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Sydney Morning Herald

Monday December 1, 2008

Brad Newsome

Entourage

Arena, 8.30pm

Vince, Ari and the gang are back in a marvellous first episode of the new series.

The epic Pablo Escobar biopic Medellin should have launched Aquaman star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) into a whole new stratosphere but the movie has bombed. Badly. One television film critic, Richard Roeper, is particularly cutting in his assessment of the flick's many shortcomings.

Naturally, this sends Vince's agent, Ari (the brilliant Jeremy Piven), into a vintage paroxysm of rage and even prompts Ari's assistant, Lloyd (the wonderful Rex Lee), to pen a delightfully catty review of Roeper as a person. Vince, though, couldn't care less - he's on a beach in Mexico being entertained by a couple of amorous groupies.

Tonight's episode is as fun and sure-footed as ever, with a script full of brilliant throwaway lines and lots of clever touches, right down to the market research showing teenage girls think Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) is scary. Outstanding.

The Kill Point

Movie Extra, 9.30pm

It's episode three but not too late to get on board this absorbing hostage-siege drama.

In fact, the real action might just be about to begin. Disgruntled Iraq veteran Mr Wolf (John Leguizamo) and the group of marines he led in the assault on a Pittsburgh bank look trapped but they could still find a way out.

On one hand, Mr Wolf has a line of communication to a ruthless billionaire who'll do anything to get his daughter out of the bank; on the other he has a second group of marines ready to break him out.

There are some unexpected developments tonight in the plot and in the characters of some of Mr Wolf's crew. Things aren't quite as strong on the police side, with The Wire's Michael K. Williams wasted as a philosophy-spouting sniper and the silly grammatical pedantry of Donnie Wahlberg's cop really starting to irk. Say, if Entourage is based on Mark Wahlberg's adventures in the screen trade, does that mean Donnie Wahlberg is Johnny Drama? I'll bet he gets tired of hearing that.

Step It Up And Dance

Arena, 7.30pm

A reasonably good start to a fairly standard American reality show in which a bunch of professional dancers compete for a big cash prize.

These are some serious hoofers, too, with resumes including the Broadway production of The Lion King and concert tours with Beyonce.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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