A Bolha

Watched this film at Paris theater in NYC aka the Netflix Theater. Without spoiling much, I will just that this film is not very funny. Contrary, it's long, it's got too many characters, the storyline is very vague and confusing, and the jokes are not there. Judd Apatow was bragging about finishing the script in 8 weeks, and honestly it really felt so.

Premise had a lot of potential. The cast are talented. The film is just not very good. It's poorly paced and the gags are flat. Could've been great with a rewrite that included actual jokes and slicker dialogue.

Not a good film by any measure.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good joke. I just don't love the same joke being repeated over and over for two hours. There's plenty to mock over the past couple of years and I applaud this movie for having a go but it would've been much better if someone who actually understood comedy had written this, like Ricky Gervais or the Monty python crowd. But no. In typical Netflix fashion we get a corporate confection of mediocrity.

A mixed-bag Hollywood comedy, suffering from the usual complaint which is that all the best scenes are in the trailer. This one offers a broad satire of filmmaking in the COVID era, with a lot of lockdowns, bubbles and hygiene-following. A sprawling ensemble cast are efficient in their roles, some funnier than others, but sadly the wit tends to be bypassed in favour of dumber sex or vomit gags. I did enjoy the dancing scenes and the CGI jokes, however.

A group of so-so actors who have made the dinosaur franchise 'Cliff Beasts' come to a lavish English hotel to make the sixth mostly green screen instalment whilst locked down from COVID. The studio take extreme steps to keep them filming come what may whilst the cast go slowly mad.

Whilst there is much to dislike here - lots of characteristic Apatow shouting and waffling interminable rubbish that means nothing, I kinda liked this. It's a good cast with stand out comic performances for me by David Duchovny, Pedro Pascal and the ever wonderful Peter Serafinowicz. In addition if you listen and watch carefully enough there are some scenes and off the cuff remarks that lean more towards the biting satire on actors, current film audiences and Hollywood that this needed to be and at those times this is genuinely funny. You need to be tolerant around the piles of rubbish, but in the right mood this is a sweet and quite fun movie.