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#762 - Entourage
Doug Ellin, 2015
A movie star and his friends must confront a series of problems, most of which involve the movie star's incredibly expensive directorial debut.
I never really followed Entourage, HBO's long-running comedy series about an up-and-coming actor trying to make it in the wild world of Hollywood, but I'd certainly seen enough episodes to let me know just what I'd be in for when I watched this big-screen revival. For those who don't know about the show, it follows not only photogenic young actor Vince (Adrian Grenier) but also the members of his "entourage" - best friend/manager "E" (Kevin Connolly), half-brother/aspiring actor Drama (Kevin Dillon), and second-best friend/driver Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) - as they all make the move from Queens to Hollywood and not only become involved in maintaining Vince's high-profile acting career but also trying to strike out on their own lines of work. In the mix is Vince's agent, Ari (Jeremy Piven), an extremely acerbic industry veteran who wants to support Vince but can't stand the members of Vince's entourage (especially would-be rival E). Entourage the movie picks up with Vince, already rich and famous on the basis of his acting career, looking to try his hand at directing a film. The project in question ends up being an adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (simply titled Hyde) that is updated for the modern blockbuster crowd by making its two-faced protagonist into a super-powered nightclub DJ (yes, really). However, when the film starts running over budget with no end in sight, Ari is forced to deal with the wealthy Texan financier (Billy Bob Thornton), who doesn't care about movies in the slightest but still sends his gormless son (Haley Joel Osment) to Hollywood in order to see just what kind of movie his money is financing. That's without getting into the various sub-plots that affect the other members of the main cast...
...which is where the film runs into a serious problem. Despite his partner Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui) being heavily pregnant with his child, E still feels compelled to sleep around with random women behind her back regardless of the consequences. In this light, the other sub-plots are marginally more tolerable, such as Drama still trying to get himself acting work (with his small but pivotal role in Hyde under threat by Osment's myopic interference) or Turtle trying to do nothing more than hook up with champion UFC fighter Ronda Rousey (playing herself). In addition to fighting for Vince's creative vision against various rivals, Ari once again has to deal with marital problems and being pestered by former assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee) over the latter's impending marriage. Even for a lightweight comedy, these conflicts tend to feel way too thin to sustain the film and their resolutions still lack any and all substance. Even the solitary laugh I got out of the scene where E's various infidelities catch up to him is undermined by not only its conclusion but its sheer irrelevance to the rest of the film (especially considering how it's resolved about halfway through). The same goes for Turtle's sub-plot involving Rousey, which also ends abruptly and leaves one nonplussed despite the comical level of violence involved in the conclusion. By these standards, the trials of fundamentally pathetic D-list actor Drama provide the film with the closest thing it has to a heart even as he's the only one to suffer serious consequences as a result of pursuing his own sexual appetites.
The frustrating thing about Entourage is how weak its comedy ends up being. Leaving aside the foul-mouthed banter that characters frequently exchange with each other (which would be fine if it had any actual wit to it), there are also the ways in which the film's superficial attempts at satire work. A major draw when it came to Entourage the show was seeing various Hollywood celebrities appear as themselves and have all sorts of comical interactions with the show's characters. Aside from the simplistic romantic elements provided by Rousey and Emily Ratajkowski, this extends to nothing more than one-note cameos that are only vaguely amusing at best, whether it's Liam Neeson gruffly cursing out Ari at a traffic light or Kelsey Grammer angrily storming out of a marriage counselor's office. This leads into another sticking point regarding Vince's film-within-a-film itself, which provides the main thrust of the plot's conflict. There's a scene where Ari sits down to watch a rough cut of Hyde and we the audience see the film's aggressively stylised opening scene; judging by this brief snippet, I honestly can't tell how seriously I'm supposed to be taking the plot here. Am I supposed to personally think that the film is horrendous and be amused at how seriously the characters take it or am I supposed to actually be invested in seeing such an obvious hit movie gets its due success? The fact that it can easily go either way does not suggest clever ambiguity so much as vague emptiness. This also undercuts any tension whatsoever regarding the sub-plot where Osment wants to cut Drama's character out of Hyde completely. Several characters constantly talk about Drama's important role, but the fact that we never get even the slightest detail about what that role actually is (let alone see the man perform it) says everything about Entourage and the fact that it depends on telling its story more so than showing it.
Of course, what Entourage does like to show is the usual scenes of Los Angeles hedonism involving women in various states of undress, crowded parties at beach-side mansions, ingesting all manner of perception-altering substances (deliberately or not), and so forth. Between that, the limp attempts at macho humour, and the poorly-handled jabs at Hollywood culture, it's safe to say that Entourage is quite the pain to watch. This being a comedy, I'll concede that I probably "didn't get it", but from what I can see there's pretty much nothing to "get" whatsoever. The main characters are all different shades of unlikeable and it's difficult to be invested in their struggles on either a sympathetic level or a comedic level. The same lack of coherence affects the plot in ways both great and small - as if the confusion over whether or not the satire works well (if at all) isn't bad enough, the film's jumping around between various weightless sub-plots feels awfully fragmented and stretched-out even for a film that's nothing more than a feature-length TV episode. Regardless of whether or not Hyde is supposed to be a good movie, it'd still be preferable to watching this.
