Hubie Halloween ★☆☆☆☆

Hubie Halloween

★

• Where: Netflix
• When: Forseeable future
• Cost: Netflix subscription cost

I think there is in everyone’s taste a soft spot for silly movies. Adam Sandler’s career-long monopoly on this subgenre of film would make you think he’d be good at them by now. Not necessarily. In Hubie Halloween, Sandler plays the silly-voiced, naive, health and safety nut Hubie Dubois. Hubie regards Halloween as a sacred holiday in his home town of Salem, and each year sees that it is enjoyed safely. So far so Sandler. Then Steve Buscemi shows up—to mar the great career he’s had—playing a polite, self-loathing werewolf who has escaped from the “werewolf institution[?]” and is being tracked by a Mike Myers parody who enjoys pissing in the street (I’m not making this up). Then Shaquille O’Neal shows up, doing a woman’s voice, and proceeds to eat a toastie à la Lady and the Tramp with a woman who has a deep, manly voice. It is at this point that the viewer has a decision to make: embrace the poorly written plot for the slice of fun that it is, or become deeply depressed at the state of modern cinema, perhaps even some people will manage both. The former, though sacrilegious, at least gets you through to the end of the film. I can think of only two groups of people this will appeal to: the first is children, and the second group is that subset of adults who can see that it’s crap, and yet are still good-spirited enough to try and see the funny side. It isn’t a good film, nor is it even especially funny (I can’t remember laughing at all), hence its abysmal rating. But it will inevitably find its place, five Halloweens from now, on those nights where the pizzas are ordered, and any film will do, and the familiar, albeit annoying grin of Adam Sandler beckons from the screen.  

Directed by: Steven Brill 

Starring: Adam Sandler; Kevin James; Julie Bowen; Ray Liotta; Steve Buscemi; Rob Sneider 

Studio: Happy Madison Productions