Adventureland: Review By The CryptKeeper

When I was the trailer for this I thought "What a load of sh*t". It looked like just another raunchy comedy. It's from the director of Superbad, and since that movie was awful, I thought this would be too. But, it's not. The marketing for this movie was all wrong. I thought it was going to be a bunch of perverted teens doing stupid stuff. It's actually a very touching drama, with a light heart.

If you did see this you probably said "It was ok, but not as good as Superbad". If so, I hate you, because Superbad sucked. They make one sentence stretch out a 2 hour film - "Let's get some beer for these babes so we can f*ck them, man". Adventureland is more intelligent, with better story and acting.

It's about a guy who's parents cut him off financially, but he was expecting this money. So he has to get a job at Adventureland, a fair. There he meets new friends and the girl he loves, and from there on, it's all the events that take place at Adventureland, and around the main characters. This story mostly brings drama, but it has some funny moments scattered throughout the film. A few are crude, but it's not excessive, like Superbad, that had a vocabulary of about 3-8 words.

This is some of the best acting I've seen in a movie starring teens. Jesse Eisenberg I keep getting mixed up with Michael Cera. I like Eisenberg, but hate Cera. Eisenberg and Kristin Stewart have great chemistry, and work so well together. Ryan Reynolds also fits together well, and all the other actors were great, too.

Greg Mottola is the director, who also wrote the film. This film has brilliant writing that, yes, is a bit predictable (will Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart get together at the end?) but still works out great with his directing skills. He's improved since Superbad.

The film is visually entertaining. The fair itself is cool, with all the lights and rides. And most of the girls are attractive, too.

Overall, a great film that maybe you missed, or didn't meet your expectations becuase it wasn't raunchy or crude enough. Maybe you didn't think it was funny enough. I still think it's a very nice romantic drama with some humor.