Director: Doug Ellin

Cast: Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rex Lee, Hayley Joel Osment, Ronda Rousey, Emily Ratajkowski, Billy Bob Thornton 

Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes 

Release Date: 19/06/2015 

Rating: 15

With six seasons behind them and more celebrity cameos than a late night chat show, Doug Ellin‘s star studded television show Entourage burst onto America’s television screens back in 2004, with pretty boy Adrian Grenier at its centre as the smooth talking, lady loving movie star Vincent Chase. With the show running until September 2011, ENTOURAGE followed Chase and his group of loyal friends, including big brother Johnny (Kevin Dillon), manager and best friend Eric (Kevin Connolly), driver-come-drug-dealer Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and foul mouthed, short tempered agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), as they made their way through fame and fortune; riding on the coattails of Vince’s success. 

With the final episode seeing Eric about to become a father, Ari quit his job, Turtle make his fortune and Vince running off to get married; fans were pretty content with the fate of their favourite entourage. However, when news broke that producers Wayne Carmona, Rob Weiss, Stephen Levinson and the man who loosely inspired the original series, the one and only Mark Wahlberg, were ready for an official ENTOURAGE movie; fans were curious as to what else the gang could possibly get up to since the final. 

Turns out, not that much as Ellin completely disregards near everything that came from the final episode. This tactic actually works in the movie’s favour as new audiences are able to easily jump into the narrative without too many questions and faithful fans aren’t going to be pining after too much of where the TV series ended.

In the movie, Vince’s short marriage is over and Ari is back at work as head of the studio and wants Vince as the main star for his next movie. With the boys on board behind him, Vince is up for the part with one condition only; he also wants to direct the feature. 

With Vince dealing with the difficulties of being a first time director, Ari must travel to Texas to confront the main financier for the film, Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton) and his half-wit son Travis (Hayley Joel Osment), to ask for more money. The general narrative follows the fall out of such a task, as Travis travels back with Ari to check up on the boys and begins to stir up trouble as his personal feelings for the beautiful Emily Ratajkowski leads to putting the movie in serious jeopardy. With Vince and Ari caught up in that disaster, Eric awaiting the arrival of his newborn, Johnny dealing with his lack of fame and Turtle chasing after none other than Ronda Rousey; ENTOURAGE is a non-stop joke cracking, beautiful mess. 

While the boys are as entertaining as ever, the women beyond beautiful and the setting as glamorous as it comes; none of these really make up for the lack of narrative pull or general longevity of the story. Despite the main conflict between Travis, Vince and Ari; each point in the narrative that’s meant to create some cause and effect fizzles out before it even begins. This ensures that audience don’t actually have the time to care too much about the conflict the boys come up against; which is a great shame considering the emotional attachment and history some audience members will have with the characters. 

Despite the obvious narrative flaws, the main issue within ENTOURAGE is that the characters haven’t evolved in any way throughout the entire series or film. The boys, as lovable as they are, have not changed since the very first episode and many of the problems they faced within the first series are still apparent at the end of the movie. There’s no character development and any hopes for some kind of moral revelation of the boys Playboy ways are wasted. 

Still, it’s hard to deny the films obvious charms; with the sense of laddish humour still ever present and, as predicted, Ari Gold is still the very best thing about ENTOURAGE in general. Jeremy Piven reprises his role as the foul mouthed agent-come-studio head with absolute ease and utter perfection. It’s hard not to find yourself caught up in his fast-paced, flashy way of business and before you know it, you’re totally rooting for him.

Lovers of the television show won’t be dissapointed with the major role Ari plays in the movie, while newbies will certainly get most of their laughs from his trademark sharp tongue and quick wit. 

Following suit from the television show, ENTOURAGE is king of cameos and this is certainly part of the film’s charm. With the likes of Liam Neeson, Piers Morgan, T.I, Pharrell Williams, Jon Favreau, Jessica Alba, Armie Hammer, David Spade and Wahlberg himself all popping up here and there; the constant star-spotting works very much as a gimmick that’s actually more enjoyable than much of the narrative itself.

ENTOURAGE feels very much like a passion project and just another excuse for the cast and crew to have a great big reunion and massive party; but it kind of works. One of the film’s biggest charms is that it’s totally blatant about its ankle deep waters, celebrating the glitz and glamour of Hollywood’s most ridiculous of traditions. The narrative is as shallow as they come and the character development is practically non-existent, but lovers of the TV show will surely forgive all for another glimpse at the world’s coolest entourage. 

Verdict

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