Netflix’s The Bubble Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Out

The new film from writer/director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), the new Netflix comedy The Bubble, has officially arrived on the streaming service and with it come an official Rotten Tomatoes score. Unfortunately for the filmmaker that was once a critical darling, his latest film is getting skewered. As of this writing there are 69 reviews for The Bubble on the review aggregator and right now it has a career low 23% approval rating for an Apatow directed feature. The critical consensus on the film reads: “Meandering and mostly unfunny, The Bubble gums up an all-star cast with hackneyed gags about showbiz and pandemic life.”

Much of the negative reviews for the film note how it’s satirical edge is focused on an aspect of life that hasn’t actually ended, surviving the COVID-19 pandemic. Indiewire gave the film a D+, writing: “The Bubble crystallizes the unique pain of watching a woefully dated satire about the same crisis you’re still trying to outlast.” In their 1.5 out of 4 review, the Chicago Tribune wrote that the film “doesn’t bring anything new or especially satisfying to the genre, going for gently absurd rather than truly savage in its ridicule of the rich and famous.” They weren’t all negative though with RogerEbert.com awarding it a 3 out of 4, writing: “The film is best in its embrace of the random, its moments when the talented and funny cast goof off with each other, responding to one another’s eccentricities.”

Compared to previous Apatow outings, this is a steep decline. 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin, the film that made Apatow and star Steve Carell into household names, earned an 85% rating and a “Certified Fresh” distinction. Apatow’s follow-up Knocked Up earned an 89% rating which was followed by 2009’s Funny People which managed a 69% rating, though failed to be marked “Certified Fresh.” 2012’s This Is 40 was previously Apatow’s lowest rated movie, earning 51% and the green splat for “Rotten.” 2015’s Trainwreck and 2020’s The King of Staten Island both managed to jump back up critically though, earning 84% and 75% respectively. 

The Bubble is now streaming on Netflix and despite the negative reviews it’s putting up numbers on the streaming service, currently sitting at the #3 movie on the platform in the United States. The film stars Karen Gillan, Fred Armisen, Maria Bakalova, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Leslie Mann, Kate McKinnon, Pedro Pascal, and Peter Serafinowicz.