Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

PodBill Just what I expected

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

kiowhatta If only every teen were so understatedly cool, rich in philosophical epigrams, clumsy teen wisdom, perfect lips and complete socio- political awareness, such that they could be elected to both a fashion academy and junior political staffer within ten minutes of existence. These characters are plausible, complex, angst-ridden, curious and frustrated, not to mention either semi-professional pouters with luscious buttocks or revenge of the nerd's candidates who are virgins.As for the plot, it ebbs and flows, straining to be serious and relevant one sequence, and then 80's pop culture parody ripe with obvious references the next.I wanted to like this movie as it had it's charms and moments, but I just couldn't shake the cringe factor running through my muscles like nervous tension every time a cute guy or girl swanned into the frame.This is standard Saturday-night fare if you're lonely and bored, and able to access porn afterward. (Did I just type that?) No, it was Kristen Stewart who's lips are putting all over my keyboard.

Jackson Booth-Millard I knew the leading actor from The Social Network was in it, I knew about the setting, and I knew the critics give it a good rating, I was looking forward to whatever it had to offer, directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad, Paul). Basically set in 1987, at the beginning of summer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, young adult James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) has graduated from Oberlin College with a comparative literature degree, but he inexperienced in many ways, including being a virgin. He has plans to spend the summer touring Europe with his best friend Eric (Michael Zegen), before heading to New York City to attend a journalism graduate school at Columbia University, but his parents, Mr. Brennan (Jack Gilpin) and Mrs. Brennan (Wendie Malick), announce they can no longer financially support him. James has no real skills, but he is forced to take the only job he can get, at a third rate amusement park called Adventureland, assistant manager Bobby (Bill Hader) assigns him to be one of many games operators, most of the games themselves are fixed. James's co- workers include the sarcastic Joel (Martin Starr); park manager and Bobby's wife Paulette (Kristen Wiig); the alluring Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva); and the park's maintenance man/technician and part-time musician Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds). James believes he has died and gone to hell, until an incident with a cheating, threatening customer brings along Emily "Em" Lewin (Twilight's Kristen Stewart), another games worker, who saves him, he is instantly attracted to her, and with no real experience with women, Mike takes him under his wing to give him advice. James and Em becomes good friends, slowly they embark on a relationship, and have their first kiss, but she wants to take things slowly, James is upset, and when Lisa P. asks him on a date, he eventually accepts, during it they kiss. After the date, James learns Em had called apologising for rejecting him, Joel is irritated about James being with Lisa P., James unsuccessfully tries to convince him to stop quitting, James is honest with Em about going out with Lisa P., hearing this she ends her affair with Connell. James goes to Connell's mother's house, where he apparently takes girls for sex, he is upset to see Em walk out, James spreads the word around, Em quits in anger and moves to New York, James is heartbroken, gets drunk and drives his father's car into a tree, the following morning his mother tells him he must pay for the damage with his summer earnings. James no longer has enough to attend graduate school like he wanted, but with his parents' blessing he heads to New York anyway, meeting Em at her apartment she is reluctant to talk to him, but she is touched by what he tells her, he reveals he will wait for next year to go to Columbia, and they embrace, removing their clothes, implying they will have sex. Also starring Josh Pais as Mr. Lewin, Mary Birdsong as Francy and Paige Howard as Sue O'Malley. Eisenberg is great as the vulnerable, nerdy every man, and Stewart is good as his smart but melancholy love interest, this is not the typical teen movie, most are filled with gross-out jokes and outrageous behaviour, but this one is a more heartfelt, focusing simply on the relationships between characters, and leaving room for 1980s nostalgia, a simple but most effective coming-of-age comedy drama. Very good!

