The television series Entourage was often referred to as “Sex in the City for men,” with attractive women in every episode and a consistent “bromance” theme. Four years after the show’s conclusion, that nickname still sticks. There is nothing remotely different about this film; it simply feels like a two-hour episode. It even has the same Jane’s Addiction song playing in the beginning with a very similar feel to the opening.
The film opens with the familiar gang, Eric (Kevin Connolly), Drama (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), on a lavish speedboat trying to crash the yacht party of Vinnie Chase (Adrian Grenier). We soon find out that he divorced Sophia Lear from the series (big surprise) and is mourning the divorce by being stranded out at sea with hot women. He gets a call from Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), his old agent, with a script that will be perfect for him. However, Vince will only do it if he can direct it as well. However, eight months in, Vince is already over budget and needs more money to complete the final edits. The father and son financiers (played wonderfully by Billy Bob Thorton and Haley Joel Osment) want to see a cut of the film before agreeing to give more money, which causes a rift between them and Ari.
So, right off the bat, the plot is something that has always been a part of the series: Ari picking up Vinnie’s shit. Not only that, but everyone is exactly like they were in the series. Drama is still desperate, Eric is still an asshole, and Vinnie still doesn’t give a shit about anything. The only character who has slightly changed is Turtle, with his whole tequila company and having the gang crash at his mansion rather than the other way around. So throughout the whole film, there are no surprises, because we already know how the characters are going to react to everything.
The close friendship that the gang had is what made this show so popular during its eight-season run. It didn’t even matter that they didn’t have that much personality. The everyday shenanigans of “Hollywood life” are what made this show so interesting to begin with. However, one of the main reasons I stuck with the series for so long was because of Ari Gold. His creative insults and overall scumbag attitude were always top notch and fantastic. Even people who had never seen the show loved Ari’s antics. And, thankfully, this film was very “Ari-centric” and gave us some solid comedic dialogue from his end.
Even though there were many celebrity cameos, Haley Joel Osment was one of the only “celebrities” to actually play a character. He did a fine job playing a repulsive man child, and it feel a little refreshing to have a new pain in the ass to deal with. Even though every word that came out of his mouth made me cringe, I felt that the character wasn’t written very well. I know everyone doesn’t know about the film industry, but some of his dialogue just didn’t work. It was like the writers thought of every over-the-top stupid comment and put it in his character. It seemed like the writers only cared about Vinnie and the gang and only added an antagonist because they had to, without caring how he would be portrayed. However, Osment worked with what he had and it was decent enough.
As someone who has watched the series through more than once, I loved the little nods to past characters and events. For people who haven’t watched the show at all, they may find themselves scratching their heads. They may not know who Billy Walsh is or the significance of Medellin, so they may not find the film as enjoyable or nostalgic as previous fans. They also may not realize how the ending is something that fans have wanted to see since the series premiere. However, it’s still entertaining enough that the non-fans will find themselves laughing at certain quirks–especially Ari Gold.
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Rating: 3/5
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