I’ve Got My Reserved Ticket & My Own Reservations by Dan Cohen
I really don’t know what it is about Entourage, but for eight seasons that was one of the most addicting shows I can remember in a long time, even when the show was at its worst. Aside from Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) and Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), the show wasn’t even really that funny. It was also odd because the central character was the least interesting of the group. It was about the people around Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), which I suppose was the point. Nevertheless, I was a big fan of the show, but I recognize it was most likely popular because of one character. The show had plenty of naysayers due to the characters coming off as “douchey” and “fratboy-esque.” While that was true for the first season, I thought they all became very likable from season two on.
While the show never reached the heights it did in that second season (a fantastic series of episodes), it was still enjoyable from start to finish, even if that final episode ended on a strange note. I say strange because it went out on such a whimper. Vince randomly gets engaged to a character we meet for all of three seconds. E (Kevin Connolly) gets back together with his fiancé (Emmanuelle Chriqui) with a kid on the way. Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) becomes a millionaire after one of the worst plotlines ever for a show. Drama gets excited about his TV movie project, and Ari and his wife (Perrey Reeves) go off to Italy, with Ari leaving the hustle and bustle of the Hollywood world seemingly behind him. All and all, it was pretty…eh. But I guess that was the plan all along, because the talk of an Entourage movie was discussed ad nauseam for a long time, so here we are – the Entourage movie.
I always get skeptical when a TV show gets adapted to film. It just doesn’t feel right. I was never opposed to an Entourage movie though, and kind of curious as to how this show would be turned into a theatrical film. The format seemed 100% movie proof. When I saw the first trailer, my expectation for this film plummeted like the ratings for Viking Quest. The marketing has been absolutely terrible, and the film looks like a mediocre episode of the show, and that’s my biggest gripe. If you’re going to do a big length movie, you better have something worth showing, and from what I gather so far, they do not at all. Okay, so Vince is directing a movie. Eh. E is about to have a kid. Okay, I gathered that from the series finale. Ari becomes a studio head. Uh, didn’t we have a storyline about that in season five? And Turtle tries to get with…Ronda Rousey? Come on, this is your Entourage movie? Cut me a break. Speaking of Turtle, I enjoyed the character in the early years, but when they decided to mature him up, the character lost my interest. I understand people need to grow, but that’s the pitfalls of doing television. The last couple seasons where he gets involved with a tequila business is one of the most useless/boring storylines the show ever delivered.
Another element the show was gutted for (and rightfully so) were all the cameos. Yeah, it’s absurd. Sometimes they were funny (Bob Saget), but other times completely unnecessary and self-indulgent (Drew Brees, really?). The movie looks like it’s on overload with cameos. Even as a New England Patriots fan, I don’t need to see Tom Brady. Doesn’t he have enough on his plate right now then hanging out with Vincent Chase?
I want to love this movie, because the show really is a fun eight seasons of television, but at this point I’m expecting total mediocrity. If not for anything else though, I am excited to get one more adventure with these five characters. As far as who my favorite character is, it comes down to two people – Ari or Drama. If you were to ask me after season two, I would have said Ari, but Drama was not only funny, but they actually developed his character exceptionally well. Kevin Dillon does a great job in that role.
I guess that leaves me with only one way to end this article – “VIIIICCCTOORRY!”
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