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Amazon.co.uk Review
A sweet and slap-happy mix of indie coming-of-age drama and Judd Apatow’s scatological but heartfelt manchild comedies, Greg Mottola’s Adventureland is a winning look at the pleasures and frustrations of dead-end jobs and teenage kicks as viewed through a filter of mid-‘80s pop culture. The underutilized and always watchable Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) is a sheltered, introspective New York college grad who discovers that his parents' financial woes will not only quash his dream of a summer in Europe (to enjoy its more "sexually permissive" nations) but require a move to Pittsburgh, where he lands a job at a dilapidated amusement park. There, he’s thrown in with a motley crew of eccentrics, small-town types and a few genuine free spirits, most notably co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), whose complicated past proves irresistible to his repressed psyche. Mottola, who directed Superbad, and once worked in a similar park as a teen, doesn’t shy from the crude laughs that make Apatow’s features so popular, but he tempers it with a wistful tone and layered characters that hew closer to his earliest work, The Daytrippers. Though ill-matched at first, Eisenberg and Stewart make a likable on-screen couple, and they’re well-supported by a terrific cast that includes such die-hard scene-stealers as Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the park’s offbeat owners, Martin Starr as a Russian lit aficionado, and Ryan Reynolds as a former town tamer, now reduced to working as the park’s handyman. A soundtrack performed by underground faves Yo La Tengo and filled with a smart mix of hip cuts (Hüsker Dü, the New York Dolls, the Replacements) and period faves (Falco’s "Rock Me Amadeus") underscores the film’s blend of tentative emotions and broad laughs. -- Paul Gaita
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
It's 1987 and James Brennan is home for the summer after earning himself a degree in Renaissance Studies. Which unsurprisingly isn't any use to him when trying to gain employment in this part of Pittsburg. Which is now a problem since his planned trip to Europe has fell by the wayside due to his father's enforced unemployment. So thus he finds himself working at Adventureland, a rusting time warp amusement park where only odd balls and idiots appear to frequent. But here James will make friends, learn life lessons and maybe just find true love?
Be under no illusions, Adventureland is no teen sex comedy reliant on crude jokes and cringe slap-stick moments to get its humour. Which as it's brought to us by the director of Superbad may come as something of a surprise. Greg Mottola is the said director, who here has crafted an ode to his own teenage strife's concerning first jobs and first loves. Tho not really offering anything new as such, I mean the old "summer I came of age" film is hardly new is it? Mottola has however managed to blend youthful spirits with a serious kink and nicely cloak it in a bittersweet 80s haze.
Tho some parts are clearly aimed at the guffaw teen viewers, awkward erections and friends who punch you in the testicles-tee hee hee, Adventureland feels, and is, a subtle film made by someone who clearly lived it. The care and thought that Mottola has put into it benefits the cast as much as it does the viewers. Jesse Eisenberg {James} is a splendid bit of casting, almost poetically slow, he nicely plays it to have the upcoming tribulations totally believable. Enter Kristen Stewart as Em, pretty and smartly essaying a girl, soon to be woman, trying to make sense in her off kilter world. Her scenes with both Eisenberg and the buff Ryan Reynolds, in a role that takes some skill to get as right as he does, are the highlights of the piece. While Martin Starr is the other performance of note as the pipe smoking intellectual, Joel.
What youngsters that I know who have seen the film have had less than favourable reactions to it. This can probably be put down to two things. One is that the expectation of another Superbad-a-like comedy has not been met. Two is that, you know what folks? Mottola hasn't made this for kids, he's made it for those who were kids once in a decade not so very long ago...... 8.5/10
Be under no illusions, Adventureland is no teen sex comedy reliant on crude jokes and cringe slap-stick moments to get its humour. Which as it's brought to us by the director of Superbad may come as something of a surprise. Greg Mottola is the said director, who here has crafted an ode to his own teenage strife's concerning first jobs and first loves. Tho not really offering anything new as such, I mean the old "summer I came of age" film is hardly new is it? Mottola has however managed to blend youthful spirits with a serious kink and nicely cloak it in a bittersweet 80s haze.
