The Bubble

Apart from a game performance from Karen Gillan, there's not much to recommend Judd Apatow's unfunny lockdown comedy The Bubble, writes Alistair Harkness, ...

The cast for Judd Apatow's new pandemic comedy features several A-listers – both in the main cast and via cameo appearances.

What else has Maria Bakalova been in? What else has Guz Khan been in? What else has Iris Apatow been in? What else has Leslie Mann been in? What else has Pedro Pascal been in? What else has Keegan-Michael Key been in?

The Bubble, the latest film from Judd Apatow, is a shaggy and toothless look at celebrity egos and pandemic-era filmmaking.

Apatow has always been a fan of improvisation, but with The Bubble, that reliance on letting the actors go free hits its breaking point. But with The Bubble, Apatow is at his least interesting as a comedy writer, with pandemic jokes that already feel exhausted, and parodies of showbiz that are fairly obvious. On that note, some of The Bubble’s best moments are when Apatow does let these actors play off each other, but puts a structure in place. That, however, is not the case with The Bubble, Apatow’s latest comedy, in which he indulges his worst impulses in a film that becomes little more than a collection of bits and ideas that don’t tie together in a worthwhile way. As the COVID-19 pandemic looms over film productions, The Bubble has the stars of the 23rd biggest action franchise of all time—Cliff Beasts—reuniting for the sixth installment. Each member of The Bubble’s cast is a fairly one-note joke, each a shallow caricature of fairly broad celebrity type.

Great idea. Incredible cast. Terrible execution. That's the logline for Judd Apatow's new pandemic piss-take on Netflix, 'The Bubble'

There are a few highlights (Iris’s celebrity TikTok dances, one hilarious drug trip cameo, Pascal being a letch and Gillan’s spiral of madness) but most of the film bombs hard enough to seem slightly embarrassing. Throw in a handful of big-name surprise cameos and you have a comedy brimming with talent and great ideas that seems all the more frustrating when hardly any of it actually works. Inspired by the slightly ridiculous production of Jurassic World: Dominion – a film that forced its entire cast and crew into a “bubble” in an English country hotel so they could carry on shooting in lockdown – Apatow has assembled a fantastic cast of A-listers and friends for his take on the pandemic.

Apatow's deadly dull, self-pitying movie about film stars shooting a Jurassic Park-style franchise thriller stars Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan, Keegan-Michael ...

There might well be humor to be mined from the self-absorbed foibles of the rich and famous during a deadly pandemic. But it says a lot that the only clear-eyed counterpoint to the Cliff Beasts 6 cast’s apparently life-threatening cabin fever comes from “the help.” Pascal’s character in The Bubble is a serial seducer and a committed psychonaut. Ironically, the only bits in The Bubble that are somewhat amusing come from the Cliff Beasts 6 script, which multiple characters describe as absolutely terrible. The sex is of the bra-on, herky-jerky variety. Iris Apatow’s character brings some perspective to the story as well. (According to The Bubble, the problem was of course the critics, not the casting.) And so Cobb’s agent pressures her to return to the Jurassic Park-esque Cliff Beasts franchise, which she abandoned in part five. It’s like watching a comedy whose humor depends on the nuances of an unfamiliar culture, except the language being spoken here is Hollywood navel-gazing. The Bubble is composed mainly of long, excruciating sequences where everyone is trying very hard and producing zero laughs, like people trying to start a fire by rubbing two wet sticks together. The Bubble was reportedly inspired by the production of Jurassic World: Dominion, which filmed last year in the UK under strict COVID protocols. Judd Apatow’s Netflix action-comedy The Bubble is the film no one wanted about the COVID-19 pandemic: It’s instantly dated, frustratingly oblivious, and painfully unfunny. Some of these characters have real-world parallels, particularly Van Chance and Mulray, who are clearly modeled after Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum. Others represent more generic blockbuster types: the tough-talking soldier, the vaguely foreign scientist, the comic relief.

Emmy award-winning Director and Producer Judd Apatow's latest film is now out on Netflix.

The movie has an ensemble cast that features some huge names in the world of comedy, TV and film, with some cameo appearances from actors that you might not have expected to see. The cast and crew of a blockbuster action franchise attempt to shoot a sequel while quarantining at a posh hotel.” However, it’s safe to say one word most didn’t associate with it is “comedy.”

Yes, that's Daisy Ridley kissing Pedro Pascal in The Bubble on Netflix. Other The Bubble cameos include James McAvoy, John Cena, Beck, and more.

But though it won’t get the same buzz from the Star Wars fandom, perhaps the funniest cameo is James McAvoy, who appears at the end of the movie as himself. Dieter, in a pre-flu state of fever dreaming, imagines Kate’s face coming out of the Peloton screen. For safety, the cast is put in a “bubble” at a fancy hotel, with quarantine and testing protocols in place. It doesn’t take long for the tone of the workout to change. Then she suggests the next exercise: “I’d like you to enter me for 30 thrusts. Basically, there is no shortage of The Bubble celebrity cameos.

Judd Apatow's impact on modern comedy is immeasurable. He began writing, directing and producing several cult TV comedy classics such as “The Ben Stiller ...

With that, Apatow became one of the most in-demand names behind the camera in Hollywood, directing eight more features and producing scores more. Yet Apatow’s directorial efforts seemed to be his most pure expressions, a little less goofy and more heartfelt than his other wackier fare. Judd Apatow’s impact on modern comedy is immeasurable.

The film is best in its embrace of the random, its moments when the talented and funny cast goof off with each other, responding to one another's ...

The film is best in its embrace of the random, its moments when the talented and funny cast goof off with each other, responding to one another's eccentricities. There's a lot of stuff about the murderous security team hired to keep the actors on site, and those sections don't really work. When all of these characters are onscreen at the same time, it is legitimate chaos, and a lot of fun. Cast and crew gather together in England to shoot the sixth installment of the "Cliff Beasts" franchise, a worldwide phenomenon about a group of scientists and researchers going toe to toe with flying dinosaurs dislodged from a polar ice cap or something like that. Was it right to be putting actors and crew in this kind of danger just for a movie? There was a lot of talk at the time about all of this.

Judd Apatow brings together a star-studded cast for this pandemic comedy.

The idea is there, but the execution and the way a lot of the subject matter is handled just doesn’t cut it. When it comes to its place in Apatow’s oeuvre, however, I think The Bubble is best forgotten. But to this studio, getting the movie done seems to literally be a matter of life or death. The Gist: Somewhere in England, producer Gavin (Peter Serafinowicz) prepares his staff for the arrival of a group of actors to their “bubble”. They’re going to make the sixth movie in the Cliff Beasts action franchise, and they are dedicated to keeping their bubble secure and protecting the set from the still-raging coronavirus. While the cast and crew do their best to keep a safe set, chaos inevitably ensues. With long working hours, shut downs, and various illnesses going around, this 3-month project begins to stretch much longer, and the drama on set only gets more and more intense.