In the film Entourage, based on the popular HBO show, movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) makes his directorial debut with Hyde, a modern adaptation of the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. We are told by super-agent-turned-studio-head Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) that it’s an amazing film, one that has both box office and award season appeal.
We are shown about a minute of footage from Hyde, which consists of an opening scene where Vince is a hooded DJ tossing pills to club dancers while they are attacked on all sides. It is a slick, stylized film very much in the vein of Blade or Underworld. (Neither of which, shockingly, were nominated for any Academy Awards.)
It’s hard to imagine that a film that opens with such a ridiculous, overly-produced lavish action sequence could somehow be a legitimate Oscar contender. But in the world of Entourage, where wooden, dull Adrian Grenier is apparently the biggest movie star in Hollywood, it is par for the course.
I would have liked to see more footage from Hyde, particularly Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon)’s scenes, which become part of the central conflict of the film. I would have also liked to see Vince on set directing and acting, which this movie decides to gloss over in favor of showing us just after he’s completed filming and is finishing up the final edit. But mostly, I just think showing either of those two things would have been more interesting than the film we actually got.
The central conflict of the film is that Vince’s opus is almost complete, but he needs some more cash to finish up the effects. Ari, who has already put his neck out on the line to let Vince direct the film and has already let it go over-budget, must go to Texas with his hat in hand to beg the main financier, Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton), for more cash. Larsen has no time for Ari’s big city ways and his fancy moving pictures, so he instead sends his son Travis (Haley Joel Osment) to screen the film and decide whether or not it is worth cutting another check. Travis, who has taken one film class, comes back with a long list of notes, the biggest being that he wants Drama’s scenes cut completely out of the movie.
There are also a handful of subplots. The most ridiculous of which is that Eric (Kevin Connolly) just has too many women who want to sleep with him and that is jeopardizing his nice guy status. (I wish I was kidding, but seriously, he tries to reconcile with the mother of his child, but can’t because she finds out that he slept with two other attractive women in a 24-hour period.) Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), who is apparently now filthy rich with tequila money, tries to date MMA fighter Ronda Rousey. (At one point, we see Rousey in a gym flanked by the other members of the “Four Horsewomen,” which made me wish we were following their exploits instead of Vince and his crew.) Also, Lloyd (Rex Lee), Ari’s former assistant, wants Ari to walk him down the aisle for his wedding.
The biggest problem with the film, and the problem I always had with the show it was based on, is that it never really feels like there are any stakes. Writer/director Doug Ellin has always seemed more interested in showing Vince’s successes than forcing him to deal with any real failure. He and his crew never have to struggle or work for anything. It is all just handed to them. (Hilariously, at one point, Ari has to explain to the guys, who are all multimillionaires, why they can’t just put up their own money to finance the rest of the film.) In the right hands, that could be a brilliant commentary on the problem with our celebrity-obsessed culture, but we are supposed to root for these guys and their “bro money, bro problems” struggles.
There are moments of the film I enjoyed. Jeremy Piven truly is delightful in his scene-chewing portrayal of Ari Gold and, even though I wish he would devote his tenacity to someone more worthwhile than Vincent Chase, it is fun to watch him bulldoze over everyone in his path to get his way. And I also really enjoyed Haley Joel Osment’s portrayal of Travis, which made me see Osment in an entirely different light. Kelsey Grammer has a fun cameo playing himself and Ronda Rousey is always fun and manages to acquit herself well in a franchise that doesn’t have a great track record depicting strong women, even if she got stuck having to pretend to be romantically interested in Turtle. (In case you are curious, this film fails the Bechdel test, but that’s in large part due to the fact that every conversation in the movie is inevitably about Vincent Chase.)
The film is surprisingly watchable too. By which, I mean, it passes by at a breezy pace offering a variety of pleasing sights and sounds along the way. You never really get invested in much of what is happening, but the attention span of the film is so short that it quickly moves on to the next thing before you can get bored. Entourage isn’t a terrible movie; it’s a shallow movie about terrible people.
Of course, I have to wonder if I would have been happier seeing Hyde, which is apparently one of the best films ever made. Sadly, as Tenacious D would say, Entourage isn’t the greatest film in the world; it is just a tribute.
Written by Joel Murphy. If you enjoy his reviews, he also writes a weekly pop culture column called Murphy’s Law, which you can find here. You can contact Joel at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.