Entourage

The boys are back and just as you remembered. Whether that’s a good thing or not really depends on how much you liked them in the first place.

Written and directed by creator Doug Ellin, “Entourage” takes the opportunities the big screen affords them and…pretty much plays out like multiple episodes. Starting strong with a recap from Piers Morgan that basically asks ‘so if you guys didn’t know Vince you would basically all be living at home with your parents, right?’, we quickly move on to house parties and celebrity cameos and all the absurdities of life inside the Handsome Bubble.

The central conflict of the film falls to Ari (Jeremy Piven), who, in his first act as studio head, has invested more than $100 million for Vince (Adrian Granier) to try his hand at directing. You know, like Hollywood will do for anyone unless they’re female. In keeping with the low stakes nature of the show, no one else seems really bothered about the risk Ari has undertaken on their behalf, as they have their own plots to wrap up, and Vince is super talented and it will be great, and they’ll even invest their own money needed to get it finished, said no actor ever.

More of an HBO sequel to “Sex and the City” than the moodier cable shows that were to follow, “Entourage” was, at its best, a great escapist show that managed to be self-aware enough that you didn’t hate the leads, at its worst, celebrating a superficial industry run by (white) men. Starting off surprisingly more on the best scale (just close your eyes if you don’t like seeing naked women), the voice and tone of the show certainly carry over, in style if not in stamina. About half way through the film seems to run out of steam, getting caught up in the plot wheel without much direction. In one scene E (Kevin Connolly) finds himself in a confrontation with two women he recently slept with. It’s played out like a ‘women take charge against a typical L.A. asshole’, but falls flat because E is a likeable character who has actually done nothing wrong; he wasn’t cheating on either of them, he didn’t know they knew each other and the females were in complete control at the time. To suggest it was a bad thing worth seeking revenge for just takes away their sexual agency, and even the girls admit it was a waste of time. One can only assume it was included to give the normally exploited female conquests some character? Still couldn’t tell you their names though. And let’s not even get into the fact that E hooked up with one of them after Drama (Kevin Dillon) drugged him so he wouldn’t ruin Vince’s screening party with his professionalism. Never spoken of or addressed again, but for those at home, drugging your friends is not cool.

The performances are on point, there is a nice C plot around Lloyd getting married, and the music is fun with a shout out to Alan Dale’s power walk to Tame Impala’s “Elephant.” Times have changed however, and you would be excused for thinking that in this L.A. there is no paparazzi, no selfies, and no reality stars unless it’s related to Mark Wahlberg.  One thing that hasn’t changed – movie stars are living all your dreams.

Three of the last four Best Picture winners at the Academy Awards centred on plotlines involving Hollywood (“Birdman”. “Argo”. “The Artist”. Not. Even. Exaggerating). Hollywood loves nothing more than Hollywood (can you believe this narcissistic behaviour?), but the question isn’t whether producers thought “Entourage” would turn into an Academy Award winning movie (unlike their on screen egos, definitely not), the question is – do you want to spend a couple hours hanging with the boys? If so, enjoy the escapist ride, it could have been a lot worse.