All Critics (205)
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Top Critics (41)
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Fresh (190)
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Rotten (25)
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DVD (20)
The story is semi-autobiographical, but has a gentler touch than his prior work on Superbad, and certainly relies less on slapstick episodes.
Audiences expecting another dumb wallow will be startled, and I hope enlivened, by this movie's core of feeling.
The youths of Superbad were a little bit younger, a little more likable, their dirty-virgin wit more hilarious [than in Adventureland].
Adventureland isn't as clever as Kicking, and not nearly as hilarious as Superbad, but it's still a sweet little memory ache, a Proustian cookie co-flavored with semiotics and Whitesnake.
Adventureland earns its edge-of-adulthood sweetness and has characters with real hearts under their goofy T-shirts.
The movie does a very good job of capturing the teens and their times. Everything feels right, from the ups-and-downs of late '80s rock, to the way kids really behaved.
The messages -- about silver linings in lousy jobs, the collision of hormones and heartstrings, and the adventure of discovering who you really are and what you really want -- ring honest and true, for any era.
Adventureland is ultimately an interesting but flawed mixture of Mottolla's early indie sensibility (The Daytrippers) with some of the more mainstream teen comedy elements of Superbad.
The characters are pointlessly depressing, wallowing in their own negative emotions laced with pot-smoke and messy post-teenage sex.
Adventureland's young cast is strong, and, when the film works, it captures the languid limbo of post-adolescent confusion and longing.
A coming of age tale based loosely on the experiences of writer/director Greg Mottola, Adventureland is a surprisingly dense teen flick yet its unfortunate forays into religion bashing undermines its overall effect.
It's a bit slight and rambling, but also manages to engage us due to the sharply drawn characters
[Mottola has] done his job in making the work feel authentic, funny, and like a breeze to sit through.
Regardless of the well filled-out cast and the fact that it's structured like a comedy, Adventureland just isn't funny. There really aren't jokes and the overlong running time is mostly given to a standard budding romance.
Content to occupy that middle ground where insights are authentic but far from revelatory and comedy is more amiable than riotous.
A funny, touching and honest film about a serious 22-year-old neither embarrassed by nor exulting in his lack of sexual experience.
Without recourse to frilly cuffs or a montage to A Flock Of Seagulls' greatest hit, it plays the '80s card for something heartfelt.
Adventureland is reminiscent of indie movies like Breaking Away, Dazed and Confused and Clerks. You could put it another way and say it's not very original. Yet, watching the movie, you're too swept up in James's problems to care.
As a sweet-natured character comedy - and a subtle exercise in generic boundary-pushing - this is a real charmer.
Its gentle charm and effortless eloquence personified by its winning lead, Adventureland is only marred by a rote final reel.
The whole enterprise is infused with a quality of feeling, an integrity, that is rare in such a commercial film.
A tremendously funny and touching coming-of-age story, which he has set in the 1980s with a sprinkling of nicely chosen cultural references.
Like all films that strike a chord, you'll find yourself replaying your own memories as the credits roll on a comedy that fires the heart.
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