Like far too many Pittsburghers, roommates Zack and Miri have a stack of unpaid bills and no way to pay them.

Unlike most Pittsburghers, they decide to make a porno to earn some quick cash. Thus the title of Kevin Smith's raunchy romantic comedy, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," shot in Hazelwood, Monroeville and other Pittsburgh locations earlier this year.

It is what it is: vintage Smith, with smutty jokes about sex, crude language, graphic nudity, a mix of mainstream actors such as Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks with Smith regular Jason Mewes (Jay of Jay and Silent Bob), and a surprising number of laughs. It also has a sweet love story about friends who might be made for each other, if they could only realize it.

However, having said that, it seems unnecessarily vulgar and cringe-worthy at times, more than the recent "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," which also featured male frontal nudity in the famous naked breakup. Then, again, Smith is making a movie with "porno" in the title.

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"Zack and Miri Make a Porno"

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

• Starring: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks
• Rating: R on appeal for strong crude sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity and pervasive language
• Web site: zackandmiri.com

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He doesn't just push the envelope, he shreds it and then puts the fragments through the shredder to create even finer pieces. That is a polite way of trying to explain a scatological scene that is just 14 frames of film long but certain to make the audience gasp at the very least.

Like lots of people with maxed-out credit cards and paychecks that don't cover the essentials -- rent, utilities, hockey skates -- Zack and Miri are tapped out. Zack works at the Bean-N-Gone coffee shop and Miri at a store at Monroeville Mall, but they cannot make ends meet.

In the course of a disastrous day, Miri's hopes for a class reunion romance are dashed in one of the funniest sequences, and she and Zack realize they may not just lose their water, power and heat but their apartment during a snowy winter.

That leads to a proposal from Zack that you won't find in other romcoms: "Miri Linky, will you have sex with me on camera for money?" And then they're off to the raunchy races.

I liked the first half of the movie better than the second, when everyone gets down to comic business that includes former adult porn star Traci Lords and Katie Morgan, who has appeared in 200-plus adult films and the HBO late night specials "Porn 101."

Banks, now on screen as Laura Bush in "W." and about to be featured in "Role Models" as a lawyer, is one of the guys here in terms of her frank dialogue. She also has a scene that requires her to telegraph a mix of emotions on her face, and she beautifully nails it.

Rogen, who has better chemistry with Banks than with Katherine Heigl in "Knocked Up," manages to toss off some lines that sound like he made them up on the spot, and "The Office" regular Craig Robinson proves a scene-stealer as a fellow barista turned porn partner.

As previously reported, the MPAA gave "Zack and Miri" an NC-17 and Smith won an R on appeal, but the rating is for strong crude sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity and pervasive language.

Smith's core followers will take to this like free beer or porn for life, but newcomers who cannot recite lines from "Clerks" ("I'm not even supposed to be here!" was a mid-'90s favorite in this office) may want to proceed with caution.