Though Judd Apatow is enjoying enormous success as Hollywood’s king of slacker comedy, it should be remembered the foundation of that throne was built by Kevin Smith. The now-common mixture of smut and sentiment that saturates recent hits like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up first shocked audiences in the Smith classics Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy. Through the years, he has gained a moderate but dedicated and loyal fan base through dialogue-heavy films that seem more like filmed late-night conversations at a bar than actual movies. In fact, his most celebrated films generally eschew coherent plot and composition for long stretches of natural-sounding dialogue. The foul-mouthed, self-deprecating losers that populate Smith’s movies are far more real and relatable than the larger-than-life heroes of Hollywood’s blockbusters. But despite being distinctive and brilliantly written, Kevin Smith movies have never hit box-office gold, and so perhaps in an attempt to cash in on some of Apatow’s success, he made Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Zack and Miri is recognizably Kevin Smith—a ton of profanity and frank sex talk, incredibly witty banter, and Jason Mewes—but it’s more glossy and polished than usual. And while it falls flat in places, it’s more than enough to keep the Smith faithful happy, and is a solid effort that could make a few converts.

Like in most Kevin Smith movies the plot is thin: roommates Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks), best friends since before high school, are two immature slackers who find themselves living among stacks of unpaid bills after never paying rent and barely keeping jobs. On the verge of eviction, they get the brilliant idea to make a porno. Of course Zack has always been in love with Miri, and so the plan to participate in their own skin flick goes awry when, um, feelings surface.

The film’s major flaw however, is in having the gorgeous Miri reciprocate those feelings. Though certainly not the first time a hot woman has inexplicably fallen for the schlubby loser (see Knocked Up), this time it comes off as forced rather than aww inducing. The movie flows smoothly through the dick jokes, the movie title brainstorming sessions (Lawrence of A Labia, A Cock and Lips Now) and the Star Wars-themed porn montage (light-saber dildos!), but it stumbles when Zack and Miri engage in awkward flirtation. Smith’s script reflects this: the scenes where they film or plan the movie are littered with lightning-fast one-liners that set a quick pace, yet Zack and Miri’s I-love-you-but-I-can’t-say-it lines are so clunky it’s as if Smith had to remind himself he was making a romantic comedy. It’s a shame the film takes this conventional path because at the beginning of the film, when Zack and Miri are still miserable, beer-swilling just-friends, Rogen and Banks have good chemistry.

Overall, the cast is great. Seth Rogen plays the same fat cuddly slacker with a fro, but in working with Smith’s strong script he’s funnier—and somehow more sincere—than ever before. Elizabeth Banks (in the nineteenth movie you’ve seen her in this month) manages to drink and curse with the guys while still caring about being pretty. Everyone else, including Craig Robinson (Daryl from The Office) and a few real-life porn stars, are spot-on as the various cast and crew for the homemade porno.

Zack and Miri is sweet occasionally, crude most of the time, and hilarious throughout. And when Smith isn’t worrying about how to best combine the three, the movie is at its best.

                                    2.5/5 Woovies