The Adam Sandler Movie is more or less a subgenre unto itself at this point, and you always know exactly what you’re in for. The actor and his buddies will all get together and have a great time appearing in some glossy mid-budget comedy that features easy targets and wacky characters. These efforts will typically be savaged by critics, but knowing his fanbase almost better than any other star, they almost always go down a treat with viewers.
Sure, his brand of comedy might not be for everyone, but you have to at least admire Sandler’s commitment to sticking to material that audiences eat up despite constantly being criticized for phoning it in. And while his latest movie, Hubie Halloween, is more of the same and not even close to his best comedy, let alone his best film, it seems to have been a massive hit on Netflix, who premiered it last month.
According to Variety, the pic is the platform’s most popular original movie of 2020 – in the US, at least – and second most popular movie overall, with only one film beating it: 365 Days. Which, like Hubie Halloween, is also a production that critics tore apart but subscribers can’t get enough of. Though given the subject material (it makes Fifty Shades of Grey look tame), it’s a bit more understandable why it’s attracted so many eyeballs.
For those unfamiliar, Hubie Halloween tells the story of the eponymous outcast who takes it upon himself to keep his fellow citizens in Salem, Massachusetts safe – especially on the titular holiday. Normally, that job doesn’t amount to much, but when residents begin to vanish on the spookiest night of the year, it’s up to Hubie to get to the bottom of things.
Again, Adam Sandler’s latest is hardly going to win any awards, but as Netflix‘s most popular original movie of 2020, it just proves once more that no matter what the actor does, there’s always going to be a sizeable audience waiting to dig into it. Even if it’s more of the same.
Published: Nov 5, 2020 04:42 pm