Entourage Shallow Dudebro Movie With Awkward Celebrity Cameos

Given that Entourage is based on a relatively popular television show – it did last eight seasons, after all – it comes as a slight surprise that it’s an absolutely abysmal movie. It’s not funny, it’s not charming, and its insight into the back-room dealings of Hollywood aren’t clever or even particularly insightful. Its characters are awful, annoying, and shallow, the plot is almost nonexistent, and the constant celebrity cameos do nothing but distract from what little plot there is. Our story follows the primary characters from the show. The lead, if you can call him that, is Vincent (Adrian Grenier), a movie star who is allowed to make his directorial debut on a $100+ million film that soon enough winds up over-budget. The studio’s head, Ari (Jeremy Piven), has to try to secure $15 million from its primary financiers, Larsen (Billy Bob Thorton) and his son, Travis (Haley Joel Osment). Yes, that’s all there is to the primary plot; the stakes are so painfully low that you can’t even start to care. Meanwhile, Vincent’s friends – Eric (Kevin Connolly), Johnny (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) – get into their own little subplots, most of which paint them as awful people, but for some reason also demand that the audience cheers for them. About the only fun that I got from Entourage came from a couple of the celebrity cameos. Out of the 50 or so that are in the movie, only two amused me, and that only happened because the celebrities in question wound up going off on the lead characters, representing my own feelings in the process. But a couple of laughs in 90+ minutes is a pretty bad laughs-per-minute ratio, and when there’s nothing else to grasp onto, Entourage winds up being a far more boring and aggravating movie than I thought it could be. Doug Ellin, who (I’m obliged to mention) directed and co-wrote a film called Phat Beach a couple of decades ago, has made a horrible movie that I only hope is significantly worse than the television show. Even the acting is terrible. I know this is what happens when you hire non-actors like Rousey or Ratajkowski, but the main cast is almost as bad. Kevin Dillon in particular is cringe-inducing. Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Connolly are just boring. Jeremy Piven brings some life to his role, and he’s about the only character that’s at least slightly interesting. Billy Bob Thorton and Haley Joel Osment aren’t good here, either. Nobody is good. Nothing is good. Entourage is the type of movie you hope ends almost the second it starts, and then it tortures you for the next hour and a half. If you need one thing to sum up Entourage, keep in mind that this is a movie that holds up the Golden Globe Awards as the pinnacle of awards shows. That pretty much shows you where its ambitions lie. Does it want to be a good movie? No. Does it want to impress 93 people, many of whom can be bought off with a trip to the set and a fake “insider” feeling? Now you’re getting it. Bottom Line: Entourage is a torturous watch that replaced a plot and characters with celebrity cameos. Recommendation: If you’re not on-board the Entourage train, this movie is not going to get you there. In fact, it’ll likely repulse you to the point of never giving the show a chance. [rating=1]