CERT: 15 / PLATFORMS: NETFLIX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Just what we needed, a film that reminds us of the rampant pandemic panic and how it almost killed the film industry. Seriously though, in the hands of say, Armando Iannucci, The Bubble might have been something special. Sadly it comes from…wait Judd Apatow directed this…and look at that cast…jeez, what the hell happened Netflix? Because The Bubble is one of the worst films of the year.
The film sees a group of actors gathering at a fancy English hotel to shoot Cliff Beasts 6, a mega franchise film, completely isolated in their own bubble during the filming process. But as events escalate, things get crazy.
The Bubble is the largest scale squandering of talent since Holmes & Watson. Within this pandemic set showbiz satire is a film with a lot to say, which makes it unbearably frustrating that this idea is virtually torn to pieces, and left bleeding out across an overlong, charmless and near joylessly laugh-phobic glut of misguided gags and confused scripting.
The stacked cast try (Pedro Pascal, Guz Khan, Karen Gillan, Keegan Michael-Key and Peter Serafinowicz especially) but this utterly incompetent mess just tries to do everything that Ben Stiller’s vastly superior Tropic Thunder did, only worse, way, way, worse and through a depressingly modern lens too.
It’s an anger-inducing catastrophe, that even in the eye rolling world of “well intentioned” celebrity projects still manages to be an embarrassment. With its tiresome TikToking and indulgences only making you clock watch even more regularly.
Judd Apatow made a great film called Trainwreck, his latest film really is one. Good luck making it through this one folks, it even acknowledges its own fecklessness, hoping you’ll forgive wasting two hours on it. Never!
