Colombia Vs. Hollywood III: Medellín starring Vinnie Chase

You may remember that in previous posts on the Colombia Travel Blog we’ve looked at Romancing The Stone and Mr. And Mrs. Smith in  our Colombia Vs. Hollywood series. Today marks somewhat of a shift of gears, since both those films I wasn’t a big fan of. Medellín, however, is great… Probably. I say probably because there’s no way of actually knowing since the ‘film’ is actually a fictional work featured in the exceptional HBO TV Series Entourage.

Starring Vinnie Chase as the iconic and maligned Pablo Escobar, Medellín seeks to put a human face on the monster; an unenviable task considering his reputation as one of the most ruthless criminals in modern history. Billy Walsh’s film is riddled with problems during production (much like real-life attempts at making a film about Escobar) and eventually gets released to widespread critical chiding. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see it.

In the parts of Medellín we see, Colombia is depicted in a similar vein to how it is in Romancing The Stone: a Mexican-style desert town full of Mexican people. What saves the writers and producers of Entourage‘s  ‘film’, however, is the air of self-knowing that permeates. You know the writers of such a wry and intelligent comedy have done their research. They evidence this in their fake website advertising the fake film. Instead, the whole thing comes across as an elaborate joke at Hollywood’s expense – one that we in Colombia can laugh with. So the title of this blog post is somewhat misleading since Entourage doesn’t take a stance against Colombia at all, and rather sides with us. The panning the film receives; the poor writing and lack of preparation put into the film; Chase’s poor performance as Escobar – in fact everything about the film, including the Apocalypse Now-influenced scenes, are to be laughed at. And so is the depiction of Colombia, so typical of previous Hollywood efforts.

In conclusion: come to Colombia, watch Entourage.

Paul