Movie review: The Bubble (Netflix)

So, now that the pandemic is starting to become yesterdays news, who wants to see a movie about how it is to make a movie during the pandemic. A movie pretty much made by the industry for the people in the industry. Feels fresh? Netflix decided it does.

The Bubble is a movie that follows the filming of a sequel, like the 6th in order, of a popular action franchise, and the filming is taking place during the pandemic with all the hassles that entails of being in a bubble. The filming and the quarantine is taking place on a mansion on the British countryside, and it soon becomes clear that the studio wants this movie made no matter what happens during the filming. Basically, the actors are not allowed to leave the mansion, however much they want to or try.

The movie is written and directed by Judd Apatow so the expectations was somewhat high to begin with. I then went on to have a quick look at the reviews, and that took down the expectations a few notches. I decided to watch it anyway to make up my own opinion, and I kind of regret that. The cast is pretty solid, with names like David Duchovny, Karen Gillan, Leslie Mann, Pedro Pascal and Keegan-Michael Key. This one does however show that the actors are not better than the script they have to work with.

The movie does have some funny moments, but they are pretty far between and a run-time of over 2 hours is way too long for this kind of movie. There are some guest appearances by some pretty big names, but these scenes are kind of and they get pretty much nothing to work with. There are some fun and witty commentary about the movie industry, but it’s not enough to lift the movie.

Pretty much a wasted opportunity with such a talented cast, the timing of the movie is wrong and the script and story doesn’t carry all the way. See it if you watched everything on all your streaming services, but I bet even then you could find something better to do for 2 hours.