Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Adventureland
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 107 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: Greg Mottola
Directed by: Greg Mottola
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 3, 2009
DVD: August 25, 2009
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language, drug use and sexual references
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Paige Howard, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Margarita Levieva
It's the summer of 1987, and James Brennan , an uptight recent college grad, can't wait to embark on his dream tour of Europe. But when his parents announce they can no longer subsidize his trip, James has little choice but to take a lowly job at a local amusement park. Forget about German beer, world-famous museums and cute French girls -- James' summer will now be populated by belligerent dads, stuffed pandas, and screaming kids high on cotton candy. Lucky for James, what should have been his worst summer ever turns into quite an adventure as he discovers love in the most unlikely place with his captivating co-worker Em, and learns to loosen up. (Miramax Films)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
A sweet, sharp coming-of-age romance, Adventureland is a little warmer, a little funnier and a lot more truthful than the last 20 or 30 of its ilk. Especially its Hollywood ilk.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Jesse Eisenberg stars as a kinder, gentler version of the insufferable faux intellectual he played in "The Squid And The Whale."
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
For nostalgia junkies, it's one from the heart.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
A young adult romantic comedy with a sweetness and delicacy that lifts it out of its genre.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Has the note-perfect melancholy of a classic young adult novel.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Thanks to an exceptionally deft touch, Mottola manages to capture the absurdity and anguish of young adulthood, while never sacrificing meaning on the altar of crude humor.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Scott Foundas
I've seen Mottola's movie twice, and both times, it has inspired feelings of joy, sadness, and a profound yearning for the unrecoverable past.
Read Full Review >Premiere Krista Soriano
On the surface, this might look like a typical teen movie, but Adventureland’s talented cast perfectly portrays the self-loathing and strong-minded characters in that transient post-college stage of life.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The result is a sharp, insightful, charming motion picture.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
A bittersweet joy. Its humor and romance are refreshing because the writer-director, Greg Mottola, realizes that maturity is a two-steps-forward, one-step-backward process.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
What makes the movie such an unexpectedly potent little number is that Adventureland comes to stand for Stagnationland; the real roller coaster (i.e., life) is just outside the park.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge
With a keen affection for his own formative years, filmmaker Greg Mottola has crafted a funny and spunky amusement
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Greg Mottola has taken that most overdone of contemporary genres, the coming-of-age story, and made it engaging, bittersweet and even fun.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Somehow the story of a young man's coming of age never gets old, at least when it is told with the kind of sweetness and intelligence Adventureland displays.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A confident return to the kind of teen comedy that's funny without being raunchy, youthful without being juvenile, and reflective without hitting you over the head.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Mottola also wrote the screenplay, which is most fresh and honest when dealing with supporting characters.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
What surprised me was how much I admired Kristen Stewart, who in "Twilight," was playing below her grade level. Here is an actress ready to do important things. Together, and with the others, they make Adventureland more real and more touching than it may sound.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Mottola softens his approach, and Adventureland turns out to be more like "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist" than a Judd Apatow creation.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Mixes the intimate, indie vibe of "Daytrippers" with the absurdist screwball streak of "Superbad," to winning effect.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The laughs in Adventureland aren't as outlandish as those in "Superbad," but they seem more based in experience and truth. You could want something more raucous, I suppose, but that wouldn't necessarily be an improvement.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
This film makes you wonder why aren't there more young love movies?
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Yes, the delight of this movie lies in these devilish details, and it's clear that writer-director Greg Mottola knows them well.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Mottola (who also wrote the script) and his actors manage to shape the movie into something whole and tangible, capturing, among other things, the shapeless listlessness of summer, especially at that age when you're technically an adult and yet you're left waiting for life to begin.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
A rather ordinary account of youthful summer misadventures that goes down easily thanks to a sparky cast, more than 40 pop tunes that anchor the action in the late '80s and characters who get high both on and off their jobs at a tacky amusement park.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Adventureland throws a lot at us, but not enough of it sticks.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Mottola, who wrote and directed 1996's "The Daytrippers," crafts smart, witty dialogue. But the movie suffers in tone. While much of the story feels like a brainier John Hughes comedy, it veers into more dramatic terrain and loses focus.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Adventureland has the structure of a Tilt-a-Whirl ride: It goes where you expect, and may fill you with dread.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Scott Mendelson
What separates Adventureland from something like "Garden State" is a commitment to realism and plausibility. In fact, at times, it is almost too realistic given the location's inherent value as a comic prop. For a film set primarily in an amusement park, it isn't terribly amusing.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
There's no shortage of felicitous lines or interesting performances, yet the movie, like the amusement park of its title, feels constructed from familiar parts.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Harmless enough, but "indie comedy" sounds like something better seen at Urban Outfitters than at a movie theater.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 107 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Damion K gave it an8:
8 / 10 (unadjusted score 7/10). I always have to adjust my score on this website to counter the people who post a 0/10. A zero represents the ABSOLUTE worst movie you could possibly see. People who contribute a zero are doing just that, providing a misdeed for score calculation. Anyways, I was under the impression that this movie was more or less a comedy, but it was more of an emotional drama. Don't get me wrong, there are a few funny moments, but the emphasis is on a deeper seeded emotional roller coaster (extra points for a bad pun here).
Jeremy E gave it a0:
This movie was boring and unimaginative. The characters were simple, and instead of a plot, the audience was provided with the awkward self-loathing middle class teenager which has apparently become the norm.
J T gave it a7:
Although the humour is subtle, the script, as well as the actors, are solid. I loved the ending (which I think is what most people hated about this film) because it ends just where it should.
Mike from Maine gave it a9:
It captures what I felt at 21 or 22 - a little lost coming out of college, a lot lost on relationships, and trying to have a good time in the midst of all that. It's not out to make you laugh the whole way through, but it is sweet, funny, and true to life. As for the ending, despite being predictable, it suits the tone of the rest of the film.
Keep it Real gave it a7:
Very few teen flicks manages to keep it as real as this one. Adventureland is a breath of fresh air with an excellent cast. Finally a teen flick about normal kids, far from the boring done-to-death Hollywood clichés of nerds, members of the football team and cheerleaders. OK, there are some nerds, but hey, nerds are the norm!
C S gave it a7:
Pretty good movie that held me engaged for all but the last 10 minutes. The writer pussed out, pretty much ruining the entire high from the previous hour and a half, by not making a stand at the end. If the ending had approximated something along the lines of Em not accepting Eisenberg's characters' showing up in NYC at the end, and forcing blunt reality, this film would've scored a 9 with me.
Tom B gave it a0:
Predictability torches you like a thousand suns spewed forth from the drippy face of some stuttering douche bag.
