Producer Mark Wahlberg’s Hollywood un-satire Entourage ran for 96 episodes on TV from 2004 to 2011; now he has brought it to the big screen. It’s another bros-before-hos celebration of young guys living the celeb dream – riding smugly around LA together in that bromantic four-seater convertible. There are unfunny and unsatirical star cameos, including one from our own Piers Morgan. As ever, where you might expect irony and biting comment, there is uncritical adoration. Super-hot young actor Vince (Adrian Grenier) is super-hotter than ever; he has just blown off his young wife after a few days of marriage and the status quo reasserts itself. He is always accompanied by his boys, his entourage. Lovable deadbeat brother Johnny “Drama” (Kevin Dillon) is still a failing actor – though he’s also supposed to be seriously good. There’s also smart manager Eric (Kevin Connolly) and driver/general gofer Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), who has lost weight and supposedly become rich through marketing tequila. All the acid lines are assigned to Vince’s agent-turned-studio-head Ari, gamely played by Jeremy Piven, who must now shepherd Vince’s directorial debut. Compare this to 30 Rock, or Curb Your Enthusiasm or indeed The Larry Sanders Show, in which Piven had a great turn as the bitter writer. Entourage is feeble, and the big screen magnifies its unselfconscious obnoxiousness. This “entourage”: is anyone going to talk about the basic tragedy of their parasitical existence? Erm, no. They’re supposed to be pretty great. Haley Joel Osment (once the I-see-dead-people kid from The Sixth Sense) is almost a grownup revelation playing a Texan movie financier. In a funnier film, he could have made a real impression.
