Big Picture Big Sound

Bro'ing Pains

The boys are back! The boys from the "Entourage" TV show, that is. And make no mistake: your enjoyment of the "Entourage" film is entirely dependent upon your excitement at the prospect of the boys being back.

Like its spiritual cousin, the "Sex and the City" movie, the film version of "Entourage" is an almost perfect recreation of the HBO series upon which it is based. Everything is as it once was - just a little bigger, a little longer and a little more desperate to justify its existence.

Writer, director, creator Doug Ellin wisely hits the ground running and, as in the best episodes of the series, the pace rarely flags. The film picks up with Hollywood star Vince (Adrian Grenier) ending a failed marriage, his manager "E" (Kevin Connolly) estranged from a pregnant Sloan, driver Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) filthy rich from his tequila business and, of course, brother Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) still waiting for his big break. Meanwhile, super-agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) gets named studio head and agrees to back Vince's big budget directorial debut.

It all falls dependably into place, and each member of the cast jumps right back into their roles like an old (expensive) pair of jeans. Everyone is clearly having a great time, even if they seem out of place in feature film format.

Fans of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" movies will recognize the feeling. Like Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi in those films, stalwart supporting players E and Turtle, as endearing as they might have been on TV, simply don't fit in on a movie screen. And so the film must lean heavily on its Captain Picard, Ari Gold.

And as he did for eight seasons on HBO, Mr. Piven delivers. He has only one setting: extremely on. And his every scene pumps the film with almost enough adrenaline to carry it. Nevermind the nagging feeling that the film's plot simply revolves around the problem of securing additional funding for Vince's project from two Texas caricatures (Billy Bob Thornton and Halley Joel Osment, in roles almost as thankless and underwritten as the film's female characters).

In order to keep the stakes and energy high, you can feel Mr. Ellin's script straining at the seams, like one of the film's prominently displayed string bikinis. The B, C and D subplots, involving Drama, E and Turtle (in that order), reek of padding, like one of the film's prominently displayed...well, you get the idea.

But in the end, none of that matters. "Entourage" isn't about if Vince's movie will be a hit, or if Drama will get cut out of the film, or if E will get back with Sloan (good sport, Emmanuelle Chriqui) or if Turtle will get together with MMA star Ronda Rousey (seemingly miscast as herself). The answers, of course, are yes, no, yes and who cares. This movie is, as it always has been, about male wish-fulfillment; about the idea of living in a perfect hilltop mansion, driving a custom Cadillac Ciel and having parties full of beautiful women. It's about living in a Hollywood apparently populated solely with movie stars, and the sheer amount of cameos in the film is nearly worth the price of admission.

At one point, during a familiar session of couples therapy, Ari's long-suffering wife (Perrey Reeves) laments Ari's return to form by saying "it's like we're in a time machine". The audience may feel the same. The boys are certainly back, and in that way the "Entourage" movie delivers - even if might feel like you've seen it all before, more quickly and in the comfort of your own home.