Mark Kermode reviews Entourage

well I mean it's no surprise I I do hate it I absolutely hate it I hate it I loathe it I despise it I detest it I feel contempt for it i I just everything about it rattles you know every one of my cages and there's and there's a number of reasons but let's begin with something that was said in that interview when you said to Jeremy Piven you said you know is it fair to say that this is how the women are portrayed and he said well yeah you know what you have to understand is it's a male fantasy well firstly that's not an excuse and secondly that this idea that there is such a thing as a male fantasy which is everybody wants to be part of that I just totally reject so saying it's a male fantasy is not an excuse for it and I think it was very interesting that in response to that question what he did was actually talked about Aerys relationship with his wife which in the entire film is pretty much exceptional as being I mean it's not a three dimensional portrait by any mean but it but it's you know it's a one-point one-dimensional portrait because other than that this is absolutely the most loathsome consumerist male dream and it says something in the UM and the production notes I need to read this to you it says ever cruise Sunset Boulevard in a stretch limousine and then hit the red carpet at a star-studded movie premiere stop by an impromptu party on the beach in Malibu where the Sun always shines in the cocktails flow score the best table at the hottest restaurant in town no reservation required and all the while everywhere you go gorgeous starlets wave as you pass by it's everybody's fantasy to live the Hollywood dream it's everybody's fantasy to live the Hollywood dream okay well let's get one thing clear no it isn't it may be a select audiences fancy dream but in my case I absolutely detest everything about the mindset that this film occupies for one thing you think at the beginning is going to be coming in I know some people say well you know marks not a you know not a fan of the TV show and I've never followed the TV show so therefore I don't have that kind of connection with it with the characters that's fine I'm happy to have no connection with them whatsoever it is perfectly possible you have you know movies and TV programs about people who are utterly loathsome interested only in money interested only in cars interested only in women as property and for those program still to be interesting because of the the way in which the program approaches them and I have heard from some people that there is an element of that in the TV show from the opening moment of this in which we have an overhead shot of a yacht with a you know a bunch of sort of you know young hotties dancing around while these guys do the guy stuff at ten seconds into the film and literally ten seconds into the film I leaned to James King and I broke the code of conduct I whispered to him I hate this film I just like all my alarm bells went off and I thought it's okay but maybe it will settle then but no it didn't what happened was we were shown this you know lifestyle which is a wealth glittering money cars cars cars cars cars boats boats boats money money money cars cars cars guys talking about this Nuala themselves and everything's about themselves and everything's about you know the contents of their underwear and everything's about how much they've gotten how they're driving them what they can ID people I just absolutely have no sympathy for don't care about them not interest in them don't find them for Charming don't find them funny and you keep thinking that what's going to happen is that the film is going to flip it's going to turn its way around we're going to see that their lifestyle is and the way this is set up is that the main guy he's an actor he's been given this gig to direct a movie called hide and no one's seen anything of it but he spent a bunch of money and clearly the film's going to be as stiff and at one point we get to see some clips from it and it is it's terrible it's like one of those movies that Adam Ant used to make in the 1990s that went straight to video I mean it's an it and that's the joke but then that isn't the joke because it's not as stiff because actually the guy who has got no discernible talent whatsoever has made something that is in fact brilliant and the lifestyles of these guys aren't falling apart they are in fact fabulous and the guys that you see doing just horrendous awful horrible locker room vile young stuff they're great it's where you have the player right the player says look Hollywood lifestyle it's empty and vacuous and it's all to do with you we know in my wealth and sex and all these things and it sort of picks it apart and that's why it works because it's funny because you can satirize if this just goes hey Hollywood lifestyle it's all vacuous and it's about money and it about sexism as well isn't that great these guys they're loathsome prey these guys all they care about is cars hooray these guys they treat all the women around them as property hooray these guys are really really annoying company everyone all right and you keeps coming in when's the joke when does the joke come about how actually none of that is funny and I'm sitting there in the middle of this thing which is just like this pornographic consumerist hate-filled piece of propaganda which is just saying to everyone this is what you should aspire to this level of moral torpor is what use this level of utter vacuity this just foul soul-sucking horrible vacuum of vile emptiness is what you should aspire to and then you wait for the bottle to be burst and it isn't because the punchline is there great everyone loves them and they do really well and they all like each other and even the one and there's some stuff in which I can't talk about on the radio because it's that time of day so what you have is a comedy with no jokes you have satellite with no satire essentially it's just like the generation game with a conveyor belt of lust greed avarice vice just being wheeled in front of you and going there that's great isn't it and I started I wondered whether am I not laughing because I'm not getting the jokes is the satire actually so straight faced so deadpan so unbelievably ah you know a just poker-faced that I cut in many rows no there are no jokes it's not meant to be funny it's meant to be good you're meant to like these people you're meant to like this lifestyle you're meant to want this stuff you're meant to be seduced by I mean I it compared to this Sex in the City 2 is a call to arms for you know for the dispossessed masses of the world to rise up me in terms of its gender politics Human Centipede is more sensitive it is a film which not only has nothing other than the syrupy corpulent foul display of coming the amount of shots of cars and bumpers and cars and bumpers and yachts and cars and bumpers I would crush the road not to be in the same street as these people but the movie wants to be with them the movie is like some awful hanger-on that has found its way into some hideous celebrity party and can't believe it's there and doesn't want to annoy anyone then of course you get the the parade of celebrity cameos with people just lining up to have their faces in this the notable one being Marky Mark Wahlberg himself who actually I thought looked embarrassed to be there because he almost got this sense that he's moved on he's really even he realized that this is not acceptable so whatever else it may be in terms of the show it the TV show and you have to like the character leave me believe me I could have spent eight characters with these people and if this is the way they're treated I wouldn't want to spend another day with them they are all vile and I don't believe in any of them I don't believe in the lie that the film is attempting to sell me about this is what we should aspire to I don't and I and more importantly I don't think it's I don't think it's a comedy I don't think it's a comedy I think what it is is a piece of propaganda and I predict that it will be seen as such and reject it as such I cannot remember and I'm serious about this I hate this more than I hate sex in the city too and that's really going some

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 716,780

Rating: 4.7633395 out of 5

Keywords: Doug Ellin, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Jeremy Piven, Entourage, Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review, BBC, 5live

Id: mfgCZ9lgQ3I

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 19 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/RocheCoach]

So I guess he didn't like Entourage.

[u/[deleted]]

Just imagine his reaction if Danny Dyer was in it.

[u/brennnan]

Here's the Sex and the City 2 review mentioned. It's well worth a watch. Kermode is brilliant, but it's a shame his passion only really comes out when he hates something.

[u/Dstroyrofwrlds]

"In terms of its gender politics, Human Centipede is more sensitive". I like this guy.

[u/ksmxnas]

Entourage is sex and the city for men.

[u/WhoShotJunior]

That's just like, your opinion, man

[u/waynehell]

i would rather watch him watch the movie than watch the movie

[u/jjs54]

Hello to Jason Isaacs!

[u/[deleted]]

Loved these lines. "Compared to this Sex in the City 2 is a call to arms" and.. "In terms of its gender politics Human Centipede is more sensitive"