The post credit scene in this Netflix original is a microcosm of what’s wrong with this film. It’s Fred Armisen as the movie-with-a-movie’s director wearing a face shield. The joke line is “It’s really hard to direct in this thing.” Cut to black. That’s the joke, the stinger, the ending they leave us with and it’s not funny, it’s not a call-back, it’s completely unrelated to anything, and unrelatable to anyone except, I dunno, directors who wear face shields.

Yeah, this flick is about a bunch of wacky Hollywood actors who, during the early days of COVID, go into lockdown together in order to film the sixth film in a dumb action franchise. They suffer through isolation in their opulent hotel, they argue with each other, they film the movie on green screens, they do drugs, they argue, they squabble, and they complain. Cut to Fred Armisen.

Hollywood loves to navel gaze and this is a pretty navel gazey film. I’m glad they were having fun… but in between jokey scenes of Hollywood types being horrible, they forgot to make a picture for anyone else. I’m not saying it’s bad just because its unrelatable… but that’s certainly part of the problem.

I dunno… maybe Hollywood actors making a movie poking fun at the crazy indulgences of Hollywood actors somehow reverses its snark and becomes self-congratulatory? Like “see how silly and inane Hollywood is? We know it and we’re not like that at all!”. It annoyed me. I was annoyed.

But perhaps I’m overthinking it… but what else are you going to do while trapped watching this remarkably unfunny movie? A film with so many one-off short scenes and overly long “what was the point of this scene?” scenes. Scenes that just made me think, “If they cut this scene and that scene and that other scene over there, maybe this goddamn movie would be over by now.” But, hey, they make a joke about how long Hollywood movies are, thus inoculating themselves from the fact their movie is too long. Checkmate, audience. Checkmate.

I did chuckle now and then, I guess. The cast is good with Karen Gillen, David Duchovny, Fred Armisen, Leslie Mann, Keegan-Michael Key, Pedro Pascal, and Iris Apatow. And there are a decent number of random cameos that are occasionally – and I do mean occasionally – amusing.

But it’s never enough… the movie drags along for two hours with a bunch of random scenes that may or may not have a point, may or may not be funny. Or, hell, maybe these are all HI-larious jokes to other actors? Maybe they made a film for themselves and we average Netflix watchers are just not the target market…

Score: 68