2009 Review #30: Adventureland

Adventureland

Rated R

(language, drug use, sexual references)

1 hour 47 minutes

Storyline:

A comedy set in the summer of 1987 and centered around a recent college grad (Eisenberg) 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.

Starring:

Jesse Eisenberg

Kristen Stewart

Bill Hader

Kristen Wiig

Critics Grade:

A-

My Grade:
C+

OK so I have a few reviews to do today so I'm going to keep them all fairly short and simple. Adventureland is one of those rated R comedies that feels almost like one of the Judd Apatow flicks, but he had nothing to do with this one. But you know what I mean right? This is another film about a group of horny twenty-somethings trying to shack up and/or find love. This one is set in a summer carnival type place and it's employees are a bunch of young college bound kids.

I never really wanted to see this movie in theaters, but I did at least want to check it out on DVD. Honestly, I thought it was good but I didn't really love it. There wasn't a whole lot that was actually wrong with the movie, but I don't know...I just wasn't feeling it if that makes any sense. I think it had some definite funny moments, but this wasn't exactly a comedy in all sense of the word. Adventureland is a dramedy and most of the humor stems from sexual jokes. There are a couple slapstick, random jokes thrown in though. I appreciated the fact that the film maker actually tried to make a serious movie here, and his attempt was pretty good in the end. Some pretty decent writing as well.Performances were slightly above average for this type of film, but nothing truly stood out. I'm not a fan of Kristen Stewart (Twilight craze) by any means, but honestly she didn't really get on my nerves in this movie. She gave a fairly decent performance. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale, Zombieland) was average as well, he wasn't bad at all just not all that amazing or really all that funny. I guess the roles I liked the most were from Bill Hader (Superbad) and Kristen Wiig (SNL, Ghost Town) although even they weren't up to their usual hilarious antics.

All in all this is a "good" movie but for me it's not one I'd ever buy or really ever care to watch again. That's why it gets a C+ from me. It was good without being all that appealing in the end. I don't know. Don't take my word for it, if you like this kind of flick...I suggest you go out and rent it. Why not? It ain't all that bad!