Adventureland

Jesse Eisenberg and Ryan Reynolds in a movie taking place in the 80's. I'm sold. Then the movie happened and I found myself staring at the perpetually blank face of Kristen Stewart as she oscillated between her cringy relationship with the older, married, Ryan Reynolds and the nerdy, open-nosed, Jesse Eisenberg. And the movie began to wilt. Some comedies I like whereas many young adult comedies, such as this one, I can do without. These types of comedies tend to be raved about and I will always be that guy wondering what the "in" crowd are laughing about.

I was really looking forward to this comedy after watching the trailers, but was disappointed in the end. The main plot was not interesting and really dragged the movie down. The characters were dull and lacked energy. The humor lacked any effort and substance. Seems like a mixture of other movie ideas thrown into this one. Throughout the movie, I kept hoping for something memorable, but sadly, I could not find anything original. The casting just didn't work out for this movie. The acting seemed very labored and nothing inspiring or creative. What I found really annoying are the emotional scenes that were too melodramatic for a comedy, which reminded me of some cheap daytime soap. I really did not get any good vibes or feelings from this movie. I was left thinking, I could have thought up more interesting twists and plots. In the end, I was very disappointed in the lack of effort in the story and comedy writing.

The formula for "romantic comedies" is thus: Guy and girl get together. Guy and girl break up. Guy and girl get back together. Movie IMMEDIATELY ends at this point. If the movie kept going for another month or two you would see that they break up again or one of them dies, etc. This is always verified by sequels to romantic comedies. Adventureland is not a comedy as the marketing department would have us believe. Instead it is a movie that very strictly follows the "romantic comedy" formula. Two of the biggest flaws with this film: 1.) Why did they put Ryan Renyolds in the film if they didn't afford him any comedic lines? 2.) Just because the James Brennan character has the pick of two women does not mean he has to pick one. One is promiscuous and the other is mentally unstable. Neither actually cares about him. Sometimes staying single is the best option.

Congratulations to Greg Mottola for dashing my expectations. I thought I was going to see a whimsical period comedy set amid the debauchery and antics of ride ops and game workers at an amusement park. Instead what I got was melodrama about teen love mixed up in several tawdry affairs which included a cast of barely enjoyable characters who all seemed quite miserable. Special recognition to the director for making party scenes and marijuana scenes boring as hell. Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig and Ryan Reynolds were criminally underused. Their scenes were top-notch hilarious but too sparse to give credit to the movie in which they take place. The only really good stuff took place inside the park. I leave with this question. If you had an amusement park at your disposal, wouldn't you try to shoot as much of the movie there as possible?

I went into this movie alone knowing only what I know thanks to the trailers on TV, and considering it was such a small crowd, I was kind of worried. Good news, though: it was actually funny and fun to watch. They said that it was "this year's Juno," which I find a bit concerning because this wasn't as heavy. The characters are likable, the story was decent and reasonably new, and there was no shortage of heart. For these reasons, I actually liked this. The only drawback was that it seemed that it concluded way too neatly; other than that, it was a pretty good movie. The verdict: this definitely a 9 out of 10.