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Bubble Boy
Touchstone Pictures


9.1

based on 21 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language and crude sexual humor

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Marley Shelton, Swoosie Kurtz, Geoffrey Arend, Danny Trejo, John Carroll Lynch, Dave Sheridan, and Stephen Spinella

This coming of age comedy follows the adventures of Bubble Boy Jimmy Livingston as he leaves his protected world in a portable bubble and begins a cross-country journey to win back the girl of his dreams.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Cinco Paul Ken Daurio
DIRECTED BY:	Blair Hayes
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 15, 2002 Video: January 15, 2002 Theatrical: August 24, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

LA Weekly Mark Olsen

Playfully quirky film takes equal-time potshots at its many easy targets -- fundamentalism, intolerance, ethnic stereotypes.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

The bubble-kid moms can whine all they want, but Bubble Boy is a liberated movie --liberated from tastefulness, of course, but also from logic, suffering, consequence, and temperance.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It's a shame if the controversy surrounding Bubble Boy distracts people from what a smart, subversive, and genuinely good-hearted film it is.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

This movie has a sweetness at its core.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

When it clicks, the picture should shock you into laughter -- enough to make you wish it were better and applaud its efforts anyway.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

Bubble Boy simply has the gall to make light of one of the last untouchable left in America: disease.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's hardly original and rarely laugh-out-loud funny -- the filmmakers constantly fall back on the sight of bounding balloon Jimmy squeezing his way out of one situation after another.

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

This is a semi-mean-spirited movie; had it remained that way, it could have redeemed itself.

Miami Herald Charles Savage

Belongs to that genre of movie that works hard to achieve a certain twisted and demented wit.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

There's always been room for rudeness in humor. In fact, it can be invigorating. But Bubble Boy goes through the motions of being outrageous when all it's really got is a rage to conform to formula.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Though there are some funny sequences, the frothy Bubble Boy evaporates without delivering enough belly laughs.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Seems bent on creating equal-opportunity offense to many groups, but more often than not is appalling simply for its silliness and lack of comedic control.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Fitfully funny at best, it's a sophomoric, facetious road comedy.

Baltimore Sun Staff (Not credited)

It seems that in the movies, at least, there is a limit to how far low expectations can take you.

Village Voice Nick Rutigliano

The coke-fried gibbons behind Bubble Boy came to a trailblazing conclusion: The ideal filmic oddity is white, male, and -- a mother's deception notwithstanding -- perfectly healthy.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Hard though this antic farce tries to be outrageous, its satirical jabs at American culture are obvious and juvenile, as is the use of Jimmy's plastic bubble as a goofy metaphor for fear of life.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This Farrelly brothers "hommage" replicates the mechanics of their work without echoing its spirit or complex tone, and many of the deliberate offenses fail to transcend mere exploitation.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The bubble-boy niche is thankfully small. John Travolta began his career playing one in a TV movie, but this movie will undoubtedly finish off the genre for good.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

Nearly every attempt at humor in this witless, completely reprehensible "movie" is mean-spirited and stupidly conceived at the expense of some group that deserves better.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

What a bummer! Certainly the meanest-spirited film ever associated with the Disney hallmark.

Entertainment Weekly Bruce Fretts

After enduring only a few minutes of this shrill debacle, you'll feel more trapped in the theater than Jimmy is by his bubble.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Felix Q. gave it a10:
I will defend this one unto the death. Well, maybe not *death*, but you get the point. I actually laughed out loud while watching it on my own, which doesn't happen often. I really am a sap for the puppy-dog eyes male leads, and this movie just scratches the itch in the hard to reach spot in he middle of my back. Metaphorically speaking, that it.

hillary gave it a10:
This movie ROCKS!

Samantha gave it a10:
I Loved this movie. its a true fairytale, and it even has the fairytale ending. its my favourite!

Big K. gave it a10:
Gyllenhall is (in my view) not that great. He picked a winner to star in here though. V.funny.

Chad S. gave it a6:
"Bubble Boy" wants to have it both ways; tasteless, with a sweet underpinning, but for this story of a boy with an immunity disorder to really work, the filmmakers needed to be fearless like the people who made the underrated "Pumpkin". To make fun of disabled people is a risky proposition and "Bubble Boy" cops out, choosing rather to make fun of Hinduism and foreign accents. There's also a missed opportunity to satirize a certain brand of Christian fundamentalism, the hypocritical kind; which triggered a bout of deja vu, and then I remembered, oh yeah, "Saved", another film that played it too safe. "Bubble Boy" seems more like material for a pre-"Hairspray" John Waters vehicle than a mainstream flick, but it's worth seeing because Jake Gyllenhaal is on the verge of stardom. Maggie's brother is immensely likable, even when he's parroting, "500 dollahs!" Ever Carradine should've played his love interest.

Kelsey G. gave it a10:
Yah this is the best movie ever!!! I love Jake Gyllenhaal!!!

Lisa gave it a 10:
This movie rocks, an so does jake, the commentry by him is hilarious, i loved the soundtrack as well, all the songs rock rock on jake:D and proof better hurry up lol.

Bubble Boy Touchstone Pictures

Bubble Boy
Touchstone Pictures