Games-Games-Games

            Adventureland is Greg Mottola’s  follow up to Superbad from a few summers ago. While Superbad at its core was a cute buddy film the opening discussion of what porn site to subscribe to when Seth and Even turned the all-important 18 set the tone for the film. While their relationship was sweet the raunchy humor stole the show. Adventureland is a much more personal coming of age story than Superbad. It’s about a group of friends most of which are in college or just graduated college spending their summer working Games or Rides at a Pittsburgh amusement park.

            James (Jesse Eisenberg, The squid and the whale) a recent college graduate just found out his graduation present, a European summer vacation, is no longer in the cards and his plans for grad school at Columbia could also be in jeopardy. With nowhere else to turn he gets a job working carnival games at the local amusement park Adventureland, with his ball-checking old best friend Frigo (Matt Bush…the Cingular rollover minutes kid).

            When Em (Kristen Stewert, Twillight) saves James from getting shanked by a cheating park goer a relationship begins to blossom. Em is the cute girl with secrets. Her mom has passed, her father is never home and she spends her time off trying to fill the voids they left behind, to which of course the sweet and innocent Renaissance Studies buff, James, is completely oblivious to.

            Joel (Martin Starr), a pipe smoking Russian Literature major shows James the ins and outs of the day-to-day park rigmarole and they become pals. The older and much cooler Connell (Ryan Reynolds) takes a liking to James and the summer seems to be going as good as it could, all things considered.

            The twists and turns of Adventureland are about as predictable as an old wooden rollercoaster but ultimately they are just as enjoyable. I was still a small child in 1987, the year the movie is set, but Mottola did a good job bringing me back. There were no unnecessary or blatant references to the 80’s, as so many movies like to do. A great soundtrack helps to bring you back to a time without cell phone and the Internet, a time when it was okay to hang out after work and talk, or cruise around in your car till the sun came up.

            The marketing campaign for Adventureland really focuses on the comedy aspects of this movie but if you are expecting a bellyache from laughing so hard after this flick you’ll be disappointed. I could have done without Bill Hader, which I find myself saying a lot these days. Kristen Wiig is always good for a few laughs. No one, not even Ryan Reynolds can steal the spotlight from Jesse Eisenberg on this one, however. Cute, funny and heartfelt, this movie was a pleasant surprise.

My vote; See this movie…and then go buy the DVD.

I Love you too, man!

I think romantic comedies are my favorite genre. They are easy to follow, easy to relate to and for the most part, you always know what to expect. It’s no surprise that the bromantic comedy I love you, Man, is an enjoyable film to watch.

            Paul Rudd plays a Real Estate agent looking for his first big sell. In the opening scene of the movie he gets engaged to the beautiful Rashida Jones. They both quickly realize that Peter (Rudd) has no friends…. at all. While he is active (fencing?) and works in a business that relies heavily on networking he lacks interpersonal skills that will gain him buddies i. e. he’s not an asshole. Peter gets along better with women because, well, he can be himself and make root beer floats with chocolate straws from Pepperidge Farms for them. In desperate need for a best man at his wedding, he sets out to find some new guy friends.

            With the help of his gay brother (Andy Sanborn) his mother and an Internet friend-finding site, he goes on a series of disasteris “man-dates”. That is until Sydney (Jason Segal) walks in to his life. Sydney lives alone in Venice beach. He has a “man cave” equipped with multiple TV’s, beer, bongs, and enough musical equipment to choke KISS. Just like all other romantic comedies these opposites attract, interfere with each others lifestyles and relationships and they both end up wondering what they saw in each other in the first place.

            It’s a formulaic plot and you can see the ending coming a mile away, but it works.  Everything down to the typical “falling in love” montage seems believable. You like Sydney and you like Peter and damn it, you'll want to see them make it work! The tertiary characters in this movie are somewhat fun and include Jamie Pressley, Jan Favrou, Jane Cutin and J.K. Simmions. They are a little underdeveloped but who really cares, the movie isn’t about them.

            I haven’t laughed out loud this much at a movie since last years Forgetting Sarah Marshal, which also included Segal and Rudd. I love you, Man toned down the gross out humor of last year (sorry everyone, Jason keeps it in his pants this time) and replaced it with some heartfelt awkwardness. Neither inventive nor groundbreaking…just a damn good flick.

My vote; what have you been doing? Go see this movie…and bring a friend.

Paul Blart rhymes with….

   To go as far to say I wish I forgot the movie itself would be a bit much. I knew headed into this movie what to expect, or at least I thought I did. Kevin James, who is actually quite funny as a lovable everyman on the TV show “King of Queen’s” stars as Paul Blart, an over zealous security “guard” at a New Jersey mall before the busiest day of the year, black Friday. I put the word “guard” in quotations because…well, if you haven’t heard about the debate, you will.

            The plot is a classic, and by classic I mean predictable and boring but I wasn’t expecting to be fooled. There was very little this movie did that was crafty or original, again, no surprise. At 87 minutes I would put it at about 27 minutes to long, unless of course you wanted to develop Paul Blart as say, a sketch on “MAD TV” (does that show even exist anymore?) and then you might be able to chop him up into thirteen 5 minutes skits.

            This movie cleaned up at the box office, probably due to really clever marketing. I was expecting a few more laughs out of it but was sadly disappointed.  I’m not sure whom this movie is really good for. I would think a 12 year old might be a little too old for it, or at the very least think they are too old for it. Any child younger than 12 may not get some of the humor involved.

My vote; skip it.