First Review of Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Ain’t It Cool News has one of the first reviews I’ve seen of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, the next film by Kevin Smith. There’s always a part of me that wonders if AICN reviewers are full of shit, but Kev wrote on his blog that there would be a screening this week in the midwest, and I’m going to go ahead and believe that “Snake Oiler” was one of the attendees.

The review praises the comedic bits of the film, but says that the romantic storyline just doesn’t deliver. That’s disappointing news, but, even if it is true (and these things are all in the eye of the beholder anyway), Snake Oiler is right when he/she says, “It’s not too late, though - he’s got plenty of months left.” The flick isn’t due out until Halloween, and I’m sure that Kevin will pull the thing together in time for the general release.

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Zack and Miri Trailer To Debut April 28?

After providing some bad news for View Askew fanatics on the West Coast recently (there will be no screening for VA message board members, apparently), Kevin Smith announced that the first Internet trailer for Zack and Miri Make a Porno will probably arrive on April 28. I’d just like to take a second to thank Kevin in advance for the awesome anniversary present. Stephanie and I will have been married seven years on that date, and I’m sure she’ll be glad to know that I’ll be spending the entire evening glued to the seat in front of my iMac, waiting for the awesomeness to begin.

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Geek Force Five Mentioned on News Askew

The fine folks at News Askew were kind enough to mention Geek Force Five in their write-up of the possible release date for Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I’d like to take a moment to welcome any News Askew readers who are visiting us for the first time, and I’d also like to thank Brad and Chris of News Askew for the shout-out.

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Zack and Miri Have a Release Date?

CinemaBlend.com is reporting that Zack and Miri Make a Porno has a release date. Their source (Box Office Mojo) says that the next film by Kevin Smith will be released on October 31, 2008. There’s no word yet from Kevin or News Askew on this, so I’m holding back judgment until I hear it from the horse’s mouth. But, if it turns out to be true, I’m with Josh Tyler at CinemaBlend. October 31 is not a good release date. You don’t want to be competing with the latest horror flick for the same young male audience that you’re hoping to pull in, at least not on that date. On any other day of the year, the young men are going to choose porno over horror. But on Halloween, all bets are off.

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FiveCast Going Weekly

For the sake of my sanity, I’m scaling back the schedule for the Geek Force FiveCast. I just don’t have time to do five shows a week. Last week, I was home early from work every day and I still barely got them done. And I’ve been stressing out since Monday about how to find the time to get one organized and filmed for this week. They’re fun, and I feel like people are enjoying them (except for that one YouTube troll), but I just can’t allow myself to stress out about something like this. As those who know me know already, I stress out about far too many things as it is.

So, the FiveCast is going weekly. That’s the best I can do, and I hope that you’ll stick around to check it out.

Now, if I had the time to film an episode today, here’s what I’d cover:

• Burger King Ketchup and Fries Flavored Potato Snacks. Oh. my. Jesus. Seriously, when I spotted these things in a vending machine on the Lesley University campus this morning, I thought they’d be an amusingly bad snack and not much more. But these things were amazing! They tasted like french fries. With ketchup on them. But without the mess. Seriously, I don’t know how they did it, but they better keep doing it. This is one snack that simply must not go off the market.
• Syd Field’s Screenwriter’s Workbook. I teach a class on Writing and the Literary Arts, in case you didn’t know. This week, I’ve been having the kids watch Wonder Boys as part of my segment on drama. We’ve been discussing the structure of drama versus the structure of short and long fiction, and I’ve been referencing Syd Field. After class this morning, while one of my students made up the mid-term exam (she’d been very sick on the day of the test), I was paging through The Screenwriter’s Workbook when I got to thinking about how the structure paradigm that Field uses to help his students breakdown their screenplays into manageable chunks could also be used, with a bit of tweaking, to help people (me, for instance) write novels. It was a very exciting realization, something that I’ve totally been geeking out about all day.
• Human Mario. The image I’ve included above was among the pile of stories waiting for me in my RSS reader on Monday/Tuesday, after a long weekend away from the Interweb. And, my goodness, it’s disturbing. Dontchu think? Geekologie has more.
• Pix from Zack and Miri Make a Porno. News Askew has been posting some still photos from Kevin Smith’s next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Check them out here and here.
• Bible Fight. Oh, and then there’s Bible Fight, a game I found out about through Geekologie. The gist of it: It’s a Bible-themed fighting game where you can pit Jesus against Mary as easily as you can pit Jesus against Satan. If I believed in hell, then I’m sure that’s where I’d be going for having such fun this.

So, yeah, that’s your text-based FiveCast for the day. A real, live video FiveCast should be coming at you later this week.

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