HUBIE HALLOWEEN

Another six months, another Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler. This time it comes in the form of Hubie Halloween released by Happy Madison’s longtime partner, Netflix.

Let’s get down to brass-tacks, this film is just mediocre and I’m having trouble figuring out who it’s meant for. Sandler plays the titular Hubie, a simpleton who protects a town obsessed with Halloween. He is mercilessly tormented and bullied by children and adults alike and wields a thermos that can seemingly do anything which I found to be one of the only highlights of the film.

The film lacks creativity, passion, and direction. It often meanders and relies on cutaways like a bad episode of Family Guy. The film manages to waste its superstar talent on juvenile pranks on Hubie or relegates them to be the simple love interest in Julie Bowen’s case.

None of this is a surprise to me. Happy Madison productions in this past decade have been abysmal at best and a crime to filmmaking at their worst. The fact that Hubie Halloween is passable as a film makes it the best thing Happy Madison has produced in a decade.

My main question is why these films come to fruition. Sandler is a talented performer, anyone who has seen his dramatic turns in 2018’s The Meyerowitz Stories or last year’s fantastic performance in Uncut Gems (one of my favorite movies of last year) knows that Sandler is capable of a great performance under the right circumstances.

So why does he continue to put out slop like this? It surely can’t be for the paycheck and I can’t see how this movie fits into the lexicon of his filmography. It seems as if Sandler is okay with putting out just okay work and it’s frustrating because we’ve seen what he can do with a role that demands a true performance.

I’m baffled honestly.

From what I’ve gathered from oral histories, Sandler is great to work with and his sets are always laid back, fun, and most of all, easy work. It makes sense that Kevin James and Rob Schneider continue to work with him because they wouldn’t have work otherwise, but I struggle to understand why comedic heavyweights Tim Meadows and Maya Rudolph joined this project. They don’t get a chance to really flex their comedic chops and I blame the film’s poor direction for not giving them any sort of chance. In Julie Bowen’s return to film, she is wasted by playing a doting love interest that has no semblance of her own character except to defend Hubie at all costs.

And Ray Liotta, oof. What to say?

This Halloween I would stay far, far away from Hubie Halloween. It’s unoriginal, unfunny, and worst of all, boring. Re-watch The Exorcist or something else for god’s sake.