Most of these movies aren't terrible (and Judd Apatow is more good than great), but I was left feeling disappointed since I know these directors can do much better.
Alfred Hitchcock: Torn Curtain - This movie starts off interesting, and Richard Burton's restrained performance helps add mystery to his character. Unfortunately you realize after a while it's not really building up to much of a compelling plot at all, and Burton's performance is really just him phoning it in. He and Julie Andrews are supposed to be deeply in love with each other, but the chemistry feels absolutely dead. There are some fun side characters and scenes that keeps it watchable, but only just.
Woody Allen: Celebrity - A thoroughly mediocre and uninspired satire of celebrity culture. Something Woody has covered a few times, but this time does so unsuccessfully. You struggle to care about most of these characters, with Leonardo Dicaprio (Despite still doing a great job) being so unlikable you don't understand why you're meant to feel anything for him whatsoever. Kenneth Branagh impersonating Woody throughout is just embarrassing. Why couldn't he simply have casted himself instead of forcing us to watch a weird replica? And by the time the film ends you're left wondering what the point of it all was. There is some observational/subtle humor that works, and Charlize Theron plays the one character that really shines. I enjoyed seeing Aida Turturro pre-Sopranos as well. Overall though, a miss.
Quentin Tarantino: What do you get when you take a bunch of people talking about nothing but clothes and fashion for the first half, and you're then expected to root for them despite having almost nothing that compells you to? Well... not that fun of a movie, that's for sure. The banter is unusually uninspired for a Tarantino flick, to the point where I was wondering if he was trying to write bad dialogue on purpose. If that was indeed the intention, then he failed either way since even intentionally dumb writing still has to be entertaining.
It starts picking up some steam once Kurt Russell shows up, who breathes some new life into the movie. But it never recovers entirely, and the fact that
WARNING: spoilers below
the group of "friends" left one of their own behind to be raped with no care in the world made me wish for Stuntman Mike to run them over with his car.
the group of "friends" left one of their own behind to be raped with no care in the world made me wish for Stuntman Mike to run them over with his car.
The only bum note in Tarantino's filmography, and if not for some of his flourishes remaining intact I would definitely not be as kind on it.
Judd Apatow: The Bubble - All right, here is the real stinker folks. While I may not be a big fan of the movies I mentioned above, I can still say some effort was put into all of them. But this... I don't even know what to make of this one. It's unwatchable, unfunny, pointlessly long, shamelessly trend chasing and even poorly acted in some areas (Leslie Mann giving her worst performance ever and Iris Apatow proving nepotism can have seriously negative consequences), everything that can possibly fail fails. It's a horrible sign when the movie-within-a-movie the characters are making literally has better dialogue than all the stuff surrounding it. There is no reason for you to watch this whatsoever. I saw it for David Duchovny, and they couldn't even make his scenes funny! It doesn't get any worse than this. COVID must have affected Apatow's sense of humor or heart, since this lacked literally everything that's usually good about his films.