Entourage (Blu-ray Review)

18 Sep, 2015 By: John Latchem

---

Street 9/29/15
Warner
Comedy
Box Office $32.36 million
$28.98 DVD, $44.95 Blu-ray
Rated 'R' for pervasive language, strong sexual content, nudity and some drug use
Stars Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Perrey Reeves, Rex Lee, Debi Mazar, Rhys Coiro, Constance Simmer, Haley Joel Osment, Ronda Rousey, Alan Dale, Emily Ratajkowski, Billy Bob Thornton.

The "Entourage" TV show was sort of like the Y chronosome's answer to "Sex and the City," focusing on the sexual misadventures of a group of pals trying to make it in Hollywood. And, much like the "Sex and the City" movie before it, the movie version of 'Entourage' plays out like a mini-marathon of episodes from the TV show.

That doesn't speak highly of it as a film. The first "Sex and the City" movie was often boring and ill-paced, robbing it of much of its appeal beyond a core audience of enthusiasts of the series.

Entourage manages to avoid similar pacing issues simply by not being as long (104 minutes compared with SATC's 135), though it's still likely to have a similar lack of appeal to anyone beyond the core audience of the show. This is a movie, after all, in which the characters carry themselves with a certain sense of entitlement, with a plot that boils down to a spoiled actor having a disagreement with a studio over the budget of a movie he's directing (not exactly identifiable material for middle America). The show itself didn't exactly close out on the strongest terms, with a final season that devolved into melodrama in a way that really turned off some of its most loyal fans.

However, the movie offers just enough of what made the show so fun — the interaction between the main characters — that fans of the series should be hugely entertained by the reunion.

The gang's all back, picking up where the show left off (despite the four years that elapsed since the show ended). Former super-agent Ari (Jeremy Piven) is now a studio boss, and has greenlighted a passion project for golden boy Vinnie Chase (Adrian Grenier) to direct. A year later, the film, called Hyde, is over budget and Ari needs to call in some Texas investors (Billy Bob Thornton, Haley Joel Osment) for an infusion of cash. Rumors of the troubled production threaten Ari's job, but the rough cut he says makes him think the project has Oscar written all over it (like most films within a film, the only way the audience can tell what's supposed to be good or bad is from the reaction of the characters). But Ari and Vince run afoul of the younger Texan, who is jealous that Vince is dating a supermodel (Emily Ratajkowski) he wanted to bag.

E (Kevin Connolly) is still having relationship issues with Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui), Drama (Kevin Dillon) is still looking for a breakthrough part, and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) is trying to date Ronda Rousey (who gets to plug her merchandising line through some conspicuous product placement).

And then there are the laundry list of cameos, including Liam Neeson, Kelsey Grammer, Nina Agdal, Jessica Alba, Mike Tyson, Ed O’Neal, Mark Cuban, Bob Saget, Andrew Dice Clay, Armie Hammer, Gary Busey, et al., not to mention Mark Wahlberg, upon whose life the series was originally based.

The Blu-ray includes more than 18 minutes of deleted scenes, mostly featuring more cameos, and a three-minute gag reel. The Blu-ray also has a four-and-a-half-minute featurette about the making of Hyde, made as if it were an extra for an in-universe Hyde Blu-ray.

Featurettes include a 14-minute reflection from the cast looking back on the show; an eight-and-a-half-minute piece glorifying Hollywood and all the cameos; and two featurettes, running two minutes each, about director Doug Ellin's son Lucas, who plays Ari's son Jonah on the show and in the movie.

Bookmark it: