"Second Helping" is pretty much what it sounds like. If I rewatch a movie on DVD and I feel extremely different about it, then this is what happenes. "Second Helping" won't appear that much, since I'm almost always right the first time.
When I was in 7th grade, I went to the movies to see Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Twenty minutes later, I walked out and into Ghosts of Mars. Ten minutes after that, I walked out again, this time into Training Day. Since I ended up in my favorite movie of that year (sorry Fellowship of the Ring), I consider it a good day, but I also decided that day that I hated Kevin Smith and all his movies. After years of operating on this idea, my friend somehow convinced me to buy Mallrats (Smith’s second film) and watch it later that day. I laughed non-stop through it, but refused to stop hating Smith. So, we watched Dogma and Clerks (this was not all on the same day, I’m just saving us some time) and I had to admit, that maybe Smith was good. When Clerks II came out, I loved it and declared Smith one of my favorite filmmakers. I maintain that it was one of the best of comedies of whatever year that was.
That brings us to Zach and Miri Make a Porno, Smith’s most recent film and the first one not to take place within the View Askew universe of Jay and Silent Bob. I went into the theater with high expectations, and I felt justified in that since this film is the collaboration of Smith and Seth Rogen. I laughed in the theater, and liked the film, but it was not as funny as I had hoped. When the DVD came out, I decided to buy it since I did enjoy it and I own all of Smith’s films (I don’t count Jersey Girl). I don’t know if it was the lack of expectations or if I was in a different mood, but I loved this film on my second viewing.
Smith is known for being one of the cruder guys in Hollywood, either with his dialogue or the sex acts which he puts on screen (donkey show anyone?). Smith is also a romantic at heart and his films tend to have a human element flowing beneath his crude dialogue. Zach and Miri fits into this mold perfectly. As I hope anyone reading this can gather from the title, the film is going to have sex in it, and I’ll admit, it’s pretty graphic, and that could be reason enough for many people not to watch this film. If you can get past that, I believe you’ll be very satisfyed.
Despite the fact that this movie is based on the main characters having sex on screen for money, that is not the heart of the film. At this film’s heart, it’s the story of two friends stuck in a bad situation, and the lengths to which they go through it. Rogen, Hollywood’s reigning king of comedy, doesn’t have his usual opportunity to improv the comedy due to Smith’s script, but the dialogue feels so natural coming out of Rogen’s mouth that I hardly noticed. Of course, Rogen is hilarious and he sells the character perfectly. Banks is cute (almost too cute given the character’s background), and is perfect in the emotional climax (no sex pun intended) with Rogen. The strong suit of the movie is really the supporting cast. Justin Long, despite only being on screen for 5-7 minutes, is the funniest part of the movie as gay porn star Brandon St. Randy and Craig Robinson steals every scene he’s in.
If you can get past the raunchiness and the sex and all of that, it’s a very enjoyable comedy, and I feel bad ever saying that I hated Kevin Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment