It was the worst job they ever imagined and the best time of their lives (Adventureland (DVD))

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	Adventureland (DVD)
Date:	22/09/09 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good story, fairly funny, set in the 1980s

Disadvantages: Not as funny as I thought it would be, due to drugs every character seemed to have no personality

After graduating, James begin to plan his backpacking trip around Europe. But when his parents tell him they can't afford to pay for the trip, James resigns himself to working in the local run-down amusement park, Adventureland, in a bid to save enough money. Unfortunately, James gets given a job in the games section where grown men turn into violent kids and small children come to be sick, rather than the way cooler rides section where the beautiful Lisa P works. But James' life and job take an unexpected turn when co-worker Em takes an interest in him.

The summer of 1987, which started out as a miserable one, ends up being a summer that James and his new friends will never forget.

~ Cast ~
James - Jesse Eisenberg
Em - Kristen Stewart
Mike Connell - Ryan Reynolds
Tommy - Matt Bush
Joel - Martin Starr
Lisa P - Margarita Levieva
Paulette - Kristen Wiig
Bobby - Bill Hader

I found Adventureland to be advertised as being another Superbad-type comedy as it has the same director and the trailers all made it out to be very comical and situated around a group of teenagers. When I saw it though, I was quite surprised as it turned out to be nothing like what I was expecting.

None of the advertising I'd seen had indicated that the movie was actually set in the 1980s so I didn't realise this until the date popped up at the beginning of the film. Not that this bothered me at all, it was quite refreshing to see a slightly different spin on yet another modern comedy to be honest. The popular girls all had huge perms and high-waisted trousers rather than ironed-straight hair and jeans so low that their thongs could be seen. Every character seemed to be high on weed the whole time which was pretty comical to watch.

I did feel that Jesse Eisenberg, who played the main character in the film, was trying a little too hard to act the same as Michael Cera (Superbad) - a slightly loser-ish boy, nice and polite with those same dull and slow qualities that Cera has in all his films. Kristen Stewart was OK - I didn't take to her as much as I did in Twilight as her character seemed to be rather lacking of emotion and a bit boring really.

Ryan Reynolds was the only one I really liked in the film and I don't know why because his character turned out to be not so perfect. I did like the character of Lisa P, played by Margarita Levieva, as she reminded me of my mum and I thought my mum would have been exactly the same when she was younger - long dark permed hair, bright pink animal print clothes and dancing around all the time!

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader played the funniest characters although they were more of a very simple and stupid trailer-trash kind of comedy.

Most of the cast I just didn't connect with - maybe it was because everyone was high throughout the entire film which made them all seem dazed and slow and not completely with it so none of them really showed much proper emotion or personality.

I'm not a huge Superbad fan but Adventureland was nowhere near as funny as that and it definitely won't receive the same popularity. There were a good few funny moments but I found it to be more of a love and life story to be honest with the comedy simply added in to provide a few laughs. The film was generally OK. It was enjoyable enough to watch but I did find myself getting fidgety in my seat occasionally and this is the only movie I can remember seeing where I haven't been bothered about popping out for the loo during it!

Running time: 107 minutes
Certificate rating: 15
Director: Greg Mottola (Superbad)

Summary: Corn dogs and cute girls await a college grad on his summer job at Adventureland