Entourage

First Hit:  Although billed as a comedy it was more like a drama that wasn’t that good nor was it very funny.

I’ve never seen the television series that this film was taken from – probably a good thing. I didn’t find it funny as it may be mimicking Hollywood studio decision making all too closely.

In this story, you never see anyone do any work on the film, so we’ve no idea how well it got made and if the team spent the money wisely, which is what the plot is all about – they need more money. The Entourage is made of Eric (Kevin Connolly), Vince (Adrian Grenier), Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara).

They are working with/for Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) who decides to take an offer to become studio head and his first film in his new role is one which he wants Eric to star. Eric is all in except he wants to direct the film as well. The plot takes a Hollywood and stupid turn when the movie almost doesn’t get released because of Travis McCredle’s (Haley Joel Osment) jealousness of Eric’s relationship with a girl he likes. Travis’s dad, Larson (Billy Bob Thornton) is the one putting up the cash for the film but listens to his son review of the initial showing. Sound like a stupid plot? Possibly, but it may have more base in Hollywood reality than we might think. There are lots of side stories that give credence to cameos by lots of famous people.

Connolly is OK as the main character. Nothing outstanding in his performance. Grenier, Dillon, and Ferrara are, at times, fun to watch as their own dramas' play out. Piven is the best part of this film as he fights his anger over Hollywood stupidity and his own ego. Osment was fun to see again and he made something of his character. Thornton slid through this small role. Doug Ellin and Rob Weiss wrote this rather predictable and uninteresting story. Ellin’s direction was better than the script and some of the cuts to the multiple stories being juggled were well done.

Overall:  A few laughs, the drama wasn’t dramatic enough, and in the end it didn’t have much to offer.

Think Like a Man

First Hit:  This film served up both truth and laughs.

Film follows 7 men who are close friends and hang out together often.

The film also follows the women whom they meet. So what is thinking like a man entail? It entails reading Steve Harvey’s book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man”.

In this book he gives women advice of how to land men; who are mama’s boys, or can’t commit, or are players, and other behaviors. What happens is that we follow men who are being lured into relationships they actually want by women who are using the techniques written in the book to make the man do what they want.

At one point the men get copies of the book and try to blunt the girl’s attempts but in the end the men want these girls. Through all this is humor, some of it smart, some slapstick, some racial, but mostly it is the kind of humor one expects in the truth.

The bits with the professional basketball players is really funny and I would have liked even more of those scenes.

This film is smart in the way it handles the male and female parts.

This is a very good ensemble piece and although the actors are not largely known (A-list) the acting was strong: Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Hart, Terrence Jenkins, Romany Malco, Gary Owen, Chris Brown, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Lewis, Gabrielle Union, La La Anthony, Wendy Williams and Sherri Shepherd were all funny and good in their roles. Keith Merryman wrote the smart screenplay from Steve Harvey’s book. Tim Story directed this smartly with great movements between couples and scenes.

Overall: I really enjoyed this film because it rang of truth, was smartly written and well directed.