The Bubble

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?

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.

The Bubble is the newest comedy to land on Netflix and the film makes use of some iconic locations but just where was the movie filmed?

And finally, the last main location to feature in The Bubble is the ExCel convention centre in London. Hedsor House is often used as a wedding and event venue and has featured as a location in several films and TV shows in years gone by including Downton Abbey, 2007’s The Golden Compass, 2015’s Legend and Richard Curtis’s The Boat that Rocked. The second main location that features in The Bubble is Hedsor House, another – albeit smaller – stately home that was used as the interior of the fictional hotel.

The Bubble: Judd Apatow's 'toe-curling' pandemic comedy starring Karen Gillan savaged in first reviews.

NHS GP Dr Ahmed El Muntasar added: ‘My main concern is how the dramatisation of the pandemic will be portrayed in a movie. That is why it was such a compelling film.’ ‘This isn’t a film – this is people’s actual livelihoods and it’s important this is conveyed in a respectful way that reflects the real events.’ Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor starred in the heist film Locked Down, while Michael Bay used the pandemic as a plot point in his film Songbird – not to much success. Judd’s not the first to try out a pandemic film during the age of Covid-19. The first reviews have come in, with The Telegraph branding it a ‘toe-curling new low’ for pandemic films, while The Independent compared it to a Saturday Night Live sketch.

April 1 (UPI) -- John Legend, Silk Sonic and Carrie Underwood will perform at the Grammy Awards ceremony airing this weekend on CBS, and a new comedy film, ...

The Canadian apocalyptic sci-fi thriller film about a mother, who joins an underground band of vigilantes to try to rescue her daughter from a state-run institution, will drop on Hulu on Friday. The film is among the leading nominees for the upcoming Canadian Screen Awards. Stars include Karen Gillan, David Duchovny and Keegan Michael-Key. In addition, a new British comedy thriller series, The Outlaws, will premiere on Prime Video, the complete Season 1 of the drama series, Love Me, will drop on Hulu, and a two-night event, Wrestlemania, will stream live on Peacock.

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.”

Linda Marric reviews this pandemic-themed comedy from writer-director Judd Apatow.

The result is one giant mess held together by a ludicrously outlandish premise and some rather dubious performances. Earlier this year, Netflix released a teaser for Cliff Beasts 6, with the streaming giants later revealing that this was to be the film within the film in The Bubble. Fans of Apatow’s brilliantly self-aware sophomoric humour comedies will find very little to enjoy here.

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.