Every decade or so, Adam Sandler will emerge from semi-retirement to remind us that he really can act. And we, like the idiots we are, won’t give him the recognition he deserves. But this time, Sandler is coming back to his bad comedy career with a vengeance, having declared last year that if he didn’t get an Oscar for his spectacular performance in Uncut Gems, he would make a movie “that is so bad on purpose just to make you all pay.” He didn’t get the Oscar. Watch the trailer for Hubie Halloween below.
Adam Sandler whips out his latest weird voice to play Hubie Dubois, the town loser who is ridiculed every year for trying to make his hometown of Salem safe on Halloween. But after people start disappearing and an escaped criminal and mysterious new neighbor appear, Hubie finally gets to be the hero.
Hubie Halloween is directed Steven Brill and written by Tim Herlihy and Sandler, and is just the latest in a string of comedies made under Sandler’s lucrative multi-film deal with Netflix. But although the film is exactly what you’d expect given the content that Sandler and Netflix have cooked up in the past, Hubie Halloween can’t help but feel particularly like a karmic result of Sandler’s Oscar snub, which came after Sandler uncharacteristically campaigned for the award and threatened more terrible movies if he didn’t get a nod.
But one thing Hubie Halloween has going for it is an insanely stacked cast, which includes Sandler regulars like Kevin James and Rob Schneider, but also Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, June Squibb, Kenan Thompson, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Chiklis, Tim Meadows, Karan Brar, George Wallace, Noah Schnapp, Paris Berelc, China Anne McClain, Steve Buscemi, and Maya Rudolph. With that many stars, maybe it won’t be so terrible after all.
Here is the synopsis for Hubie Halloween:
Hubie Dubois (Adam Sandler) thanklessly spends every Halloween making sure the residents of his hometown, Salem, celebrate safely and play by the rules. But this year, an escaped criminal and a mysterious new neighbor have Hubie on high alert. When people start disappearing, it’s up to Hubie to convince the police (Kevin James, Kenan Thompson) and townsfolk that the monsters are real, and only he can stop them. Hubie Halloween is a hilarious family film about an unlikely hero with an all-star cast including Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, Noah Schnapp, Steve Buscemi and Maya Rudolph, produced by Happy Madison.
