Release Date – 4/3/09
Its 1987 and James Brennan just graduated from college. He plans on traveling Europe for the summer before moving to New York with his buddy and going to grad school at Columbia. Things change when his father gets demoted and they don’t have the money to send him to Europe or to Columbia. So he has to get a summer job to try to save enough to do it himself. He realizes his resume isn’t the greatest so he takes a shit job at the local amusement park. While there he meets a whole cast of weird characters including a girl named Em who he completely falls for. It’s a great story. Think Juno without the forced quirkiness. Great writing and directing by Greg Mottola who also directed Superbad. But if you’re looking for a straight up comedy then you’ll be disappointed. This is much more drama than one might think.
Jesse Eisenburg channels the awkwardness of Michael Cera to pull off the lovable loser, James. There’s no doubt that you will see the similarities between the two actors. Hell, they even look alike. But he does a great job. You really feel sorry for him and want to see him succeed whether it be with chicks or with life in general. Kristen Stewart plays the cute troubled girl Em that likes James but has some personal issues keeping her from committing. The supporting cast is great. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig play the managers of the park and basically they’re the over the top SNL type characters that bring a lot of the comedy. Martin Starr is the pipe-smoking, weirdo kid that befriends James and teaches him the ropes. Ryan Reynolds plays the maintenance man that all the girls are obsessed with but there’s much more to his story. I’m glad he played the straight man instead of the goofball character that he sometimes portrays. Anyway, I could go on and on about the cast because each of them were unique. There’s the ball tapping Frigo. The hot girl Lisa P. The cool guy Pete. So many great characters no matter how big or small the role was.
If I could name one problem I had with the movie it was the lack of comedy. Sure it has its moments of “the funny” but I was expecting much more. Superbad was a straight up hilariously silly comedy and this is nothing like that. You feel bad for these characters because each one is flawed in a certain way. I guess Motolla didn’t want to make the same movie over again. He dropped the high school theme and went with college aged kids. He focused more on dark comedy this time around. But the more I think about it and the more I realize what he was going for, the more I like it. I shouldn’t have had an idea in my mind before going in. This wasn’t supposed to be Superbad Part 2 but an entirely different genre all together. It works well. I look forward to more of his writing and directing because the man can make a great character driven dramedy with a great 80s soundtrack.
Rock me Amadeus, this shit is MADE!
IMDB – 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 89%
Movie Wiseguys – 8/10
