Entourage
Don't Go! A depressing, sexist, mysogynistic, petered conclusion to an average TV show
Film star fornicates, with friends
TV shows that become movies are typically an endemic reflection of the lack of ideas that Hollywood has for new stories, and the desire to cash in on an audience that wants certain fictional characters to be part of their lives again so much, that they will have a $50 million whip round for one more collective rendezvous. It's like going back to a long term ex for one very costly night of ill-advised, drunken cavorting.
Generally those encores with exes are a resounding disappointment, as you are reminded of all the reasons that you broke it off in the first place. Or worse - the flaccid fumble in the cinematic dark erases any positive memories that remained from the first time around. For every Sex and the City, Miami Vice, The Simpsons, Charlie's Angels and The A-Team which should have been left alone, there is only rarely a 21 Jump Street that makes hitting it just one last time seem like a good idea. Now Entourage is at it and given its history, the danger is not just that we fall back into old habits, but that we might actually contract a CTD (Cinematically Transmitted Disease).
Generally those encores with exes are a resounding disappointment, as you are reminded of all the reasons that you broke it off in the first place. Or worse - the flaccid fumble in the cinematic dark erases any positive memories that remained from the first time around. For every Sex and the City, Miami Vice, The Simpsons, Charlie's Angels and The A-Team which should have been left alone, there is only rarely a 21 Jump Street that makes hitting it just one last time seem like a good idea. Now Entourage is at it and given its history, the danger is not just that we fall back into old habits, but that we might actually contract a CTD (Cinematically Transmitted Disease).
The original HBO TV series was mildly entertaining for a season or two. It blended the life of a fictional film star (Vinny Chase) and his boyhood friends (Turtle, Johnny Drama and "E") with appearances from real-life Hollywood stars. Angry, potty-mouthed agent Ari Gold's enormous character and offensive quips added an edge to the show, and carried a largely repetitive storyline. The whole thing was a feast for superficial, capitalistic, male eyes; draped in blue skies, fast cars, and long-limbed, smooth-skinned women (often with no top half to their clothing). Over the course of a 25-minute episode, it felt like a fairly harmless guilty pleasure to sip briefly at such hedonism; a lifestyle that we plebs could only imagine indulging in. Oh, how the other half live.
The show began in 2004, and when it finished in 2011, it felt tired and dated. Four guys sleeping with loads of women and having a larf about it might have worked when they were playing 25 year-olds, but after 8 seasons, the attitudes had barely matured along with the age of the characters. In its movie form, Entourage not only reinforces its own suspended stagnation, but actually marks a rather wretched regression.
The show began in 2004, and when it finished in 2011, it felt tired and dated. Four guys sleeping with loads of women and having a larf about it might have worked when they were playing 25 year-olds, but after 8 seasons, the attitudes had barely matured along with the age of the characters. In its movie form, Entourage not only reinforces its own suspended stagnation, but actually marks a rather wretched regression.
Entourage's whole pitch is supposed to be about loyalty to your friends - a bunch of dudes having fun and making it in the upper echelons, while their feet stay grounded. That is nonsense. Largely the film tells us that by putting your inane bros before a cornucopia of enfeebled hoes, and regularly saying a version of "only kidding - but not really", you can pretty much do whatever you want and still be a huge success.
The fact that that the film uses real people and places to peddle this empty yet aspirational lifestyle makes it particularly tragic, because it depressingly feels like this stuff is actually happening somewhere. The hope was that, by now, our collective perception of masculinity and success would have evolved beyond the meat-headed, loin-rubbing, women-slating misogyny of the early 2000's. This was an opportunity for Entourage to have demonstrated that. But the breasts still seem unable to remain clad, and when they're not on show, the sexism and oafishness of the other boobs on screen consistently maintains the idiocy of the film's entire vapid denigration of American men. Even a cornucopia of (29, apparently) occasionally jovial cameos and a few sharp lines cannot wash this movie out of the gutter and into something of any value beyond a historic visual record of what male chauvinism looks like in action. Even if you consider yourself to be cut from the same cloth as the characters, at best the film is just a long, long 2005 Entourage episode which, as a film, makes it wholly pointless.
So don't go. Download the hologram version in 30 years and show it to your male teenage kids. Tell them "this is what men used to be like". Oh, how they will laugh at how that half used to live.
The fact that that the film uses real people and places to peddle this empty yet aspirational lifestyle makes it particularly tragic, because it depressingly feels like this stuff is actually happening somewhere. The hope was that, by now, our collective perception of masculinity and success would have evolved beyond the meat-headed, loin-rubbing, women-slating misogyny of the early 2000's. This was an opportunity for Entourage to have demonstrated that. But the breasts still seem unable to remain clad, and when they're not on show, the sexism and oafishness of the other boobs on screen consistently maintains the idiocy of the film's entire vapid denigration of American men. Even a cornucopia of (29, apparently) occasionally jovial cameos and a few sharp lines cannot wash this movie out of the gutter and into something of any value beyond a historic visual record of what male chauvinism looks like in action. Even if you consider yourself to be cut from the same cloth as the characters, at best the film is just a long, long 2005 Entourage episode which, as a film, makes it wholly pointless.
So don't go. Download the hologram version in 30 years and show it to your male teenage kids. Tell them "this is what men used to be like". Oh, how they will laugh at how that half used to live.
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