Hubie Halloween

As Halloween ascends, devout Hubie (Adam Sandler) prepares to celebrate, decorating his yard with festive rigour, taking the time to trust and care.

He also instructs local children at the high school he once attended, and even if they respond critically to his counsel, he still persists with animate declamation.

He still longs for his childhood crush whom he still has difficulty approaching (Julie Bowen as Violet Valentine), although he can string verbal loci together, when tasked with delicate comment.

His mom (June Squibb) does her best to encourage his loyal safety-oriented verbose reckonings, even if the rest of the town has taken to responding with varied projectiles.

But a new neighbour has recently moved in who's unfamiliar with traditional testaments (Steve Buscemi as Walter Lambert), and advises against disturbing him even if noise proves dire and irksome.

Local police are well-versed in Hubie as he consistently warns them of danger, and have developed related protocols designed to rapidly appease his qualms.

But on the particular Halloween in question Hubie's unease is more on the ball.

As people begin to disappear around town.

People known to lambaste his self-sacrifice.

It's been a long time since I've seen an Adam Sandler film, and I was wholeheartedly impressed, the old school magic still playfully enchanting as the ridiculousness flows unhinged.

Well-attuned to the rowdy shenanigans freely generated by social interactions, Hubie Halloween proceeds unabashed for another round of Sandlerian mischief.

A narrative such as this could have shifted and swerved into harrowing hysterical heartache, but it was hewn by less psychotic impulses to emerge imaginatively constructive.

As is often the case, the do-gooding lack versatile camaraderie, and struggle to cohesively integrate as they pursue less raunchy endeavours.

But Hubie's actions do not pass unnoticed as he employs freeform unsupervised tutelage, for members of the community do respond to his altruistic forgiving theatrics.

Hubie Halloween transported me back to a time less schizoid and volatile, when statespeople seemed to care more about governance than likes and shares on Twitter and Instagram.

When things seemed like they were moving forward far beyond O'Doyle's rules, consistent current manifestations mind-boggling grim unfathomable reversals. 

I'd say Sandler's still got it, can still teach while having some fun.

The urine stained sheet, the would be werewolf.

Nice to see a Halloween film that's a bit more lighthearted.  

*Buscemi doesn't show up in spellcheck. 😎

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

If vampire narratives were constructed long ago to suggest that the European aristocracy was carelessly gorging itself on the life blood of the European worker, and zombie narratives countered this characterization by connoting that the European worker was simply jealous of the aristocratic mind, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse asks the questions, "where do American scouts scouting in small town America fit into this dilemma?, and how can scouting build bridges between classes who solely work, and those who only play"?, scouting thereby redefined as a constructive democratic bourgeois intensity.

There are no vampires in Scouts Guide but there is an exclusive gathering, the sons and daughters of the capitalistic elite, the cool kids, in attendance, our scouting heroes given the wrong address in direct humiliation.

The zombies spread after a lackadaisical janitor interrupts a scientific experiment, accidentally awaking a zombie, who then rapidly devours his misplaced curiosity.

Soon the majority of the town is infected as the scouts unknowingly camp out in the woods, and the cool kids cavalierly consort, blissfully unaware.

But soon these 3 scouts must emerge from the forest to apply their skills in battle, aided by a savvy cocktail waitress thereafter, in their unheralded altruistic calling.

Friendship is on the line as two of them are thinking of quitting scouts and one remains true to their cause.

The zombies's hunger leaves them little time to air grievances however, as they fight together as one to save those who ignorantly disdained them.

Thus, since the zombies have been coerced into blindly embracing ideological dogma, and the capitalistic progeny is too young to understand why, the scouts must jurisprudently save them from an unprovoked attack, having tried to save at least one zombie beforehand, while hoping the virus can one day be cured.

Attendee Kendall Grant (Halston Sage) is impressed and expresses her gratitude physically.

Is it juvenile, insufficiently serious, undeniably heroic and fun?, who am I to say?

I thought perhaps the scouts weren't scouting prominently enough for a lot of the film, but the grand finale ingeniously made amends.

It is fun.

I think I saw a bear zombie, a human who had been bit by a zombie bear.

No werebears though, no werebears.

The Lorax

Sustainable Development finds a pop cultural proponent in the new musical-comedy The Lorax, based on Dr. Seuss's children's book of the same name. Within, young Ted (Zac Efron) seeks the affections of Audrey (Taylor Swift) who loves the environment and would like to acquire a living tree.

They both live in Thneedville where their surroundings are predominantly non-organic.

Having never seen a living tree and possessing no knowledge of where to find one, Ted contends with a puzzling situation as his romantic daydreams complicate his ability to socialize.

Until Grammy Norma (Betty White) steps in.

She secretly tells Ted that if he wants to locate a tree he'll have to consult the Once-ler (Ed Helms) who lives in the treacherous badlands outside Thneedville's city limits.

To obtain the sought after information, Ted hops on his motorized bike and leaves the safety of Thneedville's uniformity behind. The Once-ler is discovered but before Ted can benefit from his stricken arboreal wisdom, a tale must be told in multiple instalments.

Wherein we meet the Lorax (Danny DeVito).

Guardian of the forest.

What follows is a harrowing reenactment of economic opportunism which results in the destruction of a lush wilderness and the displacement of its local bear population. The Once-ler capitalizes on the forest's marketable trees but his blind greed results in the harvesting of every last one.

And the devastation of a vibrant ecosystem.

The Lorax himself may be the guardian of the forest but there is little he can do to combat the forces of commercialization, besides trying to emphasize their folly before it's too late.

He's a secondary character in the film whose non-consequential fantastic presence is there to accentuate the importance of a realistic united environmental front, designed to disenchant extremist right wingers who like to preach about how environmentalism is the dream of children who can't understand that God is going to miraculously come down from heaven and clean up this mess some day.

Or just leave it behind and rapturously reward the extremist faithful.

Who for some reason haven't been diagnosed with a mental illness.

At least The Lorax makes it clear enough that divine intervention is not on the way and that we have to take matters into our own hands to find a progressive vision for a multi-generational solution to this misguided point of view.

Here on planet Earth.