Rachel Review: “The Bubble” hurts to watch…

On April 1 Netflix released “The Bubble” packed full with a star studded cast such as Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan and Leslie Mann. “The Bubble” may have succeeded in tricking famous actors to risk their brand with this movie, but the only award it will be leaving with is most cringey. 

“The Bubble” is about the movie industry and how it has to handle the pandemic and still be able to pump out movies to distract the public and make a lot of money. The movie mainly centers around Gillan’s character Carol Cobb, a canceled actress, who is desperate to save her career and reluctantly agrees to do another Cliff Beasts movie. On the quarantined, yet pampered set of Cliff Beasts 6, the movie comes across setbacks, meltdowns, near death experiences and so many other random things it hurts to remember them. 

Maybe if this movie came out in 2021 it would be better as we were closer to the height of the pandemic. Being released now feels like a reminder of Gal Gadot and celebrities singing “Imagine” by John Lennon.

Because of the random nature and hatred I’m feeling towards this movie for having to remember it and then write about it, there will be spoilers ahead. 

To make watching this movie enjoyable I would suggest going into it accepting it’s going to be cringey and to embrace the cringe. Shortly into watching, I tried to embrace the dumb humor and I was able to actually laugh. I think the usage of the green screen and mixing the set with the final look of the movie was funny and used well. Then scenes started to be jarring, as scenes would go from funny to cringey to practically offensive. I almost stopped watching as I couldn’t keep up with the pace of how different each scene made me feel. 

The movie felt forgetful at times, as though they were forgetting characters. I don’t like when movies have a large cast and then forget to incorporate them in the scenes they clearly would have been a part of. If a viewer is watching a scene and then remembering that there was another actor that could be a part of this, it’s not a scene that is finished being written. 

The cameos in this movie were almost all disappointing and overall frustrating. There is a kind of Star Wars crossover that felt disgraceful to watch and just overall disturbing. John Cena makes a cameo as a stuntman, but over FaceTime. I think Cena’s cameo is what killed me the most due to how lazy it felt. 

Even Benedict Cumberbatch makes an appearance for about 30 seconds as a drug hallucination. James Macavoy’s cameo was the only decent one being a weird chase scene that amounts to nothing but prolonging the credits.

In an effort to make the movie worse, there are scenes just thrown in for a “who’s gonna really care” factor. Every time I have to watch a scene where all the characters just throw up, I care. I extremely doubt the actors like doing throw up scenes, especially ones where everyone throws up. 

There are also three TikTok dance scenes thrown into the movie. That should be your reason to not watch this movie. Although the dances seemed to be the only time the actors were having any actual fun.

To add offense there is a quick scene in the movie where the characters of the bad movie they are making, literally start killing little people. Whose bright idea was that? Seriously, the movie and the movie they are making was offensive enough. 

It’s hard to balance a story with a large cast, and even harder when it’s a story about making a movie. When the movie has no message, no theme, is just filled with complaining and bad situations, maybe the movie shouldn’t be made. 

At the end of the movie the director of Cliff Beasts 6, played by Fred Armisen, states, “Well at least we tried to make a movie, they can’t judge us for that. We made something that is a distraction in these difficult times.” 

They did give viewers a distraction but I can judge them for ruining two hours of my life.