All’s well in boys’ paradise: it is time for babies and wedding bells Entourage

“Why do you need to watch the movie? Didn’t you watch the whole series, and Jason Statham’s in Spy in the next auditorium”, a disgruntled girl asked the boy accompanying her as we entered the theatre, and thanks to her I was asking the identical question to myself, as the film opened with its promised boat full of bikini babes ( 250) in party paradise Ibiza’s clear waters. Few seconds later however, Arigold ( Jeremy Piven) could be found being offensive to some Italians ( he needed to return to “civilization”) and we knew why we were here. It’s why we watch anything “stupid”: there must be something in it that en- tertains us. Does Entourage the series score on that part? For the most part, yes. Does Entourage the movie manage to do so? Well.

Things have changed ever so slightly in the Entourage world. This movie is a big, expensive back slap to the original Entourage team, self referencing to a level where the cast is thinking of naming the film they are making within the movie to be titled “Entourage”, and no Ellin is no Shakespeare. Everything seems to have worked out in these incredibly stupid antihero’s lives. Ari has become a studio head (he even has a business magazine cover called “Gold Standard”), Vincent Chase (Adrian Gre- nier) is getting to direct and act in a movie that Ari (or his studio) is financing this time, Drama has been cast in that movie, and Turtle gets to be thin AND rich (off a tequila company that he set up). There’s even new age glam rock (Tame Impala’s Elephant) playing in the background as the boys walk down the LA streets in slow-mo. Nothing but the best music for ’dem boys. Even Pharrell comes to rescue at the troupe’s get-laidand-premiere-movie-onthe-side party and diverts the crowd’s attention by singing when they can’t play the movie. Drama’s cooking his delicious post-hangover breakfasts ( fresh fruits, croissants and eggs benedict with champagne). This might as well be a new season in the show, except they do not have the regular runtime of a season to believe that these boys f**k up and manage to get themselves out of it again. This is where, and why the movie fails to impress according to me. I wouldn’t know how abrupt it would seem for a first time movi-goer, but if this were a season, I felt like I watched episodes 1,3,15, and 21. Also the very fact that nothing has changed goes against the film. We already know all the scenes by rote, and we know every move of Vinny Chase, Drama, E and Turtle that has become more predictable than Ari’s homophobic jibes at Lloyd.

Nevertheless, the show ties some ends and provides some closure as far as some characters are concerned. E (Kevin Connolly) is having a baby with Sloan now ( Emmanuelle Chriqui), Lloyd (Rex Lee) gets married and wants Ari to give him away, and Ari has decided not to retire from Hollywood (till he pops a vein). Bob “f**kin’” Saget makes an appearance too to complete the sense of this being a reunion. Back stories are also completed — we find out how Ari found Vincent Chase from a Menthos commercial, E used to work in a pizza place before he be- came Chase’s manager.

If there is anyone who shines in the film, it has to be Ari ( Jeremy Piven), everyone else is a supporting character. Ari is as loud, as entertaining and as worth your money as ever: some of the best lines in the film are given to him, and he occupies half if not more of the screen time ranting to everyone’s glee. Everything else is so boringly, well, normal. Which brings us to the question, why did it take Doug Ellin two years to write the script itself? Was it possible, that he didn’t have anything to write home about? I’m going to lead Entourage fans with this thought here.