Bad boys two

After striking comedic gold with 2007’s “Superbad,” I was expecting big things from director Greg Mottola’s follow-up.

While “Adventureland” is not quite the non-stop laugh-a-thon that its predecessor was, it more than makes up for it with its well-crafted and true-to-life story about coming of age and discovering love.

Don’t get me wrong, “Adventureland” can hold its own as a truly great comedy, but it is so much more than that.

James (Jesse Eisenberg) is fresh out of college in 1980s Pittsburgh with no work experience, no money and no plans.

His solution: get a job at the local theme park. There, James meets the crew: the neurotic managers (the always hilarious Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig), the nerdy friend (Martin Starr), the sexy coworker (Margarita Levieva), the hunky maintenance guy (Ryan Reynolds) and, of course, the love interest (Kristen Stewart).

Throw in the slapstick antics of Frigo (Matt Bush – the next Stifler?), and you have the perfect mix of characters and actors.

With the help of a bag of joints, James becomes the hit of the park. Two coworkers in particular, Stewart and Levieva, take a liking to him, and drama ensues.

Eisenberg is perfectly awkward as the inexperienced James, struggling to find meaning in a bleak future.

And Stewart is excellent as Em, the cool party girl who has as much brains as she does looks. With the help of witty dialogue that vacillates between mature humor and boner jokes, the two young stars steal the movie.

Given the subject matter of “Adventureland,” the script could have easily been overloaded with cheap laughs and cheesy romance, but Mottola’s writing is top-notch and incredibly realistic.  

While the film might be criticized for staying relatively risk-free and uncontroversial, that seems to be Mottola’s point.

They may be boring to work at, but theme parks are supposed to be amusing.
And if nothing else, “Adventureland” is a touchingly hilarious amusement.