'Adventureland' packs fun, with predictable ups, downs

04/09/09 - Theme parks are teeming with seedy nostalgia: the smell of fried food, creaky rides, rigged games, colored lights and cheap, impossible-to-win prizes. There's an element of stomach-churning awesomeness to the whole shtick. Anybody who's puked up cotton candy after too many rides on the Tilt-a-Whirl knows it- and anybody who's seen a 300-pound man being tenuously buckled into a shaky rollercoaster car knows it, too.

The inner workings of life as a carnie come to the fore in director Greg Motolla's ("Superbad") latest, comedic venture, "Adventureland." All the sketchy romances, drugs, booze, cliquish-ness and warped sense of priorities are on full display in "Adventureland."

The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as nebbish stoner, James, who is forced to take a summer job at the amusement park running rigged games after his planned trip to Europe falls through.

With little more than a bag of joints to get him through the summer, he sticks it out at Adventureland, a shabby, sub-par theme park run by a tube-sock clad married couple (played terrifically by Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig).

The park's gaudy exuberance is matched only by the dim incompetence of its employees. Staffed mostly by burnouts and well-meaning losers, Adventureland is a refuge and last resort for those who work there. From a Gogol-obsessed, insecure Jew to a ditzy hot chick who will dance to "Rock Me Amadeus" no matter how many times it's played each day. The cast of characters makes for a truly sad, but likable menagerie.

Though James loses a "giant-ass [stuffed] panda," at knife point his second day on the job, (the only stipulation for keeping your job at Adventureland is: "nobody wins a giant-ass panda.") he manages to keep his less-than-glamorous gig and stumble through the summer.

Romance is a given, with James eventually falling for co-worker Em, a rebellious NYU student who is hooking up with the park's married handyman, a bonafide tool who, allegedly, "once jammed with Lou Reed," and has since been wringing his 15 minutes of fame for all it's worth.

Predictable ups and downs ensue from there. An amusement park is wonderful and obscenely awful at the same time, and in a lot of ways, it makes a perfect backdrop for a coming of age story.

Notably, "Adventureland's" director Greg Motolla is one of the minds behind "Superbad," but if you go into this expecting a warped "Superbad" sequel set at a theme park, well. you'll probably be bummed you fronted $10.75 for a ticket.

"Adventureland" isn't as knockout funny as "Superbad," but then, it doesn't really have to be. It moves a bit slower and the gags don't have the same bawdy punch. In some ways, the characters are more elegantly realized and more firmly rooted in the weird world they inhabit.

"Adventureland" is funny in its own right. It's an odd marriage of offbeat humor and

It's the kind of movie that you'll forgive for its flaws. Like an untrained puppy that chews your shoes and pees on the rug - you can't help but look past its shortcomings because at the end of the day it's cute and entertaining, and it makes you happy.

"Adventureland" will make you nostalgic for your summer job (even if you don't get paid to dupe small children into losing their parents' money), summer romance, and, maybe even a corndog. Buy the ticket, take the ride - "Adventureland" is worth it.