Saturday, April 4, 2009

Movies to NOT see when you're a soon to be unemployed college grad

Adventureland. 


You also shouldn't see it if you like good movies, because it was terrible. Here is the story.

Adventureland is the story of a recent college grad, James, from an unnamed college although it is implied that it is a prestigious liberal arts college. James had planned on spending his summer traveling through Europe before moving to New York to study journalism at Columbia. All of this changed when his parents were suddenly poor and couldn't afford to send him to Europe as a graduation gift, and apparently couldn't afford to pay for grad school either (that was a shady grey area). James thus has to get *gasp* a job. Apparently in 1987 (did I mention it took place in 1987) no one ever had summer jobs and for some reason James graduated from college without having any jobs on his resume. That was his first mistake. Long story short, he has to work at the local amusement park for the summer. There he finds love, loses love, finds love, and generally just sits around. I won't ruin the ending, partly because I know Sarah was really excited to see this movie and partly because....there's really no way to ruin the ending. It just sort of ends. 

Here are my problems.
1. I am an elitist asshole who has spent the past four years at one of the nations top liberal arts colleges and I, like James, have no idea what I'm going to be doing for the next year. I didn't need to be reminded of that in the movies. 
2. None of the characters were likable. I rooted for all of them to fail miserably. When things worked out for the two lovers at the end I might have audibly groaned. None of them deserve any happiness in life. 
3. I'm going to go ahead and write Sarah's comment to this entry right now and respond to it "You didn't understand the amusement park humor. You would have liked it more if you knew what it was like to work at an amusement park" Valid point, Sarah. Thank you for bringing it up. Here's the thing, there was no reference to any sort of amusement park specific shenanigans. I wanted amusement park shenanigans. I wanted people to screw with customers and make out on the tilt-a-whirl. The amusement park scenes (save a great scene with Bill Hader and a bat) consisted of the characters sitting around and saying things like "So, uh, you know Em....." "yea man, she's cute" "yea......." or "It's Lisa P!" "Man, Lisa P is hot" "yea......."
EDIT : I apologize for trying to read Sarah's mind. She agrees that the movie was crap. Please see her comment in the comments section as it is a work of brilliance. 
4. Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig were incredibly underused. I want a movie of them and only them.
5. Kristin Stewert may be my least favorite actress....ever.

Long story short, terrible movie.

7 comments:

PaigeS said...

I'm pretty sure the prestigious liberal arts school was named, and that it was Oberlin.

Wikipedia agrees with me. Case closed.

Sarah Moody said...

"You didn't understand the amusement park humor. You would have liked it more if you knew what it was like to work at an amusement park"

wrong wrong wrong... there was no amusement park humor i agree except for bill hader which was excellent but he was in the movie like two seconds. and the backdrop wasn't the problem...the characters were the problem. they do all need to fail. ESPECIALLY kirstien stewart. oh boo hoo my dad got re married after my mom died to a bitch. save it. cinderella did it and as i recall she didn't complain. AND her dad kicked the bucket, AND she had evil step sisters. AND she didn't spend august through may in nyc going to college.

if cinderella could do it with a smile and keep her stepmom's whites their whitest, surely kristin stewart you can survive three months at home, drinking and having sex

Marianna said...

Ladies and Gentleman....the comment of the year, Ms Sarah Moody.

Sarah Moody said...

thank you thank you

but seriously though, she was fucking ryan reynolds
your life isn't that bad if you are fucking ryan reynolds

Marianna said...

Hey! Language! We try to be a family friendly blog.

Nicky said...

Haha- good one Sarah
Also Paige beat me to it, but yes it was Oberlin. Good thing we don't go to Oberlin.

Sarah Moody said...

my apologies... i was watching south park. it gets me all riled up