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Welcome to Adventureland, where the worst job imaginable is about to inadvertently turn into the summer that changes everything. Adventureland, a self-professedly fun Pennsylvania amusement park, appears to be the bane of recent college graduates James Brennans existence. He previously had big plans to spend the summer on a life-altering trek through Europe that would initiate him into real adult life. But when his family suffers an economic downturn in the middle of the Reagan 80s, James only summer trip is straight to a minimum wage job manning a game booth so existentially bankrupt, no one is even allowed to win the giant stuffed panda. Yet, Adventureland isn`t quite what it seems on the surface. For behind the cloying cotton candy aroma, the grating disco songs and the near pathological customers, there is a whole other world of misfit friends, hidden dreams and most incredibly, after-work encounters with the alluringly sharp-tongued arcade girl, Em Lewin. And when James discovers the hard-won courage to go to battle for Em, the result is a savagely funny yet sweetly heart-felt and unexpected encounter with a real adult life.
"Adventureland" is not "Superbad." It is not a wacky comedy. It is a very realistic look at romance among adults in their early 20s. For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, it takes us back, visually and through the music, to a magical time when our gonads were break-dancing and the mysteries, miseries and joys of life were brand new.

I have actually seen the film twice. The second time I took a woman who barely speaks English. Didn't matter. After the movie she was smiling and said the film made her feel "very warm." I won't say much else, other than, if you want to take a date to a nice romantic film, THIS IS IT.

Nevermind the idiots who are upset because the film is not a sequal or imitation of "Superbad."





Production Status: Released

Genres: Comedy and Drama

Running Time: 1 hr. 46 min.

Release Date: April 3rd, 2009 (wide)

MPAA Rating: R for language, drug use and sexual references.

Distributors: Miramax Films

Production Co.: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, This Is That

Studios: Miramax Films

U.S. Box Office: $15,927,094

Filming Locations: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA

Produced in: United States