‘’: ’s latest gag-filled romp 11/10/20, 9:27 PM ‘Hubie Halloween’: Adam Sandler’s latest gag-filled Netflix romp

CHENNAI: Once an exclusively American celebration, Halloween, in all its spooky glory, has spread beyond the US and is now seen as a light-hearted night of unadulterated fun for kids and adults alike. The ghoulish season already has a host of popular cult films which movie lovers settle in to watch every year — from the Bette Midler-led “Hocus Pocus” to “Beetlejuice” — and now Netflix has jumped on the bandwagon with “Hubie Halloween,” directed by .

And what better lead could they have found than Adam Sandler, who is back to being, well, Adam Sandler, after essaying a very di!erent kind of character in the gritty “Uncut Gems.”

It’s Halloween in Hubie’s (Sandler) home town of Salem, Massachusetts, and he is the resident good Samaritan equipped with a “flask” that would put Bond’s gadgets to shame. This little contraption has everything— an umbrella, a torchlight and even a spray to ward o! bullies — and Hubie has plenty of them.

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Hubie’s mother schemes in a bid to put an end to the bullying from teens and adults alike, while Hubie pines away for sweet-natured Violet ( Julie Bowen). However, our less-than-heroic lead isn’t gutsy enough to profess his love and suspense hinges on the old will-they-won’t-they plot line.

Written by Sandler, along with longtime collaborator , “Hubie Halloween” makes its hero the butt of all jokes, some positively distasteful. Woven into all this are production house Happy Madison regulars, including as policeman Steve Downey and , who plays Hubie’s creepy neighbor Walter Lambert. Oh, and there’s also a mental asylum escapee thrown in for the scare factor.

It’s a comedic take on Halloween, with plenty of raucous jump scares and a rather silly protagonist. However, Sandler is remarkable as a bumbling fool, who takes bullying in his stride and Bowen stands out in a small, pleasing, appearance.

There’s no doubt that execs over at Netflix see Sandler as viewing gold — this is his sixth original feature for Netflix since 2015 and 2019 saw the Sandler-starring “Murder Mystery” come out on top as the most viewed film on the platform for that year — and “Hubie Halloween” is just another example of the star doing what he does best.

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