Hubie Halloween is a 2020 Netflix original comedy movie and it stars Adam Sandler and everyone else you expect from a Happy Madison production, The film was directed by Steven Brill a frequent collaborator with Sandler in front and behind the camera, directing Little Nicky, Mr Deeds, The Do Over and Sandy Wexler, and also directed a guilty pleasure of mine, Without A Paddle.
So Hubie Halloween follows Hubie Dubois, a awkward but caring loner who loves all things Halloween (Despite being super easily spooked) who always every year gives himself the role of Halloween Monitor despite constant humiliation from the local Police Force and Towns folk. However this Halloween something strange is going down and Hubie is going to get to the bottom of it.
So Adam Sandler hasn’t exactly pumped out classics since his 90’s days both his story works and character roles, however the movies he makes range from the bottom of my rating lists, that being ‘The Worst’ Jack and Jill and the Ridiculous Six come to mind, to some that hit the 9’s 10’s mostly with his acting chops the reason behind it but The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) and the most recent Uncut Gems are not typical Sandler gold but something much more special.
So this being the first Sandler movie i have watched since Uncut Gems i obviously knew Sandler has not totally lost his edge, but this movie and Hubie as a character has no similarities to Uncut Gems so it would be wrong to compare them, However Hubie Halloween is not at all ‘Hot Netflix Garbage’.
The best part of the movie is no doubt its charm, like ‘most’ Happy Madison movies they’re are not masterpieces or some even all that good, however they do have some charming elements to them, the most obvious one is everyone is clearly having a great time on set, Adam Sandler is known as a Hollywood nice guy and it’s evident to see than that transfers over into the characters he creates. Sandler is clearly passionate about what he does hence why we get some many Sandler Movies, but it’s the charm of friendship that is hidden underneath that makes these movies somewhat tolerable even if they are total trash. Sandler always has the same wacky mix of actors within his films Rob Schneider, Kevin James, David Spade, Chris Rock, and even Steve Buscemi nowadays to name a few. The movies he makes are just brings back memories of me, my brother and a few friends making movies for the fun and enjoyment of it, and that looks like what Sandler is doing having a cracking good time with his friends and trying to entertain us along the way, with varying but but always admirable results .
So on to the actual movie. This is definitely the best of the Happy Madison Netflix productions which were all fairly poor or average. However i found myself enjoying this much more than I was initially expecting, with some good laughs, a heartfelt message and of course a Halloween theme, I mean what’s not to love about that? It does however have its fair share of problems.
First of all Hubie was a great character he showed care and compassion to everyone he met and was just trying to be the best person he could possibly be. This is where some problems come in too however, for one Hubie is a nice guy and by his actions we can see that, However the entire town is not so nice, like somewhat ‘Evil’ if you ask me and i think this was just done to try to amplify the fact that Hubie is a nice guy and by having everyone else, to put it blunt be complete dicks was a mistake as then Hubie comes across dumb rather than nice as he doesnt seem to realise these people are not some much mean, but quite ‘Evil’ to repeat myself. It would have worked better if he wasn’t bullied by the whole town and just a small few than everyone else sees him as a ‘his heart is in the right place but he is just a bit odd sort of guy.’ That was the biggest issue for me and other problems are not too big of a deal. For example some suspects of the mystery were clearly just added for the sake of adding more suspects and didn’t really serve a purpose to the plot, and were just there to make the end result a little less obvious.
However all that said Hubie Halloween is just a fun goofy movie in classic Sandler fashion, of course i wasn’t expecting a masterpiece, but it did surpass my expectations. Hubie Halloween has some great laughs (one of which involves a running joke with his homemade thermos he made in the scouts) and a clear heartfelt message about bullying and acceptance and though hamfisted at times with some of its plot, i thoroughly enjoyed it and thought its was a nice pass of just short of a couple of hours.
One last thing i can see why, people won’t like this movie. It is a typical modern Adam Sandler at times and I’m wondering if he will ever capture his 90’s glory days but if this is as close as we get then i’m fine with that. I’ll take whatever the Sandman gives us whether I like it or not. I’ll always admire his work ethic.
Do as you do Sandler, despite what people think. Enjoy what you do with the friends that make it, because at the end of the day as long as you have fun then that’s all that matters and if it cheers someone up then… Hey, that makes it even better.
Final Score.
Title: Okay
Hubie Halloween takes Sandler back to his man-child roots of Billy Madison, but doesn’t capture his 90’s glory and is clunky in a lot of ways. However the flick is fun and heartfelt enough in places to make this a simple enjoyable watch, also Sandler and his buddies are clearly having a good time, which in the long run is all that matters.
Head Over Reels 