Adventureland Review

There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: A comedy set in the summer of 1987 and centered around a young man who takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park, only to find it's the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.


THE GOOD: Story. Adventureland starts out a bit cliché where the main character James cannot afford to go to Europe with his college grad friends and must earn some money through a lousy summer job. It quickly turns into a unique love story that captures both the awkwardness of young love and living in the '80s. It's pretty much the opposite of Greg Mottola's Superbad in which the main characters' main objective is to bed their crushes. Here, James is also playing a virgin, but it instead has more to do with the character's tentative nature. Adventureland is more of a coming-to-age film unlike Superbad which is more of a buddy-comedy. This is Mottola's first script since 1996's The Daytrippers, and I think he proved himself quite capable of developing a great story.

Camera work. There are a few feelings in the film that I think were captured perfectly. One being when James, Em, and Joel are watching the fireworks at the park on the 4th of July. The other was the marijuana-fueled bumper car scene. Love and youth displayed wonderfully for me. Kudos to Terry Stacey.


Funny. This movie certainly doesn't have as much humor as most of the Apatow flicks do, but it's still really funny. Jesse Eisenberg reminds me a lot of Michael Cera. Both of them can play that awkward face perfectly. I'd love to see the two have a conversation with each other. The funniest of the bunch were definitely Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig who play the park managers. Just seeing Hader on screen with his rapist mustache was enough to crack me up.

Acting. Once again, fine job by Eisenberg. I used to love the show Get Real before it was canceled by FOX (surprise, surprise). His character also had some awkward moments in that show and the inner monologue was always funny. He has a bright future ahead of him (currently seven movies in production). Kristen Stewart was surprisingly good. Just goes to show that proper direction can bring out a great actor. Yes, I'm picking on Catherine Hardwicke. Anyway, I never really thought Stewart was attractive until this film. Her performance is intense, raw, and gritty. I don't think I read a single review that doesn't agree with Stewart's performance. Also cool to see Martin Starr in a more serious role and shining through a bit.


THE BAD: Marketing. To no fault of the director, actors, editors, etc., Miramax's marketing of the film is just awful. It's easy to compare the film to Superbad, but don't play it off like they're exactly alike. Adventureland is the father of Superbad as it acts more mature. And for a movie that has gained plenty of professional critics' praise (88% on RT), the poor box office performance ($11.2 mil) just goes to show that I am right. This is really the only bad thing I can say about the movie, although the video and sound editing are just okay.


THE END: I'll never know for sure if kids really smoked that much pot in 1987, if "Rock Me Amadeus" was overplayed, or if Lou Reed was really all that popular. I do know that Adventureland is one of the themed areas in Disney theme parks, and this film is not related to it at all. This movie is funny whether you grew up in the '80s or not. It's a bit vulgar at times and the excessive drinking and drug use was a bit of a turn off, but that doesn't take away from the love story and beautiful moments in the film. I worked at Wild Waves & Enchanted Village one summer as a ride operator, so it was kind of fun to watch these guys roam around the park and see all the crazy antics. Check out Adventureland when you can, but there's no rush.


DISCUSS: How would you compare this to Superbad? Is it fair to compare the two? Did you watch Get Real? What did you think of Kristen Stewart's performance? How was her performance compared to Twilight?