terrific comic team. Exhibiting the kind of male bonded performance that is now the hallmark of the Apatow brand of comedy, Pineapple Express has given rise to the term Bromance to describe the extraordinarily close yet platonic bond between two male best friends. Rogen and Franco do everything short of make out to demonstrate how much they care about each other and the more they push the line, the funnier it gets.

Pineapple Express doesn't reach the comedic highs of Superbad or Knocked Up but as stoner comedies go, it doesn't get much better than this. Terrifically funny, surprising and shockingly violent, Pineapple Express never goes where you expect it to. Rogen, Apatow and now David Gordon Green are at the forefront of modern comedy and now with Pineapple Express they can continue to write their own ticket in Hollywood.

Write it, roll it up and smoke it, if they want to.

Movie Review Miss March

Miss March (2009) 

Directed by Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger

Written by Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger 

Starring Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger, Craig Robinson 

Release Date March 13th, 2009 

Published March 13th, 2009 

The guys behind IFC's The Whitest Kids You Know are a relatively funny troupe in the sketch comedy setting. Given a large scale film production and asked to deliver a cohesive coherent feature film, that funny becomes truly something relative.

Miss March stars Zach Cregger as Eugene, a High Schooler who advocates for abstinence. With his girlfriend Cindi (Raquel Alessi) he delivers disturbing talks to small children about sexually transmitted diseases. Eugene had hoped that he and Cindi could wait till they were married before they fell into bed but with prom approaching, Cindi wants to have sex.

Eugene eventually agrees but on the night in question, at a post-prom party, he is absolutely terrified. With Cindi waiting in a bedroom upstairs, Eugene attempts some liquid courage with the help of his long time horndog pal Tucker (Trevor Moore). In fact, Eugene imbibes so much liquid courage that he ends up dropping himself down some stairs and into a coma.

4 years later Eugene wakes up with a bat to the face. It's Tucker who had to try something to wake his best friend. This, especially important because Eugene's gal Cindi is all grown up and posing in Playboy. With this knowledge, Tucker busts Eugene out of the hospital and heads for the Playboy mansion.

Tucker also has an ulterior motive. A fight with his girlfriend Candace (Molly Stanton) has him the target of her angry brother and his brotherhood of crazy firefighters who end up chasing Tucker and Eugene all the way across the country. Also joining the chase is Tucker's pal, a rapper played by The Office star Craig Robinson.

Robinson's rapper has a name that is, I am quite sure, meant to be hilariously funny. I won't repeat it here. I will say that I don't get it. There are non-sequiturs and then there is outright absurdity, I am not sure where this rapper's name falls on that bizarre continuum.

Bizarre is a good way of describing Miss March. It has a plot with a simple propellant. A guy wakes from a 4 year coma to find his girl has posed for Playboy. Simple, straightforward, not unlike the J. Geils classic Centerfold, aside from the coma part.

What writer-directors Cregger and Moore do with this premise is overload it with lowbrow humor and non-starter absurdity that never seems to land within miles of a punchline. Did I laugh? Yes. Trevor Moore has one of those rubbery faces and odd vocal manners that make for easy laughs. Unfortunately, the laughs are too few and far between.

One funny sequence in the movie that I can recall has Cregger repeatedly slapped by a playboy security guard. The guard is played by Davon McDonald who excels in small roles such as this. He was lovable as Dwayne the bartender in Forgetting Sarah Marshall last year. His repeated reasoning for slapping Eugene is the one moment where Miss March earns a few significant laughs.

But, as I said, the laughs here are too few and far between. Miss March is basically a dull witted sex romp/road movie with little invention beyond the simple premise and its series of unfunny body function jokes. It's not terribly offensive really, more of a forgettable waste of time.