Things have changed on HBO since 2011. Winter is coming, a Daily Show correspondent has managed to best Comedy Central at their own game, there's a woman in the White House, and Mike Judge is funny again. In this new golden-era of TV landscape would HBO's Entourage be the hit it was if it came out today? (I suppose we'll see soon enough with the equally bro-riffic-looking Ballers.)
Circa 2004 HBO's dude-ly counterpart to Sex and the City follows its sister show to the silver screen after four Entourage-free years. We pick up with the boys at a yacht party (because: obviously) six months after the show's end. (Though the passage of time visible of the four bro-sketeers' faces alongside the existence of Uber, Tinder, The Avengers, and Emily Ratajkowski make me wonder if Entourage's version of Hollywood fell through a time warp in 2011 and slipped out unscathed in 2015. I'm going to assume it did and this is a Lost-like game of tricking people into watching sci-fi.)
What follows is a 100-minute exercise in goofy douche-baggery and celebrity cameos, most of the fun of which is spoiled by the trailers — shame. It's an over-sized episode of one of the longest-running scripted HBO shows (tied with Curb Your Enthusiasm at eight seasons) that's both a fitting and mostly funny farewell to the series and a very expensive Cadillac commercial.
I have trouble buying that Entourage is the satire Mark Wahlberg and Doug Ellin feel it is, but I give it credit for managing to not come across as blatantly misogynistic or homophobic in it's celebration of bro-iness. A film center around the hanging-outs of unrelentingly horny middle-aged guys, R-rated outbursts from one-time-agent-now-studio-head Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), and a parade of topless models could be a goldmine for Salon and Jezebel think pieces. But there's something so harmless about the guys good-natured bromance that I can't imagine many leaving the theater feeling outraged about what they've just watched.
Despite my best efforts to not succumb to the same milked-dry antics Piven used on HBO for so many years, it's hard to resist chuckling at Ari's freak-outs and tantrums. No surprise Ari is the real star of the show, but Haley Joel Osment comes in a close second as the spoiled son of the money behind Vincent Chase's (Adrian Grenier) latest endeavor — starring in and directing a techno take on Jekyll and Hyde. The stakes are low, largely because, as Vince always reminds the guys, we know "everything's going to work out fine." That'll probably make this a boring watch for those with zero investment in the world of Entourage, but for fans of Entourage... this is more Entourage.
For everyone else, does Entourage hold up? Ehh...
This is a world that revels in excess and name-dropping — like living in a music video — and the characters are about as deep as the hot tub on Vinnie's yacht. Maybe the fact that the show was once so well received doesn't say as much about a change in our culture or values as it does an increase in the quality of television since the Sunday nights of Ari "Hug It Out" Gold and Ali G of not-so long ago. Still, Entourage is what it is, and if you were looking for another go-round in the Entour-verse that's exactly what you'll get.
—Eric Pulsifer
Circa 2004 HBO's dude-ly counterpart to Sex and the City follows its sister show to the silver screen after four Entourage-free years. We pick up with the boys at a yacht party (because: obviously) six months after the show's end. (Though the passage of time visible of the four bro-sketeers' faces alongside the existence of Uber, Tinder, The Avengers, and Emily Ratajkowski make me wonder if Entourage's version of Hollywood fell through a time warp in 2011 and slipped out unscathed in 2015. I'm going to assume it did and this is a Lost-like game of tricking people into watching sci-fi.)
What follows is a 100-minute exercise in goofy douche-baggery and celebrity cameos, most of the fun of which is spoiled by the trailers — shame. It's an over-sized episode of one of the longest-running scripted HBO shows (tied with Curb Your Enthusiasm at eight seasons) that's both a fitting and mostly funny farewell to the series and a very expensive Cadillac commercial.
I have trouble buying that Entourage is the satire Mark Wahlberg and Doug Ellin feel it is, but I give it credit for managing to not come across as blatantly misogynistic or homophobic in it's celebration of bro-iness. A film center around the hanging-outs of unrelentingly horny middle-aged guys, R-rated outbursts from one-time-agent-now-studio-head Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), and a parade of topless models could be a goldmine for Salon and Jezebel think pieces. But there's something so harmless about the guys good-natured bromance that I can't imagine many leaving the theater feeling outraged about what they've just watched.
Despite my best efforts to not succumb to the same milked-dry antics Piven used on HBO for so many years, it's hard to resist chuckling at Ari's freak-outs and tantrums. No surprise Ari is the real star of the show, but Haley Joel Osment comes in a close second as the spoiled son of the money behind Vincent Chase's (Adrian Grenier) latest endeavor — starring in and directing a techno take on Jekyll and Hyde. The stakes are low, largely because, as Vince always reminds the guys, we know "everything's going to work out fine." That'll probably make this a boring watch for those with zero investment in the world of Entourage, but for fans of Entourage... this is more Entourage.
For everyone else, does Entourage hold up? Ehh...
This is a world that revels in excess and name-dropping — like living in a music video — and the characters are about as deep as the hot tub on Vinnie's yacht. Maybe the fact that the show was once so well received doesn't say as much about a change in our culture or values as it does an increase in the quality of television since the Sunday nights of Ari "Hug It Out" Gold and Ali G of not-so long ago. Still, Entourage is what it is, and if you were looking for another go-round in the Entour-verse that's exactly what you'll get.
—Eric Pulsifer
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