Porno Naughty But Nice

Zack and Miri is a look at friendship, not sex, director says

(NEWSER) - Zack and Miri do indeed make a porno in Zack and Miri Make a Porno but the movie is about a lot more than just sex, director Kevin Smith tells Reuters. The story about a pair of cash-strapped pals entering the adult film biz is about love and friendship, Smith says, but it was a hard sell to the ratings board all the same. More»

The director talks about growing out of slackerdom after Zack and Miri failed

(NEWSER) - Believe it or not, Kevin Smith didn’t smoke weed until recently—and the drug helped him along to an epiphany after his Seth Rogen-driven Zack and Miri Make a Porno bombed. "It started as sort of a midlife crisis thing but it wasn't that,” he tells the Huffington Post. “It was sort of me saying ‘You can't write like that anymore Kevin, you can't write like a fucking slacker, you can't write dick and fart joke movies anymore.’” More»

Online popularity has more studios going to marketing's tawdry side

(NEWSER) - If you weren’t sure what to expect from Zack and Miri Make a Porno, the movie’s R-rated preview makes it quite explicit, Josh Levin notes in Slate—and it’s just the latest of a growing number of films to market itself with such so-called red-band trailers. Thirty age-restricted previews have been approved already this year, matching the total number made in all of the previous 6 years. More»

Movie about divorced dad rises above usual cliches

(NEWSER) - Definitely, Maybe, the story of a soon-to-be-divorced dad whose 11-year-old daughter wants to hear how he met her mother, is definitely a cut above most romantic comedies, critics say. "It's a lot fresher and a bit more sophisticated than the ordinary run of maudlin chick flicks," writes Ken Fox of TV Guide. More»

Low-ball comedy splits the critics

(NEWSER) - The latest big-screen foray by Saturday Night Live cast members has split critics, with some loving and others despising MacGruber's raunchy satire:

• SNL movies tend to suck, “but MacGruber breaks the jinx,” writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone . It sends up '80s action flicks “with a sense of style and unabashed affection.” Star Will Forte “is having a ball, and the feeling is contagious.”
• Kyle Smith isn't catching it. You can tell it came from TV, he writes in the New York Post : “ It features the pacing of C-SPAN, the production values of the public-access channel, the writing acumen of Home Shopping Network.”