★ 8 / 10
**_Over-the-top comedy about a bubble boy on a
Wuchak
**_Over-the-top comedy about a bubble boy on a road trip_** A naïve teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to stay separated from people due to having no immune…
**_Over-the-top comedy about a bubble boy on a road trip_**
A naïve teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to stay separated from people due to having no immune system. When the woman he loves (Marley Shelton) goes to Niagara Falls to marry her bad boy beau, he sets out to stop the wedding clothed in a protective suit resembling a plastic bubble. Several colorful characters are encountered along the way.
“Bubble Boy” (2001) is not a serious drama on the topic, like Travolta’s “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” from 25 years earlier (which was inspired by two real-life cases). No, this is a comedic account in the manner of that 1992 Seinfeld episode mixed with the zany road trip milieu of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” The protagonist is reminiscent of Brendan Fraser in “Blast from the Past” meshed with Ace Ventura.
It's laugh-out-loud funny throughout because it constantly goes over-the-edge in executing the jokes. The sacred cow on the highway is a good example. It takes stabs at several types of people, but isn’t offensive because of its equal opportunity approach. Some examples include, religious legalists, youthful libertines, bikers, sideshow freaks, pop cultists, Hindus and Asians. Wait till you find out who the guru of the cultists is.
Winsome blonde Marley Shelton is a highlight in the female department, as is Ever Carradine as her beau’s sister, not to mention Stacy Keibler in a small role as a mud wrestler.
It runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot in areas north of Los Angeles, including Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Piru, Santa Paula and La Verne, as well as Las Vegas and Niagara Falls.
GRADE: B+/A-
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★ 5 / 10
Good premise poor execution
Bernie4444
In a mother's (Swoose Kurtz) attempt to keep her little boy Jimmy (Jake Gyllenhaal), she convinces him that he needs to live in a bubble to protect him from…
In a mother's (Swoose Kurtz) attempt to keep her little boy Jimmy (Jake Gyllenhaal), she convinces him that he needs to live in a bubble to protect him from germs, and "little girls". Well, it was inevitable that he should grow up. His favorite girl Chloe (Marley Shelton) is running off with another man and this will burst Jimmy's bubble.Slapstick's moronic attempts at humor mask this hero's journey through space-time. He learns more about himself as he encounters many new religions and cultures. All encounters are intertwined with each other in some fashion and there are no loose ends. It fits the formula well with a timeline and a direction to a goal that not even the hero is aware of.
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★ 6 / 10
Strange... yet enjoyable
dbisseker
You'll watch this and feel like you've seen it before.Jake Gylenhaal in a goofy, funnier role.This has all the typical silly gags of this era yet still has…
You'll watch this and feel like you've seen it before.Jake Gylenhaal in a goofy, funnier role.This has all the typical silly gags of this era yet still has some wholesomeness to it.This was my first introduction to Beetlejuice, who I found terrifying back then but the more I looked int, is actually hilarious.This is a fun, dumb, flick.I can understand why people hate it as comedy as always been a hard one to master.It's either too juvenile or too serious.This falls into the juvenile category but may still get some laughs.Worth the watch if you're sick of the seriousness of the world and need an easy laugh.
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Nice to see my suggestion made it!