Adventureland (2009)

[kimmy]

Adventureland has some similarities to last year's sensational Zombieland.

The name, obviously. And it stars Jesse Eisenberg. And, much of the action is set at an amusement park. And, I enjoyed it.

There are no zombies, although many of the staff and patrons of Adventureland bear more than passing resemblance.

Brennan (Eisenberg) is a guy with big plans. He's just graduated from college, and he's planning a tour of Europe and then grad school at Columbia. Plans change... his family's financial troubles mean that instead of Europe, he's going to spend the summer trying to save enough cash for school. And with no actual skills, he ends up working at the local amusement park. There he meets Em (Kristen Stewart), a fellow carny who he's instantly enchanted by. She's got self-esteem issues. There's no real plot to the story, other than watching these two try to get past their baggage and connect. It's more fun than it sounds.

Eisenberg is as likeable here as he was in Zombieland, though this is not nearly the comedy Zombieland was. Stewart is ... surprisingly good. Having only seen her in that crappy vampire movie, I was under the impression that she's pretty dismal, but this role fits her. Both of them create characters that have a ring of truth to them.

-k

[fellowtraveller]

Adventureland reminded me a bit of Brick, another strongly hyped teen movie. Adventureland made some Top Ten lists, I just dod not see it as being much better than average.

Not trying to threadjack, but a movie just seen which I highly recommend is the French jailhouse epic A Prophet.

[Edward]

Not better than average, really? I loved it. It was definitely way better than I expected it to be.

[segnosaur]

I found the movie to be quite disappointing.

I had expected a comedy along the lines of Superbad... unexpected/chaotic situations, using the amusement park as a backdrop and source for the humor.

Unfortunately, I found it to be very bland. The jokes that were presented were not funny, and neither the characters nor the romantic subplots were particularly engrossing.