Bubble Boy
2001
BUBBLE BOY is a zany and lighthearted but irreverent road comedy from music video director Blair Hayes. Jake Gyllenhaal (OCTOBER SKY) stars as Jimmy Livingston, a young man born with an immune deficiency, who is forced to spend his life inside a sterile plastic bubble. His overprotective, fanatical right-wing Christian mother (.. Read more
| Starring | Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie Kurtz, John Carroll Lynch, Marley Shelton |
|---|---|
| Director | Blair Hayes |
| Genres | Comedy |
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Bubble Boy
BUBBLE BOY is a zany and lighthearted but irreverent road comedy from music video director Blair Hayes. Jake Gyllenhaal (OCTOBER SKY) stars as Jimmy Livingston, a young man born with an immune deficiency, who is forced to spend his life inside a sterile plastic bubble. His overprotective, fanatical right-wing Christian mother (Swoosie Kurtz) doesn't let him have friends, and the only TV show she lets him watch is LAND OF THE LOST. The pretty girl next door, Chloe (Marley Shelton) visits him, and the two become friends. Because they can't touch each other through his bubble, they keep their passions in check, but when Chloe goes to Niagara Falls to marry her creepy boyfriend, Jimmy builds a portable bubble and leaves home for the first time to stop her. BUBBLE BOY may offend some with its jokes involving religion and sex and physical deformity, but it's clear that the filmmakers push the envelope, not simply to shock, but to make cogent points about tolerance. The film features surprisingly strong and funny supporting performances from Vern Troyer (Mini-Me from AUSTIN POWERS) and Fabio. In the lead role, Gyllenhaal projects such genuine wide-eyed sweetness that it's impossible not to root for him.
| Starring | Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie Kurtz, John Carroll Lynch, Marley Shelton, Stephen Spinella, Danny Trejo, Verne Troyer, Dave Sheridan, Geoffrey Arend, Beetlejuice, Betty Blowtorch |
|---|---|
| Director | Blair Hayes |
| Studio | TOUCHSTONE HOME VIDEO |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 24 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Comedy |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 15 Jun 2006 Production year: 2001 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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The Boy In the Plastic Bubble (1976) provided an early sickly sentimental lead role for a young John Travolta; imagine that TV movie being remade by the Farrelly Brothers and you will get an idea where this wildly uneven comedy is coming from. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a young man with immune deficiencies who is forced by his worried mum (Swoosie Kurtz) to live his life in a bubble. However, when he falls for the girl next door (Marley Shelton), who is about to marry a sleazy musician, the boy and his bubble set off cross-country to reclaim his true love. It's deeply politically incorrect — in the US, the Immune Deficiency Foundation called for a boycott — but lacks the gross ambition of the Farrellys' best films. However, it has its moments and is enthusiastically played by an eclectic cast.
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"...BUBBLE BOY is an updating of PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE with a bit of THE GRADUATE thrown in....[Featuring] some rambunctiously funny set pieces that are like nothing else you'll see this summer....The picture should shock you into laughter..."
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Most helpful member's review
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6 out of 8 people found this review helpful
Not what you'd expect. If you'd expected anything at all.
First things last, this film is quite odd. Reading the synopsis of the film I was expecting a quite standard 'Boy on a quest for love' type film with a quirky element (ie. the bubble). But it turned out to be more a mix of 'The Goonies' meets 'Raising Arizona' meets 'Edward Scissorhands', walking alongside episodes of 'Eerie Indiana' and 'Malcolm in the Middle'. I was obviously expecting it to be quirky, what with the subject matter, but I thought it was going to be played quite straight. I firstly wasn't prepeared for the childish slapstick comedy (not always a bad thing) and general buffoonery from Jake 'Donnie Darko' Gylenhaal as he set off across America in his home made bubble suit to get back the girl of his dreams. That alone would have made this film annoying and as un-fun to watch as an adult as 'Honey I Blew up the Baby'. What made this film so unexpected was the sudden yet subtle infusion of the surrounding characters he meets on his way. The racist, almost Nazi parents. The indian with an ice cream van selling ice-creams and curry. The disturbing train load of freaks. The religious, brainwashed 'Wicker Man' style sect who believe in smiling, and will visciously destroy anyone who gets in their way. And so the list goes on. So in a nutshell this film is odd, unexpected, slightly disturbing, but fun at the same time. I wasn't really sure what to make of it. I didn't know whether to laugh, feel embarrased, or wince and wonder 'are they really allowed to say that?' But I'd recommend you watch it. It's always worth trying something a bit different, and at least it'll be something you can tell people about down the pub.
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Most recent members' review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Bubblicious!
I'm not going to say much because "Bubble Boy" is best viewed with no prior expectations. Just enjoy it for what it is: a brilliantly observed, hysterically funny story of people who just 'don't fit in'.
Anyone overly politically correct need not bother. -
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BUBBLE BOY is a zany and lighthearted but irreverent road comedy from music video director Blair Hayes. Jake Gyllenhaal (OCTOBER SKY) stars as Jimmy Livingston, a young man born with an immune ... -