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April 3, 2009

At the Movies: 'Adventureland' has its ups and downs

By CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Movie Critic

On the surface, “Adventureland,” director Greg Mottola's follow-up to his hit “Superbad,” looks like another good-time, raunchy romp. And it certainly has healthy amounts of partying and pranks to go along with its gross-out gags.

ADVENTURELAND

Director: Greg Mottola

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Reynolds

Rating: R for language, drug use and sexual references

Running time: 107 minutes

The 1987 amusement-park setting also allows Mottola to revel in dead-on period kitsch, from acid-washed jeans and teased-up bangs to the absurdly annoying strains of Falco's “Rock Me Amadeus,” which repeatedly blares over the loud speakers. (He wrote the script based on his own experiences working at a Long Island theme park while at Columbia University in the late 1980s; two decades later, he's clearly still traumatized, and understandably so.)


 
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