Tho some parts are clearly aimed at the guffaw teen viewers, awkward erections and friends who punch you in the testicles-tee hee hee, Adventureland feels, and is, a subtle film made by someone who clearly lived it. The care and thought that Mottola has put into it benefits the cast as much as it does the viewers. Jesse Eisenberg {James} is a splendid bit of casting, almost poetically slow, he nicely plays it to have the upcoming tribulations totally believable. Enter Kristen Stewart as Em, pretty and smartly essaying a girl, soon to be woman, trying to make sense in her off kilter world. Her scenes with both Eisenberg and the buff Ryan Reynolds, in a role that takes some skill to get as right as he does, are the highlights of the piece. While Martin Starr is the other performance of note as the pipe smoking intellectual, Joel.
What youngsters that I know who have seen the film have had less than favourable reactions to it. This can probably be put down to two things. One is that the expectation of another Superbad-a-like comedy has not been met. Two is that, you know what folks? Mottola hasn't made this for kids, he's made it for those who were kids once in a decade not so very long ago...... 8.5/10
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I saw this movie recently and thought it was a breath of fresh air compared to all the fluffy one-dimensional rom-coms out there. The characters are like-able and from the get-go i was interested in their story. I found it to be an intelligent, quirky, dialogue based slice of life movie with a cracking soundtrack to boot. If you like something a bit different thats character driven with whitty dialogue then give it go, you never know, you might like it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
From watching the trailers you'd think this was a comedy! Far from it, but even though it wasnt a comedy i still really enjoyed it!
Kristen Stewart is actually okay in this movie, i guess anything is a step up from her dreadful performances in The Twilight Saga Movies.
Great performances from Jessie Eisenberg and Ryan Reynolds!
Definitely worth a watch! xD
Kristen Stewart is actually okay in this movie, i guess anything is a step up from her dreadful performances in The Twilight Saga Movies.
Great performances from Jessie Eisenberg and Ryan Reynolds!
Definitely worth a watch! xD
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dan K
I didn't mind this film but it was a bit of an odd one. It's a fairly average story: boy meets girl happy ending, but I just didn't like any of the characters. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dan K
A little gem
I just loved this film. Having once worked in a well known amusement park way back, this brought it all back and the memories of a summer romance of when I had just left College. Read more
Published 2 months ago by eddielincoln
This gem went unnoticed because of the countless wave of teen sex...
Adventureland is one of the best comedy dramas of recent memory, and the best coming of age movie I have seen since Stand By Me. Read more
Published 4 months ago by MaximumHeat
Surprisingly sweet and sensitive
This film should win the "Most Misleading Trailer" Award. The trailer makes it seem like it will be a gross-out comedy like "Superbad" or "Knocked Up", but the film itself is... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Star_Sea
Great soundtrack, average film yet poor casting choice - not a Jesse...
Ok so my review will be a little bias, as I cannot bear to watch Jesse Eisenberg, he just makes my skin crawl. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Louise Roberts
Can I Get Off This Ride??
I really like Jesse Eisenberg and was really excited to see Adventureland...
... Then I saw it. And I've seen a million films like it before, basically.
The Year?! 1987. Read more
... Then I saw it. And I've seen a million films like it before, basically.
The Year?! 1987. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Ms. L. J. Braisby
Love it to bits
I love this film alot, it is great with good vary of characters who can be liked very easily. Good music blend and great film in all. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Richard Gibson
Worst movie I've seen in ages.
I honestly don't see how anyone can like this, it fails all round. Well almost, the main performances are pretty good but everything else is terrible. Read more
Published 11 months ago by genejoke
OK !! cool soundtrack!
if your 18 or indeed in your teens this is probably great stuff i have seen far worse but also far better dealing with the same stuff. Read more
Published 13 months ago by P. Storey
Adventureland, who wouldn't want to work there?
Adventureland is a film, written and directed by Greg Mottola (Paul, Superbad) set in the summer of 1987 about a college graduate, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) who has no idea... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Oliver H Willis
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