It seems the world is well and truly done with pandemic films, with Judd Apatow’s The Bubble being absolutely savaged.
Despite an impressive cast, including Karen Gillan, Iris Apatow, Fred Armisen, Maria Bakalova, it’s safe to say people are not impressed with the new comedy.
The Netflix film follows a movie actress (Karen) who, in the hopes of saving her career, signs onto a blockbuster action sequel (quite literally) plagued by comic mishaps and pandemic-era problems.
The first reviews have come in, with branding it a ‘toe-curling new low’ for pandemic films, while compared it to a Saturday Night Live sketch.
went so far as to accuse the movie of trapping its audience with the same jokes we’ve heard for two years – so viewers might not be racing to watch the new flick.
Even Judd has been considering if he’s made a ‘mistake’ with the film, recently telling that Covid-19 ‘just ruins everything with storytelling’.
‘No one wants to watch Idris Elba do a new season of Luther wearing a mask. This is our nightmare as consumers,’ he added.
‘So I just thought: if I do it, I’ll do it 100%. Be dumb enough to try. Maybe I’ve done something people enjoy or maybe I’ve made a terrible mistake.’
Judd’s not the first to try out a pandemic film during the age of Covid-19.
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.
Health experts previously about making pandemic movies, with veterinary pathologist Dr Tracey McNamara, telling Metro.co.uk: ‘There is no need to create ludicrous scenarios as was the case in the Dustin Hoffman film Outbreak. The truth is even more frightening and that is what Contagion presented. That is why it was such a compelling film.’
NHS GP Dr Ahmed El Muntasar added: ‘My main concern is how the dramatisation of the pandemic will be portrayed in a movie. The frontline has been under enormous pressure throughout the pandemic, and for many medical professionals it has been a traumatising, exhausting and relentless few months and we are far from out of the woods yet.Â
‘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.’
The Bubble is on Netflix now.
