Guz Khan | Screenlife Reviews

The latest instalment in the Jurassic World franchise, Dominion, has had an extremely rocky road to release. As one of the few films to strive forward with filming during the initial stages of the pandemic, the production faced a seemingly never-ending slew of COVID-related struggles and when comedy directing icon Judd Apatow heard about it, well, he decided to make his own movie about that movie’s making. Confused? Don’t worry, watching The Bubble you’ll never be confused as to what is going on, just to why so little of it is actually funny. Apatow’s latest should be a scathing satire of the Hollywood production’s hubris and the larger-than-life figures that populated it; in reality it is a lukewarm series of disjointed, overly long jokes that don’t come together in any cohesive way to say much at all about anything.

With production for Cliff Beasts 6 forging on ahead in spite of the ongoing COVID pandemic, former franchise star Carol Cobb (Karen Gillan) is forced to reunite with her old cast-mates after a failed side-project almost derailed her entire career. As the cast and crew hole up in a palatial English estate it appears that old grudges are forgotten as the group – including the film’s stars Lauren Van Chance (Leslie Mann), Dieter Bravo (Pedro Pascal), Sean Knox (Keegan-Michael Key), Dustin Murray (David Duchovny) and director Darren Eigen (Fred Armisen) – party together and look forward to having another hit film on their resumés. When the realities of pandemic-era filmmaking settle in however – frequent PCR tests, sudden isolations, social distancing – the group begin to turn on each other and long for escape from their high-class prison. It is up to the film’s producer Gavin (Peter Serafinowicz) and his team of COVID-protocol staff to ensure that a film gets made and his actor’s survive the process.

The Bubble feels like a drastic departure for Apatow, whose style usually leans towards a mixture of witty, reference-heavy comedy and real-life situations and stakes. Here the absurdity of the whole situation is dialled up to eleven, in a clear attempt at satirising our collective human reactions to the pandemic and the quirks that come with it. There are flashes of relatable, hilarious observations – a montage of whacky responses to invasive PCR tests – but these are few and far between amongst the otherwise long, drawn-out sequences of actors bickering over poor scripts or going to insane lengths to survive their isolations.

One such sequence involves a cast member projectile vomiting on another cast member after vehemently denying being sick. It’s a shocking, viscerally disgusting moment that merits a laugh, but Apatow beats a dead horse by having more and more actors vomit for what feels like an eternity. This over-commitment to the bit happens in each and every big scene, to the point where the film feels more like a series of sketches sewn roughly together than a fully fledged movie with a central narrative. The only through-line here belongs to COVID and besides immediately dating the film as a product of this moment in time, Apatow forgets to write characters that are anything more than hollow caricatures of the spoiled Hollywood actor.

You could argue that Apatow is attempting to poke fun at that stereotypical rich, whiny actor but doesn’t have anything to say other than unfunny, mean-spirited jabs. Without characters that we can sympathise with, an actual story-line or decent jokes, the only thing the audience is left to be is bored; a fact that isn’t helped by Apatow’s usual overstuffed runtime. Still, the entire all-star cast commendably commits to even the silliest bits, making for some laughs in the ridiculousness of seeing Pedro Pascal and David Duchovny pulling off TikTok dances. Newcomer Harry Tevaldwyn deserves mention too; excellent as the film’s quiet but sharp-witted COVID officer, it is a shame he doesn’t have a better overall package to make his debut in.

The Bubble is a total misfire for Apatow, who proves with this film that his strengths lie in the grounded comedy-dramas of Knocked Up and This is 40 rather than this absurdist look at the pandemic. While his intentions are admirable and the concept is rife with comedic potential, the end-result is a painfully bloated and unfunny series of gags that fail to provide any new perspective on the pandemic that hasn’t already been beaten to death in the past two years through twitter jokes and memes. Like the virus itself, this is one pandemic-era product that should be left in the past, sorry to burst your bubble Judd.

The Bubble stars Karen Gillan, Pedro Pascal, Iris Apatow, Leslie Mann, Fred Armisen, Keegan-Michael Key, Kate McKinnon, Guy Khan, Peter Serafinowicz, Maria Bakalova & David Duchovny – Streaming on Netflix now.

3/10

Shared cinematic universes are all the rage these days and now it seems Netflix wants in, spinning off this year’s successful Army of the Dead into future sequels, animated series and a prequel: Army of Thieves. Ditching the zombies for a heist film focused on Matthias Schweighöfer’s safecracking Ludwig Dieter, Army of Thieves is a fun if ultimately throwaway addition to the burgeoning franchise, kept afloat by a frenetic performance from Schweighöfer and not much else.

As the zombie outbreak begins to surge in Las Vegas, Ludwig Dieter (Schweighöfer) watches on from the television, far removed in his mundane life as a bank teller in Potsdam, Germany. When he receives a mysterious invitation to put his safecracking skills to the test, Dieter finds himself embroiled in an audition to join jewel thief Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel) and her team – tech expert Korina (Ruby O. Fee), getaway driver Rolph (Guz Khan) and weapons specialist Brad (Stuart Martin) – on a series of bank heists. When Dieter begins to fall for Gwendoline, cracks begin to form in the team already embroiled in the most dangerous game of all: gaining access to and cracking legendary locksmith Hans Wagner’s most intricate safes.

Taking over the directing reigns from Zack Snyder is Schweighöfer himself, who fashions the film into another heavily stylised affair through Dieter’s narration and the use of classic heist film techniques; like showing the entire heist as it is explained via voiceover. It makes for some enjoyable, fast paced heist sequences that keep you engaged even if the narrative surrounding these them drags and meanders through clichéd romances and rivalries. What doesn’t work is the constant comparisons to other heist films; characters constantly discussing how these heists are different to the ones you see “in the movies”… except they aren’t. The heists themselves are fun, sure, but nothing audiences haven’t seen done better before in a myriad of other films and it makes this kind of meta grandstanding come off as pretentious rather than charming.

Where Snyder’s influence is felt the most is in the colour palette. Army of Thieves is a frustratingly dull film to look at; from the streets of Germany to Paris and St. Moritz it all looks exactly the same, a dark and dingy mix of greys and silver that mimic the concrete and steel of the safes Dieter is cracking. Even the names of locations superimposed over the scenery can be missed; a different shade of grey that blends into all the other greys on screen. Where are the vibrant oranges and blues of the poster? Hell, even the costumes are a monochromatic mess of boredom. Other than that, the film is only tangentially linked to Army of the Dead. The zombie apocalypse in Las Vegas is occurring, but it never affects the story outside of some foreboding dream sequences.

What keeps it all together is Schweighöfer himself. He gives a gleefully giddy performance – Dieter anxiously babbles away, reassuring himself that they will succeed – that expands on the charm of the character audiences know from Army of the Dead without overdoing it; no easy feat given the amount of times Schweighöfer squeals in terror at any tricky situation. Nathalie Emmanuel is perfectly fine as Gwendoline, not given anything more to do other than serving as Dieter’s guide to the criminal underworld and love interest, but there is a sweetness to their relationship; an intimacy that the rest of the film steers well clear of in favour of huge, bombastic set-pieces.

There’s some fun to be had with Army of Thieves, an inoffensive if unnecessary addition to the Army of the Dead shared universe that succeeds on the strength of Schweighöfer’s endearing lead performance. It would have been nice to see a more contained, less epic in scope film than Army, given the comparatively much lower stakes here, but this is a perfectly serviceable action film to throw on on a lazy afternoon. But can we ditch the drab colours for the next instalment please?

Army of Thieves stars Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, Noémie Nakai & Jonathan Cohen – Streaming on Netflix now.

3/10

5/10