I’m a fan of Halloween films and Adam Sandler Films, so Hubie Halloween was an easy choice. Adam Sandler has created several other films in the Halloween theme with the Hotel Transylvania series looking to make its fourth film. This film is targeting an older demographic with the type of humor he has in this film. This film hovers between scary and comedic throughout, with I believe it landing on the comedic side. Sandler’s character is foolish in many ways, but his ingenuity and sincerity stand out.

The film starts out at a mental health facility with Orderly Hal (Ben Stiller) discovering one of his patients has escaped. We’re then introduced to Hubie Dubois (Adam Sandler) riding his bicycle down the street. As he’s riding, various children pelt eggs at him while he deftly dodges them. Hubie then goes to work at a deli where Mr. Landolfa (Ray Liotta) and Mike Mundi (Karan Brar) scare Hubie as a prank. Officer Steve Downey (Kevin James) is alerted that there is an escaped patient from the mental health facility who may be heading towards the town. Hubie suddenly knocks on Steve’s window to tell him that there was a boy buying an abnormal amount of toilet paper and eggs. Steve isn’t interested and the boy who Hubie tried to report chases him home.

When Hubie gets home, he meets his new neighbor Walter Lambert (Steve Buscemi). Walter seems very kind; but he warns Hubie that if he hears any weird noises from his house in the middle of the night, then he should ignore them and not come inside. We’re introduced to several characters over time leading to Halloween night. Hubie is trying to keep everyone safe, and he ends up at a high school party trying to get them to obey laws and be safe. Mike Mundi decides to play a prank on Hubie by getting someone else to say there is a child lost in the corn maze. Tommy (Noah Schnapp) and Megan (Paris Berelc) leave the party deciding the prank on Hubie is mean-spirited. After Hubie learns there isn’t anyone to save in the maze, he finds Mike Mundi tied up and then Mike is abducted by something strange.

This film has a lot of characters and I had to leave out some fairly large ones in the second half of the film to get to the suspenseful part. Hubie’s character is at first seen as a fool, but we see there are other people who respect him. I enjoyed the overall humor in the film with Adam Sandler’s character diverging from many of his other comedic characters in that Hubie is afraid and he doesn’t get mad at other people. To use Sandler’s other films to categorize this one, I’d say it has the range of storylines from films like Grown Ups but Sandler is a more extreme character like in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Overall, this film is filled with cameos and fun scenes. I think it even has some decent lessons about being kind to others. So, I’d recommend this as a fun Halloween film aimed at teens. Rated PG-13.

Ryan