So much fuss, so little reason — the title alone of Zack and Miri Make a Porno is considered to be so controversial you’ve probably been hearing about the film for weeks. The complete title has been banned from bus stop ads, and in some markets, they’ve cut off the words “Make a Porno” from the television spots. There are even theaters that refuse to run the film. That plays right into the hands of Kevin Smith, the King of Kinkiness who wrote and directed the film. You can’t buy that kind of publicity — not on a Weinstein budget.

But does the film lead up to the (anti) hype? Well, yes and no. There is not an offensive overabundance of skin on skin (which, in any film that stars Seth Rogan, is a good thing), but the dialogue and premise are as naughty as they come. As always with Kevin Smith, prepare to be disturbingly titillated by some of the outrageous lines that come from the actors’ mouths.

The film revolves around best friends since high school, Zack (Rogan) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks), who live together platonically and are in dire straits-- unable to pay even their utilities bills in the dead of winter. After humiliation at their 10-year high school reunion, desperation sets in and they decide to make a porn movie for some extra cash. Predictably, the beautiful friendship between the two teeters on becoming something more – or less.

Bring in the cheesy recruits they use for actors and crew and you’ve got yourself a movie about making a movie, with all of Kevin Smith’s raunchy charm. One of the film’s delightful surprises is Brandan Routh (ever wonder what happened to him after Superman Returns? Here’s your answer) and Apple guy Justin Long playing a pair of peckish gay lovers. And on the heels of seeing Banks play Laura Bush in W, it’s deliciously disconcerting to see her play an ersatz porn star. But really, the film isn’t any better, or any worse, than any other Kevin Smith fare. It’s an interesting world we live in when the Saw films, that feature the most macabre and grisly blood and violence, raise few eyebrows and can be advertised with abandon, while people get up in arms about a basically good natured film like Zack and Miri Make Porno. None of these films can be considered award-winning filmmaking, but at least Zack and Miri is what it is, and bodies, not lives, are taken cavalierly.

Rated R.

-- Lisa Johnson Mandell