{"id":4333,"date":"2024-10-05T19:29:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T19:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4333"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:15:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T21:15:01","slug":"bubble-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/05\/bubble-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubble Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bubble Boy <\/strong>(2001)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Touchstone\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, crude sexual humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blair Hayes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Ottman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jerzy Zielinski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 24, 2001 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie Kurtz, Marley Shelton, Danny Trejo, John Carroll Lynch, Verne Troyer, Dave Sheridan, Brian George, Patrick Cranshaw, Fabio, Stephen Spinella, Ever Carradine, Geoffrey Arend, Beetlejuice, Matthew McGrory, Bonnie Morgan, Jason Sklar, Randy Sklar, Zach Galifianakis, Pablo Schneider, Arden Myrin, Leo Fitzpatrick, Steve Van Wormer, Ping Wu, Boti Ann Bliss, Robert LaSardo, Cleo King.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $5M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve been asked many times why I go back and rewatch bad movies. Let me assure you it\u2019s not because I\u2019m a masochist. I do it because there\u2019s always the possibility I\u2019ll react differently to it. That\u2019s what happened with the comedy Bubble Boy<\/strong>. I LOATHED it the first time I saw it at a late night showing in August \u201901. I found it stupid, unfunny and offensive. I felt it went out of its way to offend as many groups as possible. It offends Christians, Jews, Indians, Hispanics, Asians, rednecks, little people, circus freaks, the terminally ill, cows and people who don\u2019t breathe through their mouths. I felt ashamed for wasting my time on it. That was then.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A year or so later, I had this morbid compulsion to watch Bubble Boy<\/strong> again. It came as something of a surprise given how thoroughly I hated it. Since it\u2019s useless to fight these urges I get, I just went with it and bought a used VHS copy from Blockbuster. At $4.99, it wasn\u2019t too huge a monetary loss. Expecting to relive one of the most painful cinematic experiences of my life, I ripped the band-aid right off and popped it into the VCR as soon as I got settled in at home. Lo and behold, I didn\u2019t despise Bubble Boy<\/strong> this time. I actually kind of liked it, in fact. Something just clicked this time around. It hit me that it being stupid and offensive is precisely the point. In a way, it\u2019s like a much tamer version of Freddy Got Fingered (minus Tom Green, of course).<\/p>\n

\u00a0I guess the easiest way to describe Bubble Boy<\/strong> is that it\u2019s a warped version of the 1976 TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble starring John Travolta. And when I say warped, I mean really, REALLY warped! Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) stars as Jimmy Livingston, aka \u201cBubble Boy\u201d, a teenager who\u2019s spent all his life living in a sterilized plastic bubble in his room due to being born without an immune system. He\u2019s looked after by his mother (Kurtz, Wildcats), a devoutly Christian harpy who severely limits his exposure to the outside world. He believes that Highlights is the only magazine in existence and Land of the Lost is the only show on TV. His father (Lynch, Fargo) never says a word.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Life changes for Jimmy when he spots his new neighbor Chloe (Shelton, Never Been Kissed) through his bedroom window. He likes what he sees. He\u2019s even more overjoyed when she pays him a visit. The two become close friends over the objections of his mother. One day, she comes to tell him that she\u2019s leaving for Niagara Falls to marry her boyfriend Mark (Sheridan, Scary Movie). He doesn\u2019t take the news very well; he\u2019s in love with Chloe and never told her. He then makes a bold, life-changing decision. He\u2019s going to leave home for the first time in order to stop the wedding. He puts together a smaller, travel size version of his bubble and hits the road he hopes will lead to true love.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jimmy has many adventures on the road. He encounters a \u201cBright, Shiny\u201d religious cult (run by Fabio, no less) where everybody is named Todd and Lorraine. They come to see him as messiah-like figure who needs to be freed from his bubble. He meets a biker named Slim (Trejo, Machete) who takes him to Las Vegas. He ends up on a circus train with a group of freaks who live in fear of their boss Dr. Phreak (Troyer, Austin Powers). He gets a ride from Pushpop (George, The Big Bang Theory) who drives an ice cream and curry truck. He takes part in a mud-wrestling match in a Chinese casino to win the \u201c500 DOLLAR!!!\u201d he needs for a taxi to New York. The taxi is driven by an extremely old guy named Pappy (Cranshaw, Old School) who hasn\u2019t talked to his twin brother Pippy (Cranshaw again) in 86 years. All the while, Mom is in hot pursuit. She wants her baby back home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I cannot, in good conscience, call Bubble Boy<\/strong> a quality movie. It most certainly isn\u2019t! If I were to describe it in a single word, it would be \u201csurreal\u201d. I\u2019m referring to both the movie and the experience of watching it. Blair Hayes, who hasn\u2019t done anything of consequence since, directs it with total disregard for all that is tasteful or intelligent. He indulges in stereotypes and gross humor. Almost all of the performances are on the level of a cartoon. It\u2019s not particularly well made. It\u2019s a bad movie on so many levels yet I can\u2019t just relegate it to my cinematic s*** list. Going against all I know to be good and decent, I think it\u2019s a riot. I laughed at things I shouldn\u2019t have like the scene in the redneck diner where the patrons are too ignorant to understand the nature of Jimmy\u2019s condition. The crazy Chinese guy offering Jimmy a chance at \u201c500 DOLLAR!!!\u201d cracked me up. I even laughed at the physical abuse heaped on Troyer\u2019s character, not that he doesn\u2019t deserve all of it. I laughed far more often than any decent, educated person should. What does that say about me? Please don\u2019t answer that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The romance at the center of Bubble Boy<\/strong> is rather nice because Jimmy and Chloe are sweet. Gyllenhaal, a fine young actor at the start of his career here, imbues Jimmy with innocence and naivety. It goes nicely with his silly haircut (the work of Mom). Shelton plays Chloe as a nice girl about to marry a dope she doesn\u2019t love. This is a guy who deems it necessary to point out that Land of the Lost isn\u2019t as good as Jurassic Park. WHAT IS CHLOE DOING WITH THIS YUTZ?! If there are any two people that belong together, it\u2019s Jimmy and Chloe. Kurtz plays it to the rafters and back as the shrewish mother who bakes cookies shaped like crosses. Everybody looks like they\u2019re having fun even when they\u2019re doing something completely embarrassing. Why knock them for it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I still can\u2019t believe I\u2019m defending Bubble Boy<\/strong>, but such is the essence of being Movie Guy 24\/7. Certain movies fascinate me for the strangest of reasons. This is one of them. It\u2019s not for all tastes, but if you like twisted flicks, you\u2019ll want to check this one out for yourself. All it costs is a few IQ points. Don\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bubble Boy (2001)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Touchstone\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 84 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, crude sexual humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blair Hayes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Ottman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jerzy Zielinski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 24, 2001 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie Kurtz, Marley Shelton, Danny Trejo, John Carroll Lynch, Verne Troyer, Dave Sheridan, Brian George, Patrick Cranshaw, Fabio, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bubble-Boy-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4617,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions\/4617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}