‘Entourage’ inflates average episode to big-screen proportions
The biggest stumbling block faced by TV series-turnedfilms is a tendency to go too big, taking characters that were appealing in small doses and overextending their allure. For Doug Ellin’s cineplex expansion of his HBO series “Entourage,” the writerdirector finds a novel solution: Simply offer up an average episode, and inflate it to feature length with twice as many boobs and celebrity cameos as usual.
The rest of the series’ strengths and weaknesses survive the theatrical transition intact. Sometimes funny, often dumb, with equal doses of inside-baseball references and broad bro-ish boorishness, “Entourage” will be loved by fans and despised by detractors, possibly for the same reasons. The returning cast members are clearly having fun, however.
The film opens on a stunning ocean vista, with superstar Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) mourning the dissolution of his nine-day marriage by lounging on a massive yacht off the coast of Ibiza with a flock of topless models. He’s propositioned by one of them but has to ask her to sit tight for a few hours so he can meet up with his boys, who are arriving on a speedboat with beers in hand.
These boys, of course, are his childhood buddies from Queens: best friendturned-manager Eric (Kevin Connolly), driver-turned- tequila magnate Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and ne’er-do-well older brother-turned … well, ne’er-do-well older brother Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon).
In any other film, an opening scene like this would be followed by either a DEA bust or the hapless protagonist waking up from a dream, but this is “Entourage,” where everything is exactly as it seems. The sequence actually does a pretty good job of proscribing the film’s central concerns — conspicuous consumption, camaraderie verging on co-dependency, lowstakes conflict and a guiding principle of bros before boobs.
Vincent has convinced his onetime agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), now the head of a film studio, to let him try his hand directing a $100 million movie, “Hyde.” But he’s gone over budget, which means Ari has to schlep to Texas to wheedle more funds out of Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton), the grumpy oligarch who’s underwriting the studio’s slate. Before he’ll sign a check, however, McCredle dispatches his vulgar, louche son Travis (Haley Joel Osment, enjoying himself as much as anyone) to L.A. to check out the rough cut, and he threatens to ruin the film with his inane notes and editing demands.
As on the show, this central conflict fades in and out of view as each character deals with his own particular mini-crisis. These strands offer wildly varying returns. Ari’s scenes are hilarious, and Drama’s travails are pretty funny. Turtle and Vinnie’s subplots are just sort of there, and Eric’s subplot is so mind-meltingly dull that it stops the film in its tracks. Fortunately, no dilemma is allowed to linger for too long before the boys reconvene for quick banter and parties with dancing girls, in case anyone in the audience has forgotten what boobs look like.
At no point does anyone involved with the film ever take it too seriously, and as long as one takes it in the same spirit, it’s perfectly enjoyable.
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