Entourage, 2015.
Directed by Doug Ellin.
Starring Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven, Emmanuelle Chriquil, Perrey Reeves, Rex Lee, Mark Wahlberg, Ronda Rousey, Gary Busey, Billy Bob Thornton, Haley Joel Osment, Emily Ratajkowski, Liam Neeson, T.I, Piers Morgan, George Takei, Jessica Alba, Ed O’Neill, Common, Mike Tyson, David Arquette, Pharell Williams, David Spade, Bob Saget, Jon Favreau, Andrew Dice Clay and Kelsey Grammer.
SYNOPSIS:
Movie star Vincent Chase, together with his boys Eric, Turtle, and Johnny, are back – and back in business with super agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold on a risky project that will serve as Vince’s directorial debut.
Rolling into theaters after the hit HBO comedy series overstayed its welcome with a few underwhelming seasons, the Entourage movie is both a little too late to revitalize the property in any meaningful way, but a nice enjoyable piece of fan service that is both satisfactory and a slight return to form.
Entourage is a funny film featuring the camaraderie and friendly ribbing between the four leads (Vincent Chase, his brother Johnny, E, and Turtle) but the journey through the glamorized hedonistic lifestyle of Hollywood is a bumpy one. Right off the bat it is clear the movie is trying to amend some of the television show’s mistakes, as studio executive Ari Gold who ended the last season as some sort of NFL hotshot, is now a movie producer. None of this is explained in the film but apparently is explained in various articles online, but that isn’t good enough. Unless it’s a plot point from the show crossing into the film, important character events such as this should at least be glossed over in the actual movie even if it’s just for a minute.
Either way, it’s a minor nitpick considering that Entourage was more focused on cramming as many cameo appearances as physically possible into a 105 minute movie. That sounds cool on paper, but hardly any of them are actually a creative gag or worthwhile to the movie; who cares about seeing Liam Neeson give Ari Gold the finger when there’s absolutely no context to laugh. Not all of the cameos needed a vital role in the film like Ronda Rousey (she plays a love interest to Turtle) but there’s a problem when a feature film contains literally over 50 cameos of famous celebrities from all walks of entertainment, and I can’t remember hardly any of them. The old adage of less is more definitely applies here, as some of these random scenes also throw the story off its axis.
Entourage has all your favorite characters from the show, but because of the aforementioned obsession with shoehorning in C-list celebrities, it feels like their time is cut short resulting in an empty mess of a story with no flow. Ari’s former assistant Lloyd is getting married, and as usual their interactions make for some cruelly homophobic dialogue that works because deep down the characters respect each other, but there’s not enough of it and the situation doesn’t see a resolution until the middle of the credits. Speaking of Ari Gold however, his anger building to nuclear levels progressively throughout the film as more and more conflict arises single-handedly warrants the price of a ticket for anyone that has ever enjoyed the show at some point. Jeremy Piven, from the pilot, has nailed playing the egotistical hotshot studio guy that admirably cares about people more than success, even though he shows it by being a jackass to everyone.
Finally, Entourage also fixes every character struggle by writing out one of the most lazy and contrived endings in the history of comedy. Between all of the problems and actual ending give the impression of a missing 20 minutes or so, because the film literally just jumps from downward spirals to on-top-of-the-world success. What’s most frustrating is that the movie was hitting its stride and genuinely becoming hilarious before nosediving into a stupidly unforgivable resolution.
With all of this negativity, it may seem surprising that I am giving Entourage three stars on a pure entertainment level, but truthfully speaking for fans of the show, even with all of its faults the movie has many laugh out loud scenes and is an unabashed guilty pleasure. Even with a muddled and disjointed story the movie harkens back to the time when the show was legitimately good. Furthermore, even though it never really delves into the subject, I also admire Entourage‘s willingness to explore all of the backstage bickering and bullshit that goes on between numerous head honchos with egos and funding movies in this era.
It also kind of deserves a star for the ridiculous transformation of Haley Joel Osment into a dimwitted redneck movie producer. Seriously, play Kingdom Hearts before watching Entourage and you will have your mind shattered into 1000 pieces.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder – An aficionado of film, wrestling, and gaming. Follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook
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