2020   Netflix

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  43min

Comedy ~ Horror ~ Mystery

Directed by:  Steve Brill

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, Rob Schneider, June Squibb, Kenan Thompson, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Buscemi, Tim Meadows, Maya Rudolph, and Ben Stiller.

“Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good fright.”

Adam Sandler stars as Hubie Dubois, a mentally challenged guy living with his mother in Salem Massachusetts. His family has been in Salem since before the witch trials in the 1600’s and had family involved in the witch trials. He rides a bike with a radio strapped to the front and rides it around town and to his job as a deli worker in the supermarket. He has dubbed himself the Halloween monitor and spends Halloween policing the town and all the activities going on in town.

Kevin James stars as the Chief of Police. Julie Bowen plays the police Chief’s ex-wife. Kenan Thompson plays a Police Sargent. Steve Buscemi stars as the guy who moved in next door with a Halloween secret. There are a lot of stars in this movie. In the beginning it seemed like every scene had someone new. Going in to watching this I knew that it was going to be a silly, humorous Halloween movie. I was good with that, “Good, I need something lighthearted, something halloweenish but not too scary or gory. And nothing serious, a comedy would be good.”

As it started it was exactly what I thought it would be. And I was pleasantly surprised by the star power. And I love Steve Buscemi, I have a friend that looks and sounds just like him. So, I have conversations with Steve Buscemi all the time. LOL. As I watched I was like, “Look, there’s Steve Buscemi…………..and Kevin James………KEENAN THOMPSON! and Ray Liotta. Wow!” But there were two things that started to bother me right away.

The first one was Adam Sandler’s character Hubie being portrayed as having less than average intelligence, riding a bike around town with a radio strapped to the front. And everybody in town is making fun of him and abusing him. It grew on me because at first I was ok with it, it’s just a movie right? But then it became relentless as every scene depicted things thrown at him wherever he went and the abuse was relentless. I started to feel sorry for him and it reminded me of a real life Hubie from my home town.

He used to ride around town with his radio. He was a full grown man with the mindset of a child. He couldn’t work but they trusted him enough to let him wander around town. But I realized a couple of years ago in talking with my Mom how cruel everybody in town had been to him. I grew up with the phrase “Don’t be a Hubie, you pulled a Hubie, etc.” In talking with Mom about that, she didn’t realize that it was actually about the guy that used to ride around town on his bike. I changed his name to Hubie for the sake of the article but in hindsight it seems that the town secretly made fun of him because he was less than normal. Anyway, there’s that.

And Adam Sandler’s very annoying voice as Hubie. At first I tried to overlook it, as it was way over the top, but it really started to grate on me. I kept trying to ignore it because I was enjoying the movie. But the further into the movie I got, the more pronounced his voice became. SO annoying, I couldn’t get past it. It was so bad I quit watching……..yup, I quit. Couldn’t do it.

So that’s a no for me…..

Two thumbs down, way down!