Hubie Halloween Movie Review: Dear Academy, why the heck did you not nominate Adam Sandler for his terrific performance in Uncut Diamonds? For a change, the actor, mostly known for his comic roles, went out of his safe zone, and whenever he does that, it results in some fine performances like in Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish, Funny People and Uncut Diamonds. Who knows, an Oscar nomination could have veered him away from the usual unsavoury comedies he does like The Grownups series, Jack and Jill, That's My Boy et al. Sadly, Hubie Halloween is no different. Adam Sandler Says Hubie Halloween Was Easier Than a Serious Drama.

Hubie Halloween, directed by Steven Brill, is yet another movie that comes out of the collaboration between Netflix and Adam Sandler's production house, Happy Madison Productions. And it follows every trend of the comedies that came out his stable - critically reviled, but manages to score viewership rankings on the OTT platform. Sandler could be Hollywood's own Salman Khan - both like to crack bad jokes and do childish stuff. What makes Bhai different from Sandler, is that Bhai is the one to hit people, while it's the other way around for Sandler - who is always hit around.

In Hubie Halloween, Sandler once again plays a man-child with a made-up voice, this time sounding as if Rocky Balboa is having a bad cold. He is the resident advisor of a town called Salem, where no one likes him. Kids keep bullying him and the adults, like Landolfa (Ray Liotta) or Lester (Tim Meadows) either taunt him or make fun of him,

The only person who cares for him is his mother (June Squibb). Another person who doesn't mind him is his long-time crush Valentine (Julie Bowen), She had divorced her husband, the resident Sheriff (Kevin James), and is a single mother to three surrogate kids, one of them being Stranger Things' Noah Schnapp. One of the sore points of being a part of a good show on Netflix, also means you are coerced into bad ones too!

Anyway, just before Halloween hits the town, a madman escapes from the nearby hospital and heads to Salem. Around the same time, Hubie also gets a strange neighbour in Walter (Steve Buscemi), who he thinks to be an undead long resident of the town. On Halloween night, strange things happen in the town, including people getting missing, though only Hubie notices them. And since he is always paranoid, nobody takes him seriously.

Watch the Trailer of Hubie Halloween:

When it comes to making you laugh, Hubie Halloween is just as unfunny as most of its lead star's comedies. Unless you guffaw out loud at the gags on farts, incest, feces, urine and other gross out stuff. If that's the case, well, we know who is responsible for the obsession Sandler's scripts have with bodily excrements. OTT Releases Of The Week: Yami Gautam's Ginny Weds Sunny, Adam Sandler's Hubie Halloween, Bad Boy Billionaires: India On Netflix, Gandii Baat 5 on Zee5 and More.

Sandler's artificial performance is just the same we have seen in  movies like Happy Madison, and The Waterboy. The other cast members join him in livening up the absurdity.

The only two aspects worked for me when it came to Hubie Halloween, one of which being the central mystery that comes with some surprise twists and turns. And the other being the production design made to create Salem, that has this spooky charm, which the film lacks. Otherwise, this is yet another disappointing Sandler that we have to cringe about, till he releases his next with Netflix.

Yay!

- The Central Mystery

- The Production Design

Nay!

- Almost Everything Else

Final Thoughts

Hubie Halloween comes across as neither spooky, nor funny enough. This comedy is strictly for Adam Sandler fans. Neither Trick nor Treat here! Hubie Halloween is streaming on Netflix.

Rating:1.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 08, 2020 10:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).