The same weekend Melissa McCarthy was winning rave reviews and box office dough playing a feminist James Bond, “Entourage” was flopping at the box office and getting critically savaged for a perceived misogynistic slant. I can’t say I really view the film as anti-women, and it’s hard to imagine anyone being truly offended by such a toothless Hollywood romp.
What Works: I can’t say Entourage was the best show HBO ever had, but I think the show always had a pleasant enough vibe (especially in the earlier seasons). Does the movie really capture that spirit? Yes…to a degree…
What Doesn’t: …And that’s also part of the problem. It couldn’t be more clear that “Entourage” is a TV show that was just never going to translate well into a movie, and the fact that the film basically feels like 3 episodes of the series strung together isn’t really good enough. There are very TV-esque subplots like “E” navigating two tricky flings, and “Turtle” trying to date Ronda Rousey. Plus, the ending of the TV show didn’t naturally lend itself to further closure, and everything felt more or less wrapped up except Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold going from super-agent to studio mogel. [A plot line that isn’t properly explored in the movie.] This film just feels like an unnecessary continuation, and even though you could say that about any of the sequels or reboots in theaters right now, this may be a particularly glaring example.
What I Would Have Done Differently: An Ari Gold standalone movie where he runs a major studio and puts out dozens of fires throughout a hectic studio week would have been much better, and also worked better as an actual movie rather than a movie-sized version of a TV show.