By Patrick Cremona

Published: Friday, 01 April 2022 at 12:00 am


1.0 out of 5 star rating

Earlier this week, Judd Apatow deleted a tweet in which he made the rather outlandish claim that Will Smith “could have killed” Chris Rock as a result of the now-infamous slap at Sunday night’s Oscars.

It was a pretty embarrassing overreaction to an admittedly shocking moment, but it can no longer be considered the most cringe-worthy part of the director’s week – not after the release of his inept new Netflix comedy The Bubble.

For Apatow, who has produced and directed many of the most successful studio comedies this side of the Millennium, this dreadful pandemic-themed film is the inarguable low point of his career – and one of the worst films of 2022 so far.

The Bubble’s premise is that Cliff Beasts 6 – the latest instalment of the “23rd biggest action franchise of all time” – is starting production at an opulent English hotel, where due to the ongoing pandemic the various cast members must bubble up for the duration of the shoot.

The cast for the fictional film is led by Carol Cobb (Karen Gillan) a glamorous A-lister fresh from a disastrous turn in a critically-panned film called Jerusalem Rising, in which she played a half-Israeli, half Palestinian woman – despite the fact that she herself is a white American.

Early on, we learn that Cobb had sat out the last Cliff Beasts film, but has been persuaded to return to the franchise by her agent (Rob Delaney) in a desperate bid to rescue her plummeting reputation.