Hubie Halloween

Hubie Halloween is a 2020 American comedy horror mystery film directed by Steven Brill, written by mh:awfulmovies:Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy and starring an ensemble cast consisting of Sandler, Kevin James, Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, mh:awfulmovies:Rob Schneider, June Squibb, Kenan Thompson, Shaquille O'Neal, Steve Buscemi, Maya Rudolph, Tim Meadows, Karan Brar, Paris Berelc, Noah Schnapp, China Anne McClain and Michael Chiklis. The film follows an ostracized delicatessen worker that loves Halloween who must save the town of Salem, Massachusetts from a mysterious kidnapper who is suprisingly kidnapping people who is mean towards him.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Ben Stiller's cameo appearance as Hal L. from Happy Gilmore is a nice Easter egg, as well as other references to previous films that Adam Sandler has stared in. Like Billy Madison and Hotel Transylvania.
 * 2) There are likeable characters, like Hubie himself, Sgt. Steve Downey, and Violet Valentine.
 * 3) * As useless as Walter Lambert can be, he is pretty likable.
 * 4) The twist that Hubie's mother was behind everything has such an absurd "WTF" tone that it becomes hilarious, even if the twist itself doesn't make sense.
 * 5) Peyton List's cameo is great.
 * 6) The film may have been made intentionally bad because mh:awfulmovies:Adam Sandler promised to make this film the worst film ever after being snubbed at the 2020 Academy Awards, but even at that, he has made worse films than this.
 * 7) The city of Salem is accurately depicted during its Halloween season.
 * 8) The film isn't without a few chuckles, such as when Hubie goes to call the police, and they immediately hang upon him.
 * 9) The things Hubie's thermos can do are really clever.
 * 10) At the end of this film, Adam Sandler pays tribute to Cameron Boyce, who appeared with him in the Grown Ups films and was originally going to appear in this movie before his sudden passing.
 * 11) Depending on your view, the messages on Mr's Dubois' T shirts were hilarious.
 * 12) There are some funny quotes like "She's a Canadian resident of Canada".
 * 13) It does have a good message about bullying.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The film is full of red herrings that make little to no sense and even can confuse the viewers:
 * 2) *Though the film does seem to take inspiration from Halloween by having an inmate from a mental asylum escape to unleash a killing spree, Richie Hartman ends up not turning to be a real menace nor having any important relevance to the story.
 * 3) *The character of Walter Lambert, despite being played by Steve Buscemi of all people, is totally useless. At first, we are lead to believe that he may be a werewolf and another menace to Hubie along with the mental asylum inmate. However, it's eventually revealed that Walter just believes he is a werewolf because he also escaped from the asylum and has nothing to do with the real kidnapper.
 * 4) *When the Henneseys are kidnapped, a scarecrow appears out from nowhere wearing Mr. Hennesey's clothing, leading to believe that maybe the one kidnapping the disappeared Salamers is a supernatural entity, but this is never referenced ever again, aside from that the real culprit turns up to be...Hubie's elderly mother.
 * 5) Immature and gross toilet humor.
 * 6) The movie indirectly caused WHDH news anchor Alaina Pinto to be fired from her job because of her appearance in the movie.
 * 7) Plot hole: If Hubie's mother was really the kidnapper, how is possible that a woman in her late eighties was able to kidnap a young teen and three middle-aged adults without any help on her own?
 * 8) Unfortunately, the film ended up being nominated for a few Razzies, although it didn't win any, thankfully.

Reception
Hubie Halloween received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 51%, with a critic consensus that reads "Viewers immune to its star's charms won't find it much of a treat, but Hubie Halloween is sweet enough to satisfy fans of Adam Sandler's antics" while audiences gave it a 46%. It currently holds a 5.2 on IMDb. On Metacritic, the film holds a 53/100 indicating "mixed or average reviews" and holds a 2.4 on Letterboxd.

Trivia

 * Paris Berelc and Karan Brar previously started together in the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie Invisible Sister respectively departing fellow Disney series mh:besttvshows:Jessie, mh:besttvshows:Mighty Med, and Bunk'd.