Though it's set at a low-rent amusement park, Adventureland is essentially a summer camp movie, a nostalgia-tinged look back at the balmy nights and summer flings you may or may not have had in your youth. Nothing in the movie really justifies its setting in 1987, despite some laughs about Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" and trendy fashion, but it does help add a retro-cool sheen to what's essentially a very standard coming-of-age dramedy. Coming off Superbad, Mottola is dialing up the sentimentality and realism here, and what he achieves is admirable if a little ho-hum.
He made a swell pick by casting...
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