Title – Hubie Halloween (2020)

Director – Steven Brill (Little Nicky)

Cast – Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Kevin James, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Tim Meadows, Rob Schneider

Plot – On Halloween night in Salem, local resident and Halloween monitor Hubie Dubois (Sandler) must face his fears as a very real danger threatens the towns safety.

“Can’t believe I don’t have a compass on my thermos”

Review by Eddie on 09/10/2020

Before we delve into the streaming masterpiece that is Hubie Halloween, I think it would be right for all of us to remember the fact that last time we saw Netflix and Adam Sandler go hand in hand it was with the quite brilliant and unexpectedly unforgettable Uncut Gems, a film that if nothing else reminded us that when he tries, Sandler can in fact act.

With that in mind and the memories of past Netflix exclusive collaborations like The Ridiculous 6, Murder Mystery, The Week Of and Sandy Wexler well and truly pushed to the back of our brains, Hubie Halloween is the exact type of film that Sandler has become known for in the latter stages of his career, a film that features his friends, low common denominator jokes (that skew heavily towards farts, spewing and urine) and a plot that is virtually non-existent.

There’s a place in the world for such crass and stupid films and in some ways in comforting in a year like 2020 that Sandler and his cronies can continue to keep on keeping on when it comes to churning out such juvenile and meaningless products but despite and interesting set-up that early on suggests we might actually be getting a more intriguing Sandler effort, Hubie Halloween is not even close to being funny enough to recommend, even if its slightly more tolerable than the worst of Sandler’s last few decades of misfires.

Giving us another one of his man-child characters, this time with an added lisp/accent that will take you some time to build up tolerance to, Sandler appears in almost every scene of Steven Brill’s film as the dorkish and child-like Hubie Dubois who loves nothing more than seeing his home town of Salem celebrate Halloween in a safe manner, a scenario made trickier this time around due to the fact there’s been a recent escape from a local mental asylum and a bunch of bully locals hell-bent on making Hubie’s (aka Pubie’s) life a living hell.

It’s the type of role Sandler could play in his sleep, one that barely requires him to muster an ounce of extra energy or enthusiasm to portray and there’s not a lot of help from his loaded ensemble that includes Sandler BFF’s Kevin James, Rob Schneider, Shaq and a scene-stealing Steve Buscemi, who all mostly get little to work with in the Halloween set plot that relies on signposted jokes and over the top gags to keep it afloat.

It’s hard to know exactly who this film is aimed at, its certainly not adults who will tire quickly of much of its antics and its a little too innuendo driven for the young crowd but Netflix surely won’t mind as the film looks to play out strong over this Halloween centric period, with more Sandler/Netflix offerings already in the pipeline.

Final Say – 

More tolerable than some of the other Sandler/Netflix outings that have come our way over the last 5 years, Hubie Halloween has a great setting and a potentially fantastic premise but is let down by a lack of laughs, likable characters and its uninspired delivery.

2 Swiss Army Thermos out of 5