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The “characters of Entourage<\/strong>…”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The name of the blog alludes<\/a> to the Carolina Israelite<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 (Get it?<\/em>)<\/p>\n Note that I\u2019ll do mostly film reviews, and also good reads<\/em>, good music<\/em>, and \u2013 from time to time \u2013 politics and politicians.\u00a0 (For a recent post of musical<\/em> interest see \u201cOn Pink Floyd<\/a>\u2026.\u201d)<\/p>\n In the meantime:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Mi Dulce<\/em> and I went to see the new film Entourage<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 (Mostly because she wanted to.)<\/p>\n Let’s put it this way:\u00a0 If we’d gone to the Carmike<\/a> and paid the $6.75-apiece matinee price, it might<\/em> have been worth the price of admission<\/a>.\u00a0 Instead we went to the more-expensive AMC<\/a> mall theater, and paid their more-expensive $10.75 apiece.\u00a0 (Mostly because she wanted to.)<\/p>\n With that in mind, I’d say the film wasn’t worth the price of that<\/em> admission.\u00a0 (Let alone the added $13 for popcorn and soda.)\u00a0 On the other hand, when reviewing a film I’ve always tried to say something nice<\/em>, even if I didn’t like it.\u00a0 That started back in the 1970s when I did reviews for my college newspaper.\u00a0 Back then I followed a “one-third, two-thirds” rule.\u00a0 A good film got good words for two-thirds of the review, “not so good” for the remaining one-third, and vice versa<\/a>.<\/p>\n So here’s the positive third:\u00a0 Entourage<\/em><\/a> is to Hollywood what A Few Good Men<\/a><\/em> was to the world of the Marine Corps and Birdman<\/a><\/em> was to Broadway actors:<\/p>\n Birdman<\/em><\/strong> is to Broadway actors what A Few Good Men<\/a><\/em> was to the Marine Corps and the military justice system.\u00a0 It gives a fascinating, inside view of the world of [those] Broadway actors. \u00a0(Which alone makes it well worth the $10.68 that \u201cwe\u201d paid to get the tickets, but not<\/em> worth the extra $13.29 for the one large soda and large popcorn\u2026)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n See On \u201cBirdman,\u201d the movie<\/a>.\u00a0 (Which could be another way of saying that theater “treats” – like popcorn and soda – are just way<\/em><\/strong> over-priced.)\u00a0 But the strange this was that by the time the\u00a0 movie ended, we almost<\/em> felt like we’d gotten our money’s worth.<\/p>\n Which is another way of saying the first half-hour of the film challenges your intelligence.<\/p>\n Note first that according to Wikipedia, “Entourage<\/b><\/i> is a 2015 American comedy-drama<\/a>,” a sequel to the “HBO<\/a> TV series of the same name<\/a>,” featuring the same stars:<\/p>\n The series … chronicles the acting career of Vincent Chase<\/a>, a young A-list<\/a> movie star<\/a>, and his childhood friends from Queens<\/a> … as they navigate the unfamiliar terrain of Los Angeles<\/a>…\u00a0 Mark Wahlberg<\/a> and Stephen Levinson served as the show’s executive producers<\/a>, and its premise is loosely based on Wahlberg’s experiences as an up-and-coming film star.\u00a0 The series deals with themes of male friendship and real-life situations in modern-day Hollywood<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So like I said, Entourage<\/em><\/a> was to Hollywood what Birdman<\/a><\/em> was to Broadway actors.<\/p>\n The plot turns on Vince and his “former agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold” working together on a new film, a “risky project that will serve as Vince’s directorial debut.”<\/p>\n You should know that according to Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>, only 30% of the critics liked the movie, while 80% of the audience liked it.\u00a0 (Wikipedia<\/a> said the movie “received generally negative reviews from critics, and has grossed over $17 million,” since it’s release on June 3.)\u00a0 The “RT<\/a>” consensus was that the film “retains many elements of the HBO series, but feels less like a film than a particularly shallow, cameo-studded extended episode of the show.”<\/p>\n Which brings up one big thing that was<\/em> enjoyable.<\/p>\n There’s a lot of that in Entourage<\/strong> <\/em>as well.\u00a0 Wikipedia<\/a> listed some 50 such cameos, including but not limited to Tom Brady<\/a>, Warren Buffett<\/a>, Gary Busey<\/a>, David Spade<\/a>, George Takei<\/a>, Russell Wilson<\/a>,\u00a0 and Mark Wahlberg<\/a>.\u00a0 The cameos alone were enough to keep you from falling asleep.\u00a0 (Which I did when we saw the movie Aloha<\/a><\/em> the week before last.\u00a0 But I woke up in time to mumble, “He’s gonna blow it up.”\u00a0 That was right before the scene where “Brian and Ng hold hands as the rocket is ruined and explodes.”)<\/p>\n Did I mention that I was a film minor<\/a> in college?\u00a0 (See About than \u201cWasp\u201d name<\/a>.)<\/p>\n So anyway<\/em>, the Mark Wahlburg cameo brings up ‘Entourage’ Star Mark Wahlberg Reveals His Own Real-life Entourage<\/a>.\u00a0 Basically, his entourage kept him grounded<\/a>, he said:<\/p>\n The former rapper and model credits his own real-life entourage for his success in Hollywood, saying \u201cI wanted people around me whom I could trust.\u201d\u00a0 He says: \u201cWe\u2019ve enjoyed this great friendship and camaraderie over the years.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to be faithful to your roots.\u00a0 It keeps you grounded and reminds you that even though you may have more money and a certain stature, your friends will always know who you really are.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course it must be added that this was after a “chequered history, including drug addiction, crime and emprisonment.”