The movie takes place in time when tube socks and high waisted jeans were a big fashion mover.  James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) is a college grad whose dream is to take a big European summer vacation.  His dreams fall through when he is given the news that his father has had a demotion and money is tight.  This is where he is forced to take a summer job at a local amusement park……”A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E-L-A-N-D!”  How exciting to spend your 1^st job as a carnie!  …Not really!  After seeing this movie, I was very proud of the fact that my 1^st job had declared me as a “Sandwich Artist.”

James discovers love with his co-worker, Em (Kristen Stewart), and forgets about his heartache from the past.  The attraction between James and Em (Kristen Stewart) begins when she saves him from someone cheating at his ring toss game for the gain of a “big ass panda” at knifepoint.  This movie does support the point, that love is discovered in the most unexpectant places.  Besides Em, he also gains friendship with his other co-workers. 

All of my favorite scenes involved both Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader.  The one scene that I thought was super funny was when they were gluing googly eyes on the overstuffed bananas, which they gave away as the prizes for the game stations….well, they were running out of glue for all of the eyes, so Kristen Wiig was putting eye patches on the bananas.  Even though I gave this movie a 3 star rating, I have to give 5 stars for the high-waist mommy jeans, blue eye shadow, and how can I forget the infamous Rock Me Amadeus song!

It is definitely safe to say that this movie does belong on your DVD shelf!  It’s not as crude and hilarious as Superbad, but it did still get some smirks out of me.

Did You Know?

Director, Greg Mottola, who also directed Superbad, had worked at Adventureland Amusement Park in Long Island, in which this film was based on his real life experiences working there.