Last year, Adam Sandler earned some of his best reviews — and raised blood pressures — as Howard Ratner, the motormouthed, compulsive-gambler protagonist of “Uncut Gems.” Hubie Dubois, Sandler’s character in the Netflix movie “Hubie Halloween,” is Howard’s inverse: Mr. Responsibility, a dorky deli-counter worker who takes it as his unappointed mission to look out for his fellow Salem, Mass., residents. He turns up, for example, at a school cafeteria to present a lecture on Halloween safety that takes the place of recess. He is at once a thoughtful neighbor and the town narc, a position that has made him the target of ridicule. Except that this Halloween, Salem — simultaneously faced with a possible werewolf (Steve Buscemi) and a Michael Myers-like psychopath — really does need someone on high alert, even if Hubie alternates between flashes of brilliance and utter obliviousness. Sandler has always been a repository of goofy voices, but what he thought was funny about the mannered muttering he does here is unclear.

Source: New York Times October 08, 2020 20:37 UTC