\u00a0 On a positive note, Wahlburg doesn’t try to hide that history…<\/p>\n But we digress.\u00a0\u00a0 The point is that an entourage<\/a> is defined as a<\/span> “group<\/span> of<\/span> attendants<\/span> or<\/span> associates,<\/span> as<\/span> of<\/span> a<\/span> person<\/span> of<\/span> rank<\/span> or<\/span> importance.”\u00a0 Synonyms include\u00a0retinue, following,<\/span> cortege,<\/span> escort.<\/span>\u00a0 And the point of the movie<\/em> is that an entourage is a good thing to have. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, borrowing from\u00a0Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>, the thing to remember is that the film is rated R for “pervasive language, strong sexual content, nudity and some drug use.”\u00a0 (As an artist, I must say that I personally enjoyed the “celebration of feminine pulchritude<\/a>.”)\u00a0 Or as one reviewer said:<\/p>\n There’s precious little effort made to adapt a Hollywood that is evolving away from the era when bros would be bros and women existed mainly to stand around in tiny bikinis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Which is another way of saying:\u00a0 Sure it’s fluff, but it’s enjoyable<\/em> fluff.<\/p>\n And one final word.\u00a0 The movie starts slow and pretty much insults your intelligence.\u00a0 Then too, the film’s denouement<\/a> was pretty lame.\u00a0 Vince and his buddies spent most of the movie worrying about getting financed by the\u00a0Billy Bob Thornton<\/a> character and his idiot son.\u00a0 But as it turned out, when Billy Bob pulled the plug, they had enough money on their own to finance the “risky project that will serve as Vince’s directorial debut.”<\/p>\n But by the end of the movie – in an exercise of pure American stick-to-itiveness<\/a> – both my partner and I found that we liked it.\u00a0 (We’re both saps for happy endings.)\u00a0 Somehow, some way – maybe it was the cameos – the plot held together enough to make it all work.<\/p>\n I just wished that I’d paid the Carmike matinee price…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0A former badass<\/a> who turned his life around…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The upper image is courtesy of the TV series of the same name<\/a> link in the Wikipedia article on the film<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em> The caption:\u00a0 “The main characters of Entourage<\/strong>. From left to right: Ari Gold<\/a> (Jeremy Piven<\/a>), Eric ‘E’ Murphy<\/a> (Kevin Connolly<\/a>), Vincent ‘Vince’ Chase<\/a> (Adrian Grenier<\/a>), Turtle<\/a> (Jerry Ferrara<\/a>) and Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase<\/a> (Kevin Dillon<\/a>).<\/span>“<\/em><\/p>\n Re: price of admission.\u00a0 See also\u00a0pay to play<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Re: Hitchcock cameos.\u00a0 The full caption in the Wikipedia<\/a> article was:\u00a0 “In To Catch a Thief<\/a> (1955), Hitchcock appears as the bus passenger on the right.”\u00a0 See also Watch Alfred Hitchcock Make Cameo Appearances in 37 of His Films<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n For other views, see Entourage (2015) – IMDb<\/a> and “Entourage” the Movie – Who Cares<\/a>?<\/em><\/p>\n Re:\u00a0 Mark Wahlburg’s “chequered history.”\u00a0 See Mark Wahlberg – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>, which noted that he is an American actor, producer, former model and rapper, to wit:\u00a0 “frontman with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n Wahlberg was addicted to cocaine<\/a> and other drugs by age 13.\u00a0 He was later charged with attempted murder<\/a>, for separate assaults on African-American children and two Vietnamese men.\u00a0 He pleaded guilty to assault<\/a> and was sentenced to two years in Suffolk County<\/a> Deer Island<\/a> House of Correction, but ultimately served only 45 days.\u00a0 There were other incidents as well, but after “going to prison<\/a> for assault, he decided to improve his behavior.”<\/em><\/p>\n “I was there, locked up … and I realized it wasn’t what I wanted at all.\u00a0 I’d ended up in the worst place I could possibly imagine and I never wanted to go back.\u00a0 First of all, I had to learn to stay on the straight and narrow.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The lower image is courtesy of Mark Wahlberg: ‘My faith in God makes me a better man’<\/a>, an article in Christian Today<\/a>.\u00a0 (Not to be confused with “Christianity Today<\/a>.”)\u00a0 Christian Today<\/strong> is<\/em> a non-denominational Christian<\/a> news company, with its international headquarters in London<\/a>, England.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>See Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Recent articles of possible interest include Why the Duggars serve as a warning against fundamentalist Christianity<\/a>, and\u00a0 Is it OK to be angry with God<\/a>?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The “characters of Entourage…” Welcome to the \u201cGeorgia Wasp\u2026\u201d The name of the blog alludes to the Carolina Israelite.\u00a0 (Get it?) Note that I\u2019ll do mostly film reviews, and also good reads, good music, and \u2013 from time to time \u2013 politics and politicians.\u00a0 (For a recent post of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h3>\n
Welcome to the \u201cGeorgia Wasp\u2026\u201d<\/h3>\n
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Remember the old Alfred Hitchcock movies where he appeared in a cameo<\/a>?\u00a0\u00a0 (See List of Alfred Hitchcock cameo appearances – Wikipedia<\/a>, including the image at left.)\u00a0 The fun part was watching the beginning of his movies, to see when he “popped-up<\/a>.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/d.christiantoday.com\/en\/full\/30751\/mark-wahlberg.jpg?w=380&h=250&l=50&t=40\")
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