It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

It is funny how "Adventureland" was shot in winter telling the story of James Brennan, (Jesse Eisenberg) a recent college graduate taking a summer job in a theme park called "Adventureland" to cover for his university expenses after his father takes a de-promotion from his job. "Adventureland" is one of the finest examples of coming of age films where James starts as a teenager and ends up as an adult. His transformation is highly visible and trackable by the audience. In his summer job he meets with new people, makes friendships and witnesses the realities of life which basically shapes his development and ideas. Despite his weird family, James keeps on track and manages to survive in all the U-turns he faces during his three months in the theme park. If you are familiar with coming of age films, you should know that nothing really happens in the means of story or action. This kind of films have an intense focus on the protagonist's complicated emotions and reactions to his environment and how he is shaped by these, on the road to adulthood. "Adventureland" focuses on more than one character's inner self and all those characters are somehow connected with each other either by friendship, love or hate. In this point of view, director Greg Mottola does a great job. While he is knitting the story with his characters, their lives and problems, he does not exaggerate and takes a sane and believable road which creates credibility for "Adventureland".The summer was not easy for anyone in the film but they managed to create strong bonds which will turn out to be fine memories in their future. Those memories help audience to show empathy for James, Emily (Kristen Stewart) and other characters in the park because the lives of those people used to be our own experiences once upon a time. Maybe not all but some of the things have happened to us on our way to adulthood. This is how the film creates credibility in our eyes.Even though "Adventureland" is a story of young adults, you are not going to find non-sense sex related jokes or aimless conversations like the director's previous film "Superbad". When you look in the poster of "Adventureland" you will see a sentence saying, "From the director of Superbad" but comparing "Adventureland" with "Superbad" would be a very big mistake. I think the only common point of those films is the young adults. Mottola shows two difference faces of American young adults in these films.The story takes place in 1987 but most of the time during the film you don't really take notice of this fact. Except maybe for the cars and clothing styles. Jesse Eisenberg is an excellent choice for a sophisticated poet-like character like James Brennan. As for Kristen Stewart, she is completing the main character but I haven't felt any chemistry between Stewart and Eisenberg. It might be because of the acting style of Kristen Stewart. She is playing one certain role in all her films. If she would have gone out to meet Edward Cullen during "Adventureland" no one would have been surprised. Because she is basically still the same boring character. However, her boring style as a young adult matches with the mood and the purpose of the film. One of the strong points of "Adventureland" is that the story and the characters are calm - maybe except for Bobby (Bill Hader) - and this calmness is transmitted to the audience as well. This helps audience to be a part of the film. Here, Greg Mottola does another excellent job. I should praise him for his full control over his film both as a director and writer. "Adventureland" manages to give audience a cultural reference of 80s in America because the story is loosely based on a period of Greg Mottola's life.A smart conversation or a concern of one of the characters are all about "Adventureland". This calm story is also decorated with equally calm and relaxing soundtracks with the simple set-up of the year 1987. I have found peace in the stories of those characters and therefore enjoyed "Adventureland". Once again this is a highly recommended down to earth film for those who would like to have a look at their earlier lives.

Adventureland does and does not surprise me. I expected a somewhat normal love story of a guy falling in love with a weird girl in an unusual setting. That was indeed delivered. There were however some genuine and interesting moments, but it felt overpowered by the repetitive and overused soundtrack (if one more 'edgy' Lou Reed song was played I would have taken another star off, I swear). The editing is completely off at points, something I very rarely notice within movies meaning it really was off. At so many points there were questions left unanswered because of sloppy editing, or perhaps they really were actually relying on the viewer to fill in the gaps? But that doesn't do it for me. Overall it's not a bad movie, it's interesting and even unusual in some ways, but it tries too hard and is lazy at times so runs a little thin if you are looking for good "teen" romance.

Jesse Eisenberg's role as naive college nerd who must work played brilliantly. Many funny scenes when you know what life in the 80s was like. Kennywood Park well made use of. Bill Nader hilarious with his fake 80s mustache. Kristen Steward stale and unconvincing as always. She needs to lay off the grabbing her hair bit. Kristen Wiig- even just standing around doing nothing- is funny. And Martin Starr really cute as the lost intellectual Jew.Ryan Reynolds' fans however might be a tad bit disappointed. Nice slap stick-like boys jokes, but overuses stereotypes. (Promotes drug use. Perhaps just the reality).Nice short entertainment for a rainy afternoon.

This was okay. I'd been hearing buzz about this movie for ages, I guess its considered some kind of cult classic but I didn't really "get" it. It's a sweet coming of age/summer love movie, following a recent college grad who is forced to take a crappy minimum wage job at the local amusement park after his parents announce they can no longer fund his education or send him to Europe. The plot is simple, there are some humorous moments carried along by good performances from Eisenberg and Stewart and a fun sub-cast. I think my favorite part was probably the nostalgia inducing 80's music, the Pinto that Stewart's character drove. Ryan Reynolds is that bad boy we all remember so well... 8/25/14