Review: Adventureland

Adentureland (2009)
starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig
dir: Greg Motolla

When the lights had come up I felt very indifferent about what I'd just witnessed. There was little, if anything I hadn't seen before and the jokes either felt too quirky or fell flat. This isn't an awful movie, it's just a very plain movie. Then it hit me. It reminded me of an indie film from the early 90's. Had it been made back then, it would have starred Eric Stoltz who seemed to make a living of of this type of material.

The weakest link in as far the acting goes is Kristen Stewart, who seems to have two emotions which are confusion and emptiness. I know emptiness doesn't count as an emotion, but I'm trying to give her some credit. I do think she is an attractive young woman, but she really needs to find some range. I'd even settle for that, "Do I smell fart?" acting that the main woman on Fringe does. But alas, there is nothing new here and they could have easily used cutting room floor footage from Twilight (2008) and no one would notice.

Eisenberg was great stuff in Roger Dodger (2002) as well as The Squid And The Whale (2005) and he's relatively competent here. It is starting to get to the point where he and Michael Cera are interchangeable. Make a decision about curly hair or straight hair and you know which actor to cast. Martin Starr gives us the best performance of the bunch, Ryan Reynolds is fine as well as Bill Hader and counterpart Kristen Wiig, who are given little to do but work hard at doing it well.

The biggest problem that keeps creeping back in my mind is that these don't feel like college graduates. They play a lot better as high school kids. All of the situations seem to make more sense it the characters contained less life experience. Plus, not having enough money to go to grad school seems kind of ridiculous. If you've been accepted to grad school, they find ways to get you to go. There are a ton of financial aid programs, housing aid, and grants (even in 1987), so having to take a crap job to save cash just doesn't seem to hold water. At times I felt like they made it post college so director Greg Motolla could have scenes of them hanging out in bars listening to bad 80's cover bands.

Much better reserved for video than the price of a theater ticket, this is worth a watch, but don't expect any major laughs.

7.3 out of 10