Greg Mottola, who gained fame through his well known love child with Seth Rogen known as Superbad, makes another great and spunky adventure with Adventureland. The cast and script are excellent, and the direction sets a new standard for more serious comedy-dramas. Though Seth Rogen wrote Superbad, Mottola wrote Adventureland, and the difference is easy to see, Adventureland being more sad, thought-provoking and Christopher Mintz-Plasse-less. That being said, the film isn’t shy on comedy. There are many events in this movie that made me laugh out loud, but the fact remains that it is not THAT funny. Mottola makes a normal story great and makes the events of the summer and of shitty teenageage seem to be almost real, kind of like the first 26 minutes of Superbad.

In the summer of 1987, James (Jesse Eisenberg) has to get a job to be able to go to college in New York. When he realizes his forte isn’t manual labor, he gets a job at Adventureland (hints the title) to try to score enough coinage to become a journalism major in New York. When he meets Emma, or Em (Kristen Stewart), he immediately feels infatuation, and soon love, for the coworker. With a great surrounding cast including Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig, Adventureland scores big tickets! (Please, god, excuse this pun.)

The best aspects of this film, to reiterate a bit, are the acting, script, and direction, which were all amazing. The soundtrack was great, as well, though nothing will ever take the cake on the Superbad opening. Mottola really crafts a great story of teenage angst and lust for a new generation of Breakfast Club affiliates.

Bottom Line: B+. Mottola delivers, and I loved the movie very much… and Seth Rogen had nothing to do with it!!!

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