Jenni: After all of the bloody mayhem of last week's movie, I'm ready for something a little more light-hearted. I've heard good things about another new DVD release: Greg Mottola's Adventureland.
Brandon: Me too. Rumor has it that Adventureland is one of the best comedy's to come out of 2009. Set in the summer of 1987, Adventureland focuses on a recent college grad (Jesse Eisenberg) who has to take a dead-end summer job at his local amusement park. It's there that that the struggling young man really learns about life... and love.
Jenni: Ah, a romantic comedy! And that Jesse Eisenberg is just so cute!
Brandon: I'm not so convinced that either of those things are so great. First of all, this is a romantic comedy centered around a college grad working at an amusement park? One goofy older guy I might believe, but he's not the only college graduate working there. Supposedly the whole cast are supposed to be these lost young-adults that don't know what to do with themselves now that they're not in school anymore. Really?!? I know that landing a job can be hard, but certainly with a bachelor's degree there's got to be more work to be had in that town than just the local amusement park. Besides, my local amusement park appears to be run almost entirely by the local junior high school. And secondly, I'd take Michael Cera over Jesse Eisenberg for my angsty, youthful protagonist any day.
Jenni: Okay, I'll admit that the plot seems a little contrived, but shouldn't older characters make the movie more relatable to a more mature audience? And don't get me started on the whole "who would win in the UFC Octagon? Michael Cera vs. Jesse Eisenberg" issue. You had Kristen Stewart to look at the whole time. Doesn't she drive all boys crazy? Or do her charms only work on vampires?
Brandon: Definitely just vampires. She's okay if you like your actresses to brush their hair out of their faces every time they say a line, but that grows a little tedious with me. And I still don't buy the older characters in this movie. Although I can see how that would make the movie appeal to a wider audience, it just made me think that the characters were a little socially retarded. Although they were supposed to be of post-college age, the situations were definitely still very high school-ish. However, if I was to somehow put the whole age-thing out of my head, I can see how this would be a decent "coming-of-age" flick. But a comedy, it was not.
Jenni: Finally I agree with you there. This movie was terribly mis-advertised. Although it was light-hearted in tone, and it had some fairly funny pieces, on the whole, it was not a comedy. But I still liked it! I left the film feeling uplifted and generally pleased. I'm still going to recommend this one.
Brandon: I didn't hate the movie, but I'm glad that we waited for the DVD to come out to see it. I would have been more upset if we saw it in the theater. So, basically if you're okay with mediocre acting and some major plot holes, then I'd give this one a "meh" on my scale of "shrug" to "meh". With that, the snobs are out. Peace!
Watch the Adventureland trailer here.
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