Adventureland, a Mr. E Movie Review

(Run time: 107 min. - Directed by: Greg Mottola - Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kelsey Ford, Michael Zegen, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds)

Adventureland is that movie that reminds you of your first couple, crappy jobs. And true to the title a majority of the movie takes place at a rundown amusement park named Adventureland. As a nostalgic comedy set in the late eighty’s Adventureland feels cool like Superbad but a little like Dazed and Confused. (Both of which were Awesome!) I enjoyed this movie on a real cool level.

After an art major, played by Jesse Eisenberg, graduates from college he goes home and finds that not only is his summer graduation trip cancelled but his opportunity to go to graduate school in jeopardy all because his dad has been demoted.To save himself he’s forced to take an end of the line job at the Adventureland amusement park. He’s assigned to monitor the carnival games with all the flunkies.There he meets the girl of his dreams after almost getting knifed for a giant stuffed panda. (She’s played by Twilight star Kristen Stewart.) Her guy-on-the-side is Ryan Reynolds who plays the parks handy man and ultimate cool guy. After a sexless summer of uneventful work and joint smoking, our graduate’s problems just keep coming after a little fender bender cost him big and his last chance friend changes his mind. (Not to mention what happens when the secret his new love interest has been keeping is revealed!)

It’s a smart and entertaining movie that when you add in the weed smoke and the flash back to the eighties styles and you’ve got a movie that’ll take anyone over 30 back to a not-so-cool-but-still-kinda-cool time. There were quite a few funny parts, but mostly slacker humor. Which is cool.

I recommend this movie to anyone over 16 for the humor but really recommend it to the over 30 crowd for the above mentioned nostalgic reasons. Check it out, its cool.