TV Review: Entourage 5.11 – Play’n With Fire

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 17, 2008

Entourage, HBO, Airs Sundays 10pm E/P

Episode: “Play’n With Fire” (Season Five, Episode Eleven)

Synopsis: Vince takes Verner’s criticisms from last week to heart, but the director ends up firing Vince on the spot.  Ari races to the set to put the fire out and the entire gang ends up arguing their case in front of new studio head, Dana Gordon.  Turtle sets up a secret meeting after receiving an out-of-the-blue call from his mile-high handjob buddy.

Review: What the fuck happened to Jason Patric?  And when did he turn into Ed Norton?  There were two main male roles in Smokejumpers, the lead played by Patric and the supporting character played by Vince.  Patric was MIA last week, and this week they refer to Ed Norton as if he’s currently the lead in the movie.  Even aside from the mysterious switcheroo, everyone knows if Norton was on-set this movie would not be falling apart like it is because he would take control instantly.  Am I missing something here?  (That’s entirely possible by the way…)

But Smokejumpers is falling apart in spectacular fashion.  It’s good that Vince stood up to the director even though it seemed inevitable that his ass would be fired.  This fired-up and beat-down Vince is a nice change for his character, but the best part for the viewer is watching Ari come flying in ready to rumble.  “Because the Jew has arrived and he doesn’t like Germans.”  Great line.  Eric’s stand-up defense of Vince was nice too, although all the noise ends up for naught and the production is shut down.  Would they actually shut the movie down though?  I know they looked for a replacement director (and made a fat joke at Kevin Smith’s expense) but c’mon, there’s always a scab director available in Hollywood!  Paul W.S. Anderson?  Joel Shumacher?  Rob Cohen?  Michael Bay?  Seems to me it’ll be more expensive to halt production, especially since they’ll probably still have to pay Patric’s and Norton’s full salary…

And Turtle’s romance with Jamie-Lynn Sigler?  Normally I would take this opportunity to scoff at the unrealistic world of Entourage, but apparently Sigler and Jerry Ferrara (Turtle) are actually dating in real life after meeting on the show.  So instead I’ll just say it’s a nice change to finally see Turtle getting some action and talking about his dreams that don’t involve Vince.  And to be honest, Sigler is yesterday’s news in Hollywood now that she no longer has an eating disorder to keep her weight in check.  Meaning her relationship with the squat Turtle may actually be pretty believable after all…  (Please direct all hate mail to neil@filmschoolrejects.com)

But seriously.  What the fuck happened to Jason Patric?

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What did you think of this week’s episode?

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