Doug Ellin, 2015
A movie star and his friends must confront a series of problems, most of which involve the movie star's incredibly expensive directorial debut.
I never really followed Entourage, HBO's long-running comedy series about an up-and-coming actor trying to make it in the wild world of Hollywood, but I'd certainly seen enough episodes to let me know just what I'd be in for when I watched this big-screen revival. For those who don't know about the show, it follows not only photogenic young actor Vince (Adrian Grenier) but also the members of his "entourage" - best friend/manager "E" (Kevin Connolly), half-brother/aspiring actor Drama (Kevin Dillon), and second-best friend/driver Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) - as they all make the move from Queens to Hollywood and not only become involved in maintaining Vince's high-profile acting career but also trying to strike out on their own lines of work. In the mix is Vince's agent, Ari (Jeremy Piven), an extremely acerbic industry veteran who wants to support Vince but can't stand the members of Vince's entourage (especially would-be rival E). Entourage the movie picks up with Vince, already rich and famous on the basis of his acting career, looking to try his hand at directing a film. The project in question ends up being an adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (simply titled Hyde) that is updated for the modern blockbuster crowd by making its two-faced protagonist into a super-powered nightclub DJ (yes, really). However, when the film starts running over budget with no end in sight, Ari is forced to deal with the wealthy Texan financier (Billy Bob Thornton), who doesn't care about movies in the slightest but still sends his gormless son (Haley Joel Osment) to Hollywood in order to see just what kind of movie his money is financing. That's without getting into the various sub-plots that affect the other members of the main cast...
...which is where the film runs into a serious problem. Despite his partner Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui) being heavily pregnant with his child, E still feels compelled to sleep around with random women behind her back regardless of the consequences. In this light, the other sub-plots are marginally more tolerable, such as Drama still trying to get himself acting work (with his small but pivotal role in Hyde under threat by Osment's myopic interference) or Turtle trying to do nothing more than hook up with champion UFC fighter Ronda Rousey (playing herself). In addition to fighting for Vince's creative vision against various rivals, Ari once again has to deal with marital problems and being pestered by former assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee) over the latter's impending marriage. Even for a lightweight comedy, these conflicts tend to feel way too thin to sustain the film and their resolutions still lack any and all substance. Even the solitary laugh I got out of the scene where E's various infidelities catch up to him is undermined by not only its conclusion but its sheer irrelevance to the rest of the film (especially considering how it's resolved about halfway through). The same goes for Turtle's sub-plot involving Rousey, which also ends abruptly and leaves one nonplussed despite the comical level of violence involved in the conclusion. By these standards, the trials of fundamentally pathetic D-list actor Drama provide the film with the closest thing it has to a heart even as he's the only one to suffer serious consequences as a result of pursuing his own sexual appetites.
The frustrating thing about Entourage is how weak its comedy ends up being. Leaving aside the foul-mouthed banter that characters frequently exchange with each other (which would be fine if it had any actual wit to it), there are also the ways in which the film's superficial attempts at satire work. A major draw when it came to Entourage the show was seeing various Hollywood celebrities appear as themselves and have all sorts of comical interactions with the show's characters. Aside from the simplistic romantic elements provided by Rousey and Emily Ratajkowski, this extends to nothing more than one-note cameos that are only vaguely amusing at best, whether it's Liam Neeson gruffly cursing out Ari at a traffic light or Kelsey Grammer angrily storming out of a marriage counselor's office. This leads into another sticking point regarding Vince's film-within-a-film itself, which provides the main thrust of the plot's conflict. There's a scene where Ari sits down to watch a rough cut of Hyde and we the audience see the film's aggressively stylised opening scene; judging by this brief snippet, I honestly can't tell how seriously I'm supposed to be taking the plot here. Am I supposed to personally think that the film is horrendous and be amused at how seriously the characters take it or am I supposed to actually be invested in seeing such an obvious hit movie gets its due success? The fact that it can easily go either way does not suggest clever ambiguity so much as vague emptiness. This also undercuts any tension whatsoever regarding the sub-plot where Osment wants to cut Drama's character out of Hyde completely. Several characters constantly talk about Drama's important role, but the fact that we never get even the slightest detail about what that role actually is (let alone see the man perform it) says everything about Entourage and the fact that it depends on telling its story more so than showing it.
Of course, what Entourage does like to show is the usual scenes of Los Angeles hedonism involving women in various states of undress, crowded parties at beach-side mansions, ingesting all manner of perception-altering substances (deliberately or not), and so forth. Between that, the limp attempts at macho humour, and the poorly-handled jabs at Hollywood culture, it's safe to say that Entourage is quite the pain to watch. This being a comedy, I'll concede that I probably "didn't get it", but from what I can see there's pretty much nothing to "get" whatsoever. The main characters are all different shades of unlikeable and it's difficult to be invested in their struggles on either a sympathetic level or a comedic level. The same lack of coherence affects the plot in ways both great and small - as if the confusion over whether or not the satire works well (if at all) isn't bad enough, the film's jumping around between various weightless sub-plots feels awfully fragmented and stretched-out even for a film that's nothing more than a feature-length TV episode. Regardless of whether or not Hyde is supposed to be a good movie, it'd still be preferable to watching this.