While hating on Entourage has become as socially acceptable as deriding Adam Sandler movies or saying Kim Jong-un has anger issues, it is worth remembering the show used to have a casual charm. Its soft film-industry satire, glossy hedonism and strong chemistry among the cast made it an enjoyable, if unchallenging, show to watch.
But rather like Sex and the City, which started out as a smart and witty show about the specifics of dating, it became overinflated, focusing more on materialism than minutiae. And after Sex and the City 2, a rotting, racist corpse of a movie, the idea of another slick yet vacuous HBO adaptation is off-putting at best.
Credit is due to Entourage creator Doug Ellin for producing a solidly entertaining summer comedy. It is, like the first Sex and the City film, one extended episode, but then what else would it be? Ellin doesn’t try to make the Entourage movie anything the TV show wasn’t, and he also pays lip service to fans but converts to the small-screen version will be minimal.
The loose plot takes our four bros (the actor Vince, his manager E, his brother Drama, and his driver Turtle) and gives them, as usual, a very small amount of conflict to deal with amid endless parties, encounters with eager women and trips to extravagant locations. Vince is directing his first movie, a take on Jekyll and Hyde, and is running over budget, leading new studio head Ari to Texas, where he must win over an investor. Other plotlines intersect, but never fail to threaten the equilibrium – whether it be Turtle courting a mixed martial arts fighter, E dealing with his ex-girlfriend’s pregnancy, or Drama making breakfast or something.
As with the show, the film is jam-packed with cameos by everyone from Jessica Alba to Liam Neeson to Mark Wahlberg, and seemingly created for those with a very short attention span. But it works. Rather like reading through a celebrity magazine while half-watching a TV soap opera, there are simple pleasures to be had. Its take on industry politics might be thinly sketched, but it provides a novel backdrop, and Jeremy Piven’s energetic Ari remains a compelling character. Though the script might seem simplistic, there is a certain skill to making it all seem so smooth.
Entourage is like an enthusiastic puppy, slightly tipsy on beer, humping on a stripper’s leg, but desperate to please nonetheless. It is a film designed to be liked – which makes it hard to hate.
