‘Entourage’ Review: A Made-for-Silver-Screen TV Show

Entourage was the first television series I ever binge-watched and quite possibly the reason I failed my first grad school exam. Was it worth it? …. maybe. If you take away all the glitz and glamour, you take away all the parties, and you take away all the skanks and misogyny, Entourage at its core is something a lot of people can relate to. It’s the reason why – and I can’t believe I’m writing this – Sex and the City was so popular and the reason why people still pay money to see Adam Sandler movies (even yours truly for Grown Ups). Everybody wants to have the type of bond with a group of friends, and furthermore, they want to believe it exists even in the facade of Hollywood.

The movie is everything you’ve grown to expect from the TV show – and if you’ve never seen the TV show, it won’t be too hard to catch up. It’s over the top. It’s crass. It’s filled with toilet humor and dick jokes. Everything its target audience is going to love. Doug Ellin, creator and writer of the series as well as writer/director for the movie, however, seemed to trash all the personal growth and transformation each of the main characters had achieved at the series finale and regressed them to old habits within a week. (The film picks up about a week after the time that the series finale left off.)

Ari (Jeremy Piven) has axed retirement and Italian lifestyle for a studio executive job, Vince (Adrian Grenier) has split with his wife on their honeymoon, and E (Kevin Connolly) decided not to move back to New York after all. Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Drama (Kevin Dillon) have always been the collective rock of the group, so why should that change? This character relapse is most likely a mechanism to keep the core fan base happy – I mean how could they handle a mature version of Entourage?

Turtle: “You guys wanna go out tonight?”
Vince: “Nah, I’m married”
Everyone: “Okay.”

Not much of a story in that one. The plot is similar to any one of the television episodes: there’s a lot going on with all the main characters and an overarching story exists where Vince can’t do a movie because there’s not enough money or some other reason… seriously, watch the video in the link above. But has anybody ever really watched Entourage because of the riveting plot twists? Hell no. They watch Entourage to get a glimpse into a lifestyle that is more extravagant and promiscuous than their own. They watch because they wish they had a group of close-knit friends that share everything, or it reminds them of a time when they did. They watch to escape reality. And that’s why Entourage is going to make a killing this weekend. Despite its technical flaws and semi-anticlimactic climax, people want to immerse themselves in the world of Entourage and be entertained. And I would recommend you do just that.

Entourage Review

Grade: B+

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  1. Would have been better to get a new run of seasons. It`s not like it wouldn’t find the audience, and not exactly like the actors (minus Piven) couldn’t use a pay check.