You know the film. It’s a film you have never heard of. The cast might be composed of actors you know and love or complete unknowns. A documentary that sounds interesting about a topic you might like. You stumble across it on streaming and wonder if it will be worth two hours of your time. This series will be devoted to reviewing films like these, the strange items that pop up when you are looking for a flick on the streaming service of your choice. This is “We Found It On Streaming”
During our celebration of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary, we will be devoting this feature to films found on streaming with some ties to the sketch program. This installment covers a horror comedy film with former SNLer Adam Sandler in a starring role.
FILM: Hubie Halloween
Release Date: October 7, 2020
Run Time: 103 Minutes.
Streaming Service(s): Netflix
Rating: Rated PG-13 for crude and suggestive content, language and brief teen partying
Adam Sandler has set up a little fiefdom over at Netflix, which seems to be letting him do any movie he wants, be it Oscar bait that shows he can be a real actor, sentimental comedies that appeal to wider audiences, or his typical fare where he plays an idiotic man-child. Hubie Halloween falls into that last category. \
Hubie DuBois (Sandler) lives in Salem, Massachusetts, the Halloween capital of the world. This is both good and bad for Hubie, because he loves Halloween, but he is frightened by everything. But he puts his fears aside every Halloween to keep Salem stay safe during the night.
However, this Halloween, things are a little bit different. Hubie’s new neighbor Walter (Steve Buscemi) might be a werewolf. There is an escaped mental patient loose in town. And Hubie’s enemies are starting to disappear one by one. Hubie needs to be really brave if he wants to protect his town now. But will be the hero, or another victim?
These type of Sandler films are almost review proof. Why? Because what am I going to say? Am I going to say the film is stupid and idiotic? It’s designed to be stupid and idiotic. That it is not funny? Funny is in the eye of the beholder. If you are a fan, you’re going to love whatever Adam Sandler does. If you hate him, you’ll hate this film no matter what I say.
I’m not a Sandler hater or fan. All I can tell you is the problems I had with the film and let you make up your mind. And I had some problems with the film.
Here’s my issues. Hubie is presented as an idiot. It’s a variation of Sandler’s Canteen Boy from SNL that he has done vamps on in the past. But the way Sandler plays him, the character is borderline mentally disabled. They try to portray that the way he behaves is because he has been living in fear his entire life–fear of confrontation, fear of women, fear of everything. But he is simple and repressed and backward. And the whole town hates him.
And by the whole town, I mean the whole town. The kids in town hate him. The adults in town hate him. Even the local priest doesn’t like him. I counted only maybe six people in town who actually like him and one of those is his mother (June Squibb). And the hatred goes so far that it be homicidal. People try to run him down with their cars. People throw flaming spears at him. And it gets more than a little overbearing.
I know the idea behind exaggerating for comedic effect. This film goes way beyond that. It’s two hours of a whole town bullying a man who isn’t all there. I just couldn’t find a whole lot of humor in that. And it is so prevalent in the film that I found it oppressive.
Are there any funny parts. Yes, about five. Five times I laughed and honest, non-sarcastic laugh. One that comes to mind is when all the female anchors doing a segment on Salem are all wearing the same Harley Quinn costumes. But that joke probably landed harder with me than it might with you. My daughter went as her for Halloween one year, so I knew how prevalent that costume was. Other than that, the non-bullying joke were of the caliber of dressing Hubie’s mom in inappropriate novelty T-shirts and Walter leaving turds on newspaper strewn across his house. Neither of those jokes were in the five I laughed at.
If you are looking for a film with SNL alumni in it, then this film is for you, and not just Sandler’s usual cronies. Oh, Rob Schneider is here, but he is joined by SNL cast members during and after Sandler’s time on the show: Kenan Thompson, Maya Rudolph, Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, Mikey Day, Melissa Villaseñor, and Ben Stiller. He goes almost as hard with ex-Disney Channel actors: Paris Berelc, China Anne McClain, Peyton List, Kelli Berglund, Kevin Quinn, Bradley Steven Perry and Karan Brar (in a part that was intended for his Jessie co-star Cameron Boyce, but Boyce died before filming began. The film is dedicated to him. Rounding out the cast is Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, Michael Chiklis, Kevin James and Blake Clark. The cast is also littered with the sons and daughters of the cast as well. The cast does well with what they have to work with, even the mostly inexperienced kids, but what they have to work with isn’t much.
If I were to sum up Hubie Halloween, I’d do it this way. If you are a fan of Sandler’s, you’ll love this film. If you hate it, you’ll hate it. That’s a given. If you are ambivalent in your opinion on Sandler, then the film will be disappointing. Its good parts are outweighed by its really, really bad parts. Avoid this film.
Have you found a film on streaming that you’d like us to look at? Leave it in the comments and it might appear in a future installment of this feature.