John Hodge Adventureland represents everything I pray my first months as a college graduate do not included. Although… worse things than bro- ing out with Ryan Reynolds and having Kristen Stewart fall madly in love me could without-a-doubt go down. Jesse Eisenberg, the un-expected hero of Adventureland (expected hero, really) portrays a less asshole-ish version of his Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, pulling out all the nerdy stops, including but not limited to: an immensely awkward and unfailing stammer when speaking to any remotely attractive woman, a less-than- flattering Jew-fro, and a borderline translucent complexion (admittedly much like my own). Kristen Stewart is… well, Kristen Stewart, bringing the exact same mannerisms and monotone speech that she brings to every other film she's been in. Last but not least, Ryan Reynolds plays the classic douche. Did I mention that Adventureland takes place in the 80's? I shouldn't be too harsh, though, considering that I actually enjoyed the film and the acting wasn't all that bad. Do not be mistaken, Adventureland is for the youthful, it is for those looking for a light-hearted comedy, it might even be for the unintelligent (not exclusively but mainly, so I surmise), but all this does not mean that it is a bad movie. Adventureland is a small, probably a bit underrated for what it is, romantic-comedy, whose scale tips more in favor of comedy. This, I believe, is for the best. I am not sure this trio of actors, all with their total of one solid performance between them (see paragraph above), are ready to form a Scarlet Letter-esque love triangle in a dramatic romance film akin to that of Blue Valentine or Her or even something similar to the more humorous but still-siding-with-romance-over-comedy, (500) Days of Summer (though Reynolds has certainly tried). Adventureland is funny, and I wouldn't think anyone who has seen it would fight with me on this. Bill Hader, as Bobby, steals the show with his sheer absurdity. One scene in particular is especially hilarious. It comes after James (Eisenberg) stands up for Em (Stewart) by jabbing a slightly over-weight and probably drunk more- or-less hillbilly in the abdomen, which causes the hillbilly's equally likely-to-wear-a-trucker-hat friend to angrily chase James around Adventureland, the carnival where he and Em have summer jobs. James races into the main office and breathes out the words, "Someone is trying to kill me." Hader responds, he grabs his women's softball bat and exits the office screaming profanities and essential death threats at the attacker, who, believing Hader to be a full- blown psychopath, runs off. Along with attacking a patron of Adventureland who refuses to properly dispose of his empty soda and insanely commentating for a predetermined race of plastic horse cut-outs, Hader dominates the movie, keeping it fresh and making it easy to watch the film in its entirety. While, I refuse to say there was anything redeeming about Reynolds in Adventureland, himself and his character included, there were moments that I was pleasantly surprised by the Eisenberg and Stewart's acting efforts. Specifically was James' confrontation of Em after discovering that she has been sleeping with Connell in secret, which has been the cause of Em's self-loathing and inability to commit to James (Reynolds really does his darndest to f@#k everything up in this one). Stewart's incredible stress and confusion are remarkably apparent on her crying face as she watches her love life go to complete and total sh%t all in about five minutes. Then, she returns home, where her rapidly balding step- mother calls her an "ungrateful bitch." Rough. Maybe the acting is tad bit underwhelming, maybe the arch of the film's plot is disappointingly predictable, maybe I wanted to strangle Ryan Reynolds for the entire runtime of the film, but, in the end, I still like this movie. Like many movies about young people, Adventureland connects with… well, young people. It's definitely no Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Breakfast Club (I didn't exactly want to crash a massive parade in the heart of downtown Chicago or befriend a low-life named John Bender after seeing this film), but I did connect with the notion of longing for love and excitement. James has a grand vision of what he hopes his life will be like, a vision that contrasts hideously with how his life is now, and he ultimately finds this to be deeply upsetting. These feelings are probably felt by a multitude of young men and women, and I pride Adventureland for being aware of that. However, much like the arch of the plot, this trope has been played upon time and time again. I like Adventureland for the simple reason that it is funny and light-hearted, I connect with it on some level, and it is by no means an investment watching it (it's not a "thinker," so to speak). I would recommend it for date night; that's probably the best way that I can describe Adventureland.

Ben Davis Pretty funny and enjoyable movie in my opinion. If you don't like this movie, I won't argue with you. I can see why some people wouldn't like this movie. I do really like coming of age movies, so maybe that's why I can look past a lot of flaws, but hey. You like what you like and certain movies work for certain people for various reasons. I tend to relate to characters on these types of movies. It's about a guy named James Brennan, played by Jesse Eisenberg, who has to get a summer job in order to save money to either go to college or go to Europe (I can't remember). He ends working at an amusement park and there he meets some new friends. The movie follows what they do throughout the runtime. And for the most part, this works. The movie is funny and at the very least watchable. However, I do feel like there are several parts of this film where the humor is absent for longer than necessary, and it can get slightly boring and overly dramatic at some points. Ultimately, I think the good outweighs the bad however and I say you watch it. Though like I said, I can see why you wouldn't like it.