Movies

‘Jurassic Park’ Meets Covid In Bonkers Netflix Comedy – Deadline

April 1, 2022

The pandemic lockdowns had different effects on just about everyone, but writer-director-producer Judd Apatow simply embraced it, sitting down to wrote a low-budget Jurassic Park takeoff as if it was directed by Mel Brooks in the heart of Covid. This is Apatow out on a limb, and his Netflix movie is, in a nutshell, a movie within a “bad movie” within a movie made during a pandemic. It is hit-and-miss in the gags department, to be sure, but wacky all the way and kinda endearing, especially when it goes full TikTok on us.

Deadline

Inspired by quarantining in a “bubble,” whether it was the NBA playoffs or a film production, Apatow dreamed up an idea of making a cheap action sci-fi ripoff of a film like Jurassic Park, in this case centering on flying Tyrannosaurus Rexes battling humankind in a umpteenth sequel to a cheesy flick. The movie within this movie is called Cliff Beasts 6, and it is forced into production by the studio head (Kate McKinnon literally Zooming in her role), even as Covid rages. Thus, just as Apatow’s actual cast and crew had to do, this fictional production is confined into a British hotel together as they make this Grade Z movie. After the cast, or most of them, have worked in several Cliff Beasts movies, they aren’t the most collegiate of groups, and Apatow and co-writer Pam Brady milk the conflicts for all they are worth.

Apatow has directed some exceptional human-focused movies including most recently The King of Staten Island, Trainwreck, This Is 40, Funny People, Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin (still my personal favorite), but he never has done an effects-driven movie, and the visual effects cooked up by ILM here are designed to be delightfully low-budget, making this whole enterprise completely bonkers, kind of T-Rex meets TikTok.

‘The Bubble’ Trailer: Judd Apatow’s Netflix Comedy Shows Filming A Dinosaur Action Movie During Lockdown Is No Walk In The Jurassic Park

But the ridiculous flying dinosaurs aren’t the only creatures of fun here. The actors, all playing distinct types, are choice, and there is lots of room for satirical jabs at Hollywood and those who dwell in it. Leading the cast is David Duchovny as Dustin, the quintessential action star, but one with lots of opinions on the script as he keeps trying to make this all an environmentally conscious film, butting heads with the director (an amusing Fred Armisen), a sort of boneheaded indie wunderkind who gets the chance at making a popcorn movie. Dustin has been married, divorced, married again in a sexually charged on/off relationship with Lauren (the always great Leslie Mann), who is also in this film and has at least one memorable gross-out moment of her own.

Keegan-Michael Key has fun as an actor with a “spiritual” side, while Pedro Pascal (wonder woman) is a recent Oscar winner apparently joining up on this thing for the paycheck. He is easily bored, though, and takes off on drug trips that include TikTok dance sequences you have to see to believe. The TikTok angle is worked in by the hiring of a phenomenon on the social media site named Krystal Kris (Iris Apatow), who has no acting experience but a legion of followers, thus a hoped-for box office draw. The dances that come out of all this are hilarious, and Iris has a field day with the character. My favorite is the sequence involving a hip-hopping T-Rex backed up by this game cast that also includes Karen Gillan as Carol, a “difficult” actress who centers much of this. Choreography here is clever and comes from Sia video mastermind Ryan Heffington, and associate Shala Iwaskow.

Also in the large cast are Guz Khan as an actor providing comic relief in the dumb movie; Maria Bakalova as Annika, who runs the front desk of the hotel; Peter Serafindwicz as the film’s beleaguered producer; and newcomer Harry Trevaldwyn as Gunther, the film’s Covid Compliance Officer, perhaps a first in this pandemic era for any actor to play. He’s a riot.

Apatow seems to be in a mood to throw just about everything against the wall to see what sticks, and fortunately this is a filmmaker who knows how to make enough of it stick to give this two-hour-plus comic free-for-all enough reasons to check it out on Netflix when it starts streaming Friday. Check out my video review with scenes from the film in the link above.

Do you plan to see The Bubble? let us know what you think.