Review: The ‘Entourage’ Movie is Gold, Not Just Ari Gold

Rachel Smith ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

It has been four long years since everyone’s favorite bromantic comedy Entourage ended its 8-season run on HBO. The boys are back acting as if no time has passed literally picking up where they left off in the finale. For fans of the series, this movie did justice to them. To new audiences, they will fall in love with the trademark loyalty and hilarity of the “entourage”.
Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven all seem to have no problem reprising their classic characters. Connolly who played the ever responsible, Eric finds himself once again on the outs with on-again-off-again girlfriend, Sloan played by Emmanuelle Chriqui. The show relied on Sloan and Eric’s rocky relationship and so the film must follow suit. Every time they get together the writers then break them up just to create a never ending cycle of “getting back together” story lines. While Sloan remains weak, Eric could have had a “good guy” comeback in the film but instead writers went the other way and made him a jerk for 85% of the film.

As for Vince, he is getting divorced and directing a new movie. They decide to focus on the movie, which is for the best. Ari Gold is now head of a major studio and is the one allowing Vince to star in and direct his first film. No one is thrilled about this expensive chance being taken on Vince, especially the financier’s of the film played by Billy Bob Thornton and Haley Joel Osment. Osment plays the egotistical red neck son who is trying to destroy Vince’s film. He is almost unrecognizable from his Sixth Sense days but he plays the part well. Turtle has become a millionaire off his tequila venture with Mark Cuban and his entire goal in the film is to date Ronda Rousey. This is a huge cameo and lots of laughs come from this pairing. As for Drama, he is basically back to square one. All of the jokes are directed at him and at some points you almost feel bad for poor Johnny. The end of the film makes all those jokes worth it and Drama gets his big moment. This was probably the most satisfying ending for the actual character and audience members alike.
You can’t talk about the Entourage movie without talking about the cameos and there were a lot of them. Many return from the original series like Bob Saget, Gary Busey, and Mark Wahlberg who was executive producer of the show and producer on this film. On top of those, Emily Ratajkowski plays Vince’s new love interest. Even T.I. makes a hilarious appearance with his wife, and for all Patriots fans of the world, GOAT himself, Tom Brady has a 5 second slot that will hold you over until the season starts (or until Deflategate ends). Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski have a small part in a party scene and Gronk seems more than comfortable “acting” in this environment.

Overall the film feels like a long episode of the show, which is a positive and a negative. The familiar set up invites fans back into the glory days of Entourage but at the same time they rushed things that they would have spent a whole episode on. For example, Ari comes back from retirement to then quit again. Perhaps his story line could be a set up for a sequel.
These small plot holes are overlooked because of the brilliance of the rest of the film. The cameos keep it rolling and the guy’s chemistry can’t be beat. They might be grown up and slightly more mature but the one thing that doesn’t change is their friendship. They have the kind of loyalty that can only be dreamed up by an artful mind like Doug Ellin who wrote, produced and directed the film. Ellin did right by the fans and the actors, making a story worth telling and creating characters worth watching. The buzz around this film is a sign of the financial success it could reach but if the executives are anything like Ari Gold, there will be a sequel in the works in no time.
Overall Grade: B+
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