‘The Bubble’: Surprisingly funny little movie

Is it too early to start making comedies about the pandemic? I dunno. I had to stop watching “Sweet Tooth” because the virus stuff stressed me out too much. But Netflix‘s “The Bubble?” That I could watch, and in fact, enjoy watching.

The trailer had me expecting next to nothing. In fact, it made me almost dread reviewing the film so I put it off for a couple days. I just didn’t find any of it humorous. Maybe they chose the wrong scenes to feature. I have no idea.

But I was pleasantly surprised at how much “The Bubble” actually got me to laugh. And it didn’t take long after clicking on Netflix’s preview copy.

The concept of “The Bubble” is a group of actors in an on-going cheesy action franchise about dinosaurs (more “Tremors” than “Jurassic Park”) go into a bubble during the pandemic so they can work on the film freely.

I’ve seen what a movie made during the pandemic looks like — Abel Ferrara’s “Zeros and Ones.” It wasn’t great, and in fact, when I recall that film, it seems akin to a fever dream because I still don’t know what it was about. But “The Bubble” went a different way when it comes to pandemic filming.

The movie was announced in November 2020, just eight months after the first lockdowns started in America. Talk about timing. Filming began in February 2021 and concluded the following April. The meta for this comedy really does reach “Scream” sequel levels when I realized this was a story about making a movie during a pandemic, and it was filmed in the middle of a pandemic. Give ‘em points for authenticity, huh?

“The Bubble” has a large cast of actors, and it’s really quite a strange mix. Karen Gillan plays the main character who enters the bubble, thinking it’ll be a quick few months and an easy-enough paycheck. She gradually learns how “cruel” the studio is, though, working the actors through flu and placing tracking devices on each of them.

Other cast members include Pedro Pascal, Keegan-Michael Key and David Duchovny. And each of these characters brings a unique and wacky energy to the show. Pascal is a drug- and sex-addicted actor doing most of the film in a stupor. Key essentially started a cult. And Duchovny is almost too busy trying to rewrite the script to actually star in the thing.

And they’re all flanked by smaller appearances from other celebrities ranging from Kate McKinnon to John Cena to James McAvoy. So many actors just have tiny pieces of scenes to randomly appear in and make audiences laugh. And that’s probably the best way to describe the overall film.

“The Bubble” feels less like a continuous typical film and more like a series of skits loosely connected chronologically. I think that’s why Judd Apatow’s meta comedy ends up succeeding where other parody movies like “Superhero Movie” and “Meet the Spartans” failed horribly.

Apatow and screenwriter Pam Brady had a series of funny ideas for scenes and knew how to translate them well into a two-hour movie. There’s some raunchy humor, some slapstick, and a dash of irony.

Mostly this film is enjoyable to watch because the main characters almost all play such awful people who are slowly going insane trapped in their bubble and forced to work on a terrible film called “Cliff Beasts 6.” Audiences will get to see a few scenes from “Cliff Beasts” throughout “The Bubble,” so they can understand why the actors are so quick to lose faith in the movie.

And really, how bad are we supposed to feel for these fictional actors who are making millions of dollars in a protected bubble where they’re catered to in a private hotel? That’s really the question this movie wants audiences to ask themselves. Do bad things happen to these actors? Sure. Are they still awful people? Absolutely.

If “The Bubble” has a weakness, it’s probably that it could have been trimmed just a little. The film never truly drags, and the laughs from random and wacky humor are pretty evenly spread throughout, but this is a meta comedy that passes the two hour mark. By most measures, “The Bubble” could have been even more enjoyable if it was closer to 90 minutes. Admittedly, this is a small complaint.

Is “The Bubble” anywhere near “Airplane” levels of hilarious? Gods no. But for what most folks find to stream on the weekend, it ain’t half bad by comparison.

“The Bubble” releases today on Netflix. I have a feeling it’ll end up with a slightly higher Rotten Tomatoes score than its theatrical competition, “Morbius.”