Drew Smith (ceWEBrity)

Better than 500 Days of Summer by a mile, Adventureland is an exemplary portrait of two characters who grow and mature right in front of our eyes into likable, complex human beings. Whereas we leave the former movie feeling that Joseph Gordon-Levitt didn't really learn all that much from his experience (except that women are EVIL omg omg), here Brennan gains a mature understanding of not only human relationships, but the world around him, escaping from a stifling upper middle class bubble. There are no drastic changes in his personality - he still laces his speech with wobbly allusions to Shakespeare and Dickens to seem more intelligent - but he becomes all the more palatable by the end, simply because he's got some life experience under his belt. He doesn't start out as awful, but merely entitled and sort of stuck-up, and Greg Mottola loosens him up with an alarmingly subtle hand. Jesse Eisenberg, likewise, does commendable work here, doing his job like a less obvious Michael Cera.

Kristen Stewart is also great here. I know the general rule of thumb is to tell everyone she sucks, but I haven't seen her in enough to substantiate this (short of The Messenger, where yes, she is truly bad). Perhaps the casting director is to be thanked for her success in Adventureland, because she slides into the part flawlessly; she's detached, a little bit spiny, and sort of an everywoman. She's a plain, rough, deceptively gifted girl, and both the script and Stewart don't make her charms immediately accessible. Not to keep drawing comparisons, but Zooey Deschanel was such an obvious find right from the start: sexually liberated, cute as a button, and wearing her critically sanctioned good taste in music on her sleeve. When Brennan finally breaks down Em's guard, the resulting relationship feels about a million times more rewarding. She is in no way the cipher that Summer was.

I should probably commend the movie on its own terms, namely for being a rich, rewarding, subtle romantic comedy for young adults that doesn't vilify either of its characters (The Wackness) but doesn't put them on a pedestal either (500 Days of Summer). The ending left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth - it seems too easy, or too convenient at least, for a journey that's been fraught with difficulties - but I guess in the end there's nothing wrong with leaving the theater with a smile on your face. The comedy is generally quiet, which came as a surprise to me, and perhaps not uproarious, but there's a lot of gems to be found here. Kristen Wiig is especially awesome in a limited part as the morbidly depressing wife of Adventureland's owner, and frankly this is the best work Ryan Reynolds has ever done. Not that it was much of a surprise, with his previous benchmark being the goddamn Amityville Horror remake, or maybe The Nines but no one saw that.

Wow, I have no idea WHAT this movie was going for. I guess the easiest read is as a giallo throwback, but then what's with the bizarre existentialist twist toward the end? I guess it's a pretty good philosophical theme for a zombie movie to explore, but frankly, the movie is too fucking stupid to make any good of it. The date on the back may read 1996, but the continuity is straight out of 70s Italy, and some parts of Cemetery Man benefit more than others from this. The movie is a success when it gives way to Rupert Everett capping zombies with ridiculous poise, or sweet virginal young girls getting decapitated by buses, not so much during a "deep" and life-affirming ending lifted more or less from Citizen Kane (!!).

I enjoyed this more or less, but it's attempting way too much as a tongue-in-cheek homage, or it's a general failure if it's actually attempting to be a legitimate horror comedy. It's no classic, but it may be fun to throw on every once in a while, if only to show your friends some of the bizarre carnage that ensues.

I cannot imagine a romance film that is more sincere or subdued. It's like watching every good dream you've ever had unfurl on the screen.

If you don't like this movie, you're wrong. Simple as that.