Review: Hubie Halloween
By W.G. Jones

I’m confident in saying that the terms “Critically Acclaimed” and “Adam Sandler Feature Film” seldom if ever appear in the same sentence, and Netflix’s new halloween-themed seasonal comedy Hubie Halloween is no exception.
Off the heels of ‘The Sandman’’s starring role in the Safdie brothers’ 2019 hit Uncut Gems. His new film is a definitive return to form for the comedy stalwart.
The movie features many alumni of the SCU (Sandler Cinematic Universe), including Julie Bowen (Happy Gilmore) and Steve Buscemi (The Cobbler, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry), as well as a number of less mainstream or established actors such as Lavell Crawford (of Breaking Bad fame) or basketball star Shaquille O’Neal. Kevin James also features, fresh off his role as a Neo-Nazi (this would explain his rather striking choice of facial hair) in the 2020 film Becky, as a hard-nosed cop.
Sandler himself stars as the title character, ‘Hubie Dubie Dubois’. An oafish anorak, he’s obsessed with the Halloween season. In a typical role for Sandler, he is treated as a punchline in his own story.
Perhaps reflective of the rest of the movie, this character is not particularly worthy of real critique; this is Adam Sandler straightforwardly doing a garbled voice and overreacting to mild jumpscares.
Plot and story seem to run secondarily to the film’s many running gags and jokes, with scene after scene playing out more like a series of sketches rather than a pre-planned story. Attempts at a cohesive narrative are quickly lost in a swell of intentional overacting and the large cast of characters.
Plot is a distraction from the absurd for Hubie Halloween. In one of the more amusing running gags in the movie, seemingly random objects are thrown at Hubie whenever he’s in a rush to get somewhere. Even the most pure of purist film fans have to admit that the scene where Hubie is running through a forest and a trombone magically flies over his head is at least amusing, no?
It’s easy to see why this style of movie wouldn’t necessarily ‘work’ with a modern audience. Hubie Halloween is, after all, a film from a different time – a relic of a past age of comedy movies, more relative to the disconnected nature of comedy from the early 2000s.
However, a unique and seldom understood part of any ‘Sandler-esque’ movie is that it defies serious critique. Hubie Halloween and others like it are by no means meant to be taken seriously as movies.
In simpler terms, Hubie Halloween is a stupid movie, but it is stupid-fun at the same time.
2.5/5.
Hubie Halloween was released on Netflix on the 7th of October.