Movie relics in different ways — ‘Old Knives’ and ‘The Bubble’
With theaters populated more and more with superhero flicks and sequels, a big chunk of movies once targeted to adults now (mostly) find homes on streaming.
“All the Old Knives,” a modestly budgeted spy drama with a solid, recognizable cast, would likely be slaughtered in theaters by things like “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” (just ask Michael Bay how “Ambulance” did at the box office last week. Contrast that to just a few years ago, when Hollywood slotted adult fare as counterprogramming to the tentpole films. Today, movies like “All the Old Knives” land on streaming more often than not, in this case as an Amazon Prime-exclusive.
In “All the Old Knives,” Chris Pine stars as a CIA operative asked to reassess the agency’s response to a violent terrorist attack aboard a passenger airplane eight years earlier. Pine’s agent Pelham worked the case, as did Agent Harrison (played by Thandiwe Newton), and, oh yeah, the pair used to be romantically entangled.
The bulk of the film, directed by Janus Meds Pedersen from a screenplay (and novel) by Olen Steinhauer, centers on the reunion between the former lovers/co-workers, with Pelham asked to fish out a spy in the agency who may have fed information to the hijackers. The movie mixes in flashbacks of the incident, as well as key moments between Pelham and Harrison that led to the end of their personal relationship.
A movie in which most of the drama plays out in hushed conversation at a dinner table obviously isn’t for everybody, but that scaled down approach gives Pine and Newton the opportunity to (psychologically) square off against each other. As with most spy movies, expect a few surprises along the way.
The “All the Old Knives” cast also includes small-but-solid work from Laurence Fishburne and Jonathan Pryce, and the mystery unspools at a satisfying clip (it helps the film clocks in around an hour and 40 minutes, perfect for a movie so focused on just two characters). Overall, it’s a solid, no frills spy saga… just the kind of thing that wouldn’t attract the spectacle-focused theater audience.
Streaming options can also spare high-profile BAD movies from the embarrassment of a nationwide theatrical release. That’s the case of “The Bubble,” an expensive and aggressively unfunny Netflix exclusive from Judd Apatow, a former box office champion with an adult-skewing filmography that includes “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Trainwreck” and “Knocked Up.”
Had “The Bubble” been released in theaters with even a slight marketing push, it would have been skewered by critics and at the box office in a way reminiscent of infamous disaster comedies like “The Love Guru” and “Wild Wild West.”
“The Bubble” follows the egomaniacal cast of a “Jurassic World”-like movie franchise as they shoot the latest sequel while in an early-pandemic-era production “bubble,” which requires multiple stretches of quarantining at a luxury hotel. Positive cases, creative differences and evil studio executives make the shoot stretch on for months on end, stretching the sanity of these already dimwitted actors.
Like most Apatow productions, “The Bubble” has a killer cast of funny people that includes Karen Gillan, Pedro Pascal, David Duchovny, Leslie Mann, Keegan-Michael Key and more. It also features Apatow’s signature bloat — the movie runs over two hours, making room for excessive improv and surprise cameos but notably missing in execution at a much higher rate than usual for Apatow.
In fact, “The Bubble” is easily the flattest of all Apatow projects, with loud, sweaty performances overselling the movie’s obvious, cliche jabs at Hollywood bloat and self-importance. It’s both one-note and meandering, making that overlong runtime all the more oppressive.
For a better, much funnier version of this story, watch Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder,” a movie that’s equally ridiculous but still finds a way to humanize its wackadoo characters.
The most memorable thing about “The Bubble” is how stunningly inept it is despite the polish and pedigree. Apatow and the cast should be thankful that it’ll disappear soon from our memories, much like 90 percent of Netflix’s original movie output.
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Tyler Wilson is a member of the International Press Academy and has been writing about movies for Inland Northwest publications since 2000, including a regular column in The Press since 2006. He can be reached at [email protected].”
