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The Bubble is a spoof actioner centred around a team of actors who start in one of the biggest… well, 23rd biggest, movies franchises ever made, Cliff Beasts. Given that Karen Gillan is in this, and has also spent time in the Jumanji spin-offs (I saw one, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the original, so that was enough), she could be playing herself.
Anygood, its numerous sequels, with Cliff Beasts 6 coming soon, could put it on a par with the Sharknado series. However, they have a bigger problem than sharks or cliff beasts… the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, in order to continue making the film, they have to live in a… you’re ahead of me, a bubble.
And, as Carol’s (Gillan) agent Marti (Rob Delaney) says, “The safest place right now is a film set”.
Initially, she has to quarantine for two weeks before they can mingle (same for everyone involved in the film), which sends her the way of most of us at the time, and once she’s out, they have problems such as script rewrites, plus along the way, they’ll have to go back into quarantine as someone on-set gets COVID.
Of some of the rest of the cast, Tiktok star Krystal Kris (Iris Apatow) has 120 million followers, while another young woman her age on set, Carla (Galen Hopper), can’t get more than 200, and Gunther is the camp studio set chap who, initially, does COVID tests on everyone, but in seeing his mannerisms on-set around 20 minutes in, I was left thinking that if they made a film about a young Michael Crawford in the time of Frank Spencer – and with me being a huge fan of Some Mothers Do Ave Em – the actor, Harry Trevaldwyn, would make a brilliant young Crawford.
From time to time, we see them actually making the film, including all the CGI within – although it’s intentionally basic stuff compared to modern movies, but would’ve blown your mind during Jurassic Park, such as Krystal dancing with one dinosaur.
However, for a film about behind-the-scenes life on a film set, it’s just a series of brief disconnected scenes, generally from start to finish, so while it’s passable to watch for a while, it does go on way too long with so little going on. I watched it all for the purpose of writing a review, and I’ll struggle to find a more plotless film in all of 2022.
For a comedy, I can barely remember laughing, and wd why did James McAvoy turn up for no particular reason?
There’s also a brief post-credits scene:
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
The Bubble is on Netflix from Friday March 18th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 126 minutes
Release date: April 1st 2022
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Score: 2/10
Director: Judd Apatow
Producer: Judd Apatow
Screenplay: Judd Apatow, Pam Brady
Music: Andrew Bird
Cast:
Carol Cobb: Karen Gillan
Krystal Kris: Iris Apatow
Dieter Bravo: Pedro Pascal
Lauren Van Chance: Leslie Mann
Anika: Maria Bakalova
Dustin Mulray: David Duchovny
Sean Knox: Keegan-Michael Key
Darren Eigan: Fred Armisen
Gavin: Peter Serafinowicz
Paula: Kate McKinnon
Carla: Galen Hopper
Gunther: Harry Trevaldwyn
Pippa: Daniel Vitalis
Ronjon: Vir Das
Howie Frangopolous: Guz Khan
Marti: Rob Delaney
Scott the EPK Guy: Nick Kocher
Tip the MoCap Guy: Ben Ashenden
Cyril the MoCap Guy: Alexander Owen
Krystal’s Mom: Maria Bamford
Mr Best: Ross Lee
Rafi: Alexzander Emlano
Josh: Chris Witaske
Spark: Dave Simon
Tom the Studio Chairman: John Lithgow
Li the Executive Chairman: Austin Ku
Steve the Stunt Co-ordinator: John Cena
Himself: Beck
Himself: James McAvoy
ET Reporter Susan Howard: Donna Air
Zaki: Raphael Acloque
Zaki’s wife, Minnie: Kathryn Drysdale
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.