But beginning with "Jersey Girl", it started to become painfully obvious that Kevin Smith is a coward.  I understand how one can get this way.  You take a chance on something new and it backfires.  From there you have two options: you can either learn from your mistakes (which in the case of "Jersey Girl" was retreating to maudlin tropes we'd seen before rather than keeping to the honesty about fatherhood) or you can run back to what you know and hide there.  Smith chose the latter.  He kicked himself off "Green Hornet" because he thought he wasn't talented enough.  Then he used "Clerks II" to try and proclaim that the cowardice of never moving beyond your comfort zone is actually a virtue (and I did think that "Clerks II" was funny; I just thought the message was repulsive).

It's not hard to psycho-analyze Smith because he wears his personality on his sleeve.  It's his brand.  But it's a brand that I fear is no longer working for him.  His attempts at self-deprecation have, I fear, worn away at any confidence and he's still making the mistakes he made fourteen years ago with "Clerks". 

But while Smith may be fucked-up, apparently so am I because I found myself laughing throughout "Zack and Miri Make a Porno".  The man is good at what he does.  He IS funny.

For those that can't divine the plot from the title, Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks), finding themselves in dire financial circumstances, decide to make a porno under the belief that anyone will want to watch two people fuck.  After an investment from their friend Delaney (Craig Robinson), the two set about making their smut-fest and during the process discover that they have intimate feelings for each other. 

Here's what's frustrating about "Zack and Miri": It's a good film and Smith is constantly undermining it.  14 years after "Clerks" and most of the characters still talk like Smith.  14 years after "Clerks" and he's still over-relying on the soundtrack because he doesn't have enough confidence in his own direction to let the scene speak for itself.  The latter really pisses me off because Rogen and Banks have such terrific chemistry and they don't need Smith turning up the volume on the music to carry the emotionality of the scene. 

But the film's best virtue is easily Craig Robinson.  Provided he beats that meth rap, this will be a much-deserved and long-awaited break-through role for him. 

"Zack and Miri" is a funny, heart-warming film that has a strong cast and is only frustrating to someone like me who has closely watched Smith's career and prays that he gets to make "Red State" if only to do something different and possibly make the artistic growth we've all been waiting for since 1994.

Rating ----- B