Zack and Miri Make a Porno Review

Messages: The message that making a porno will solve money problems is obviously problematic. The movie seems to be saying that sex and love and friendship are very different and complicated things.

Role models: No parent would want their kids to be doing what the main characters are doing here. However, the lead characters' relationship goes from friendship to sex to lovewith some sincere (if profane) discussions of what all three mean.

Violence: A punch is thrown in the course of a hockey game, earning the offender a penalty. Some use of phrases like "Take it!" during sex scenes.

Sex: Constant explicit vulgar sexual references and situations, including frequent full-frontal male and female nudity, sexual acts depicted on screen, references to sex acts, and extensive discussions of heterosexual and homosexual activity in explicit terms. Discussion of the challenges of making adult films; discussion of the difference between sex and love, and between fidelity and promiscuity. Sex toys simulating portions of male and female anatomy are discussed or shown on-screen. Kissing. Promiscuous sex with multiple partners, with no mention of contraception or safer sex practices. A scene is set at a strip club. A woman blows a soap bubble with, presumably, her genitals. Discussion of sexual arousal, sexual techniques, and sexual practices.

Language: Pretty much every extremely profane term there is. Constant explicit vulgar sexual references.

Consumerism: Extensive mention of pop culture figures and celebrities, including Oprah, Rosie O'Donnell, Meryl Streep, and more. The filmmaking group's first effort is a pornographic film inspired by the Star Wars series, so there are multiple references to (and naughty variations on) Star Wars character names and plot lines. Films and TV shows mentioned include Amistad, Gandhi, Glenngarry Glen Ross, Buck Rogers, To Catch a Predator, MacGyver, Highlander, Hannah Montana, The Wiz, Girls Gone Wild, Brokeback Mountain, Mad magazine, Ziggy, Spider-Man,Pretty Woman, Sleeping with the Enemy, and Lost. Brands visible on-screen include Mac computers; brands mentioned include Ronald McDonald, Jergens, Nickelodeon, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Ex-Lax, DreamWorks, YouTube, and more.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters drink hard liquor and beer and smoke cigarettes. Characters talk about hoping to drink until they get "alcohol poisoning" and how "I'm gonna binge drink until I black out." Drinking games are played.