Monthly Archives: November 2008

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

What is the deal with[1] Hollywood releasing identical movies within weeks of each other? Like Deep Impact and Armageddon that one year, or Volcano and Dante’s Peak that other year? In fairness, I should say that Zack and Miri Make a Porno is really nothing at all like Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, but the titles are ridiculously similar for having come out in the same month, is all I’m saying. Why does that happen so much?

Anyhow, I saw them out of order, mostly by virtue of skipping movies for a couple of weeks. At least I got *that* out of my system! What happens with Zack and Miri is that they’re penniless waifs living out their post-high school existences as the best of platonic friends, when they realize that, hey, there sure is a lot of money to be had in the sex industry! So they wander town in search of a wacky gang of characters such as you might find in a Kevin Smith movie, or maybe a Seth Rogen movie, and having once gathered them, they proceed to make a porno![2]

Oh, wait, though, it’s not that simple. ‘Cause, they’re friends forever yet sexually compatible, and finally changing their relationship like this is bound to have repercussions, right? Hence: drama! It’s like a marriage between the talky portions of Chasing Amy and the comedy sensibilities of Mallrats. I definitely liked it, but it’s probably Smith’s weakest script in some time, aside from the Affleck movie that I’ve completely forgotten other than its existence.

[1] In case you are wondering, no. I do not sound like Seinfeld.
[2] I bet you did not see that coming.

Ultimate X-Men: Return of the King

Sadly, I’ve already written this once, and some strange combination of unfamiliarity with the machine I’m writing from and a copy/paste failure conspired to eat it, right after I’d finished everything but the html. This is, as you might imagine, lame. If I had not liked the current Ultimate X-Men as much as I did, the review would probably have been hurt by this turn of events?

Luckily, though, I did like Return of the King. For one thing, I think Mark Millar is finally getting better at writing about things that are interesting, but I know for a fact that he was helped by a return to the roots. That’s right, as the title indicates, Magneto is back with a vengeance. And since the X-Men are on the run from a government who (justifiably?) blames them for his return, there’s not much of anyone who can put a stop to his latest plan to rid himself of the pesky homo sapiens once and for all. I’m saying: way cool.