Adventureland

One would think, that a movie directed by Greg Mottola of “Superbad” fame and featuring Ryan Reynolds and Saturday Night Live players Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig would be a rip-roaring display of lowbrow yet quality humor especially when the DVD has the ever-popular “unrated” stamp printed on its case. Newcomer Jesse Eisenberg and “Twilight’s” Kristen Stewart brought a level of complexity to this enjoyable, yet semi-serious comedy about life at a 1987 Pittsburgh amusement park. And yes, this movie did have its share of “kicks in the gonads,” “puke takes” and “boner jokes.”

Eisenberg plays an intellectual and timid virgin (James Brennan), whose parents welsh on their graduation gift of a trip to Europe and money for grad school, when his dad takes an unexpected pay cut and as a result finds himself having to seek employment at Adventureland. A cheesy amusement park with rigged carnival games, where he meets Em played by Stewart, who saves him from being knifed by an angry park patron trying to win a “giant-ass” stuffed panda. From that point on James becomes enamored with Em, who is having a secret love affair with the married park maintenance man Mike Connell played by Reynolds who, as always, does a remarkable performance of portraying your stereotypical d-bag.

It’s safe to say that “Adventureland” is one of those movies, which allows the audience to reminisce on those uncertain yet hope-filled days that a young adult feels when entering the real world. The viewer, who is currently at this stage of their life, can probably relate to this tumultuous and nauseating period, which can leave you feeling like one of Adventureland’s attendees, after eating a spoiled corndog. Memory evoker or not, this film is at the very least is an entertaining and well cast movie.

Eisenberg proves himself to be a talented actor and good lead who can, at times, deliver humor albeit as being the brunt of pathetic and embarrassing situations that are all too typical in these types of comedies. His character could have easily been portrayed by Michael Cera, but luckily for anyone watching the film it was not, as I think we’ve all had enough of him at this point.

Stewart, not surprisingly and Reynolds, surprisingly, played the straight roles in this comedy and added some of the drama that I was not anticipating prior to watching “Adventureland.” But a dash of drama made for a good balance to some of the wackiness provided by the supporting cast.

Hader and his fake (or at least it looked fake) mustache brought a good portion of the laughs as the park manager Bobby. While many of the supporting characters brought a smile to my face, Hader probably gave me the biggest laugh throughout the movie, which is not a surprise because he’s one of the few current cast members on SNL that can give me a genuine chuckle.

Martin Starr’s character Joel, James’ nihilist friend, and Friggo, James’ ball-kicking nemesis played by Matt Bush, also provide some of the funnier moments of the film. I would expect to see both of these young actors’ again in future comedic roles.

Other than the few moments of laugh-out-loud humor, “Adventureland” was not a crackup of a movie. That being said…it was humorous and entertaining, not to mention it has an excellent soundtrack. Looks like my desire to get out of Blockbuster quickly by grabbing the first comedy I found alphabetically in the “New Release” section, rewarded me this time by providing quality home entertainment for a rainy Sunday afternoon. If El Nino keeps dropping buckets of water on Los Angeles, I may find myself at Blockbuster a whole lot more, using the same lazy technique that landed “Adventureland” in my DVD player.