Adam Sandler is just one of those comic actors who has a loyal fan base for almost every single movie he’s made. Even if higher profile people do not agree. No matter if more of his movies have been panned instead of critically praised. There’s only a few movies even for the most devoted fan may not feel they like as much but that’s hard to come by. And it’s not like Sandler can’t act because he can, whether that be live action form or in animated form. The best thing of all for him in general is his ability to make films without even much help from other producers as he has Happy Madison, his own company. Topping that off is that majority of the cast that he works with are frequent recurring cast mates from previous productions. And now that he’s gotten older, his family is joining in as well.
As like the same time any other year, Sandler and co are getting in touch with their inner child by revolving the story of this film around Halloween. Sandler plays Hubert (Hubie) Dubois, a well-known local to his hometown of Salem; the city best known for its Halloween history. This year is mostly like all the others, except this time a certain someone from the mental home escaped and they might be floating around the area. Not wanting to discourage anyone, Mayor Benson (George Wallace) is hoping to keep this information on the down low with help from Sgt. Steve Downey (Kevin James). Meanwhile, Hubie is in hopes to reconnect with his high school sweetheart Violet Valentine (Julie Bowen). Written by Tim Herlihy and Sandler too, who have collaborated frequently before, the way things are set up is not that surprising.
Not even the directing headed by Steven Brill would turn heads because Brill is also someone who works with Sandler a lot. The way things happen is just very predictable, but this is what many fans of Sandler enjoy and come to expect. The one aspect of the script that it has going for it is the usual Sandler trope – an underdog character who deserves to be recognized and appreciated. The overall plot is good in that sense because many people do like protagonists who rise to the challenge. Unfortunately, that’s where it stops when it comes to likeable things about it. The comedic aspects to this feature are just not that funny. A lot of the jokes fall flat and are more awkward to watch than actual laugh inducing. It’s really not that clear if this is the intention or if that’s just the Sandler movie appeal.
The cast of actors participating in this feature all do a fair job, mostly. The description of “fair” refers to that they play characters only they could play and get away with how its portrayed. Sandler as Hubie is okay in an innocent, not too bright kind of character way. His voice though is one of those that isn’t necessary. What kind of speech impediment or accent is it? It’s not ear bleedingly bad, but it’s also not his greatest voice for a character. Considering the fact that all other characters very much have normal sounding voices. Julie Bowen as Violet Valentine is a sort of strange character too being that she finds Hubie so attractive and dreamy. Not sure how being that Hubie is sort of a man child. All other actors play their roles as one would expect them to be; relatively over the top and awkward.
Visually speaking the cinematography was shot fine. Handling the cinematography was Seamus Tierney, someone who actually doesn’t seem to have a film history with Adam Sandler. That’s different and refreshing. Perhaps it’s because Tierney has credits to other spooky movies like Homecoming (2005) and V/H/S/2 (2013). However, this doesn’t take away the really cheap effects used in the movie. Some of it is flat out poor looking makeup work or obvious CGI. Perhaps it was the budget but small productions have proven to do better. The music was also a little bit of a let down because Rupert Gregson-Williams is a fairly good composer having worked on projects like Hacksaw Ridge (2016) and Wonder Woman (2017). At the same time though, he has worked a lot with Adam Sandler too. Maybe Sandler doesn’t require as much complex music.
It’s a middling spooky Halloween film with the Sandler touch. Camerawork is done well. The actors are the Sandler usuals who many people would probably enjoy or recognize and the plot is harmless. That still doesn’t make the comic bits very funny. As the special effects look kind of cheap and the music isn’t remotely entertaining.
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