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Ten Things: Tubi Edition

Ten Things: Tubi Edition

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It’s been over a month since I shared a Ten Things? Heavens to Murgatroyd (any Snagglepuss fans out there?).

I talked here about how fed I up I was with all the streaming apps which I needed to watch different things. Including sports. So, except for Prime (the family orders a lot of stuff from Amazon), I cut the cord on all of them. I’m missing Daredevil, and didn’t watch a single Pittsburgh Penguins playoff game (I did listen to all of them). But it’s going fine.

PlutoTV, and RokuTV, have lots of shows and movies for free. But Tubi (also free) has really been filling the gap. Last week I wrote about the Coen Brothers’ classic, The Hudsucker Proxy. That was a Tubi viewing. I just watched the 1988 Blake Edwards Western, Sunset. Bruce Willis is cowboy actor Tom Mix, and James Garner is Wyatt Earp, in a Hollywood Western murder mystery. It was okay, but I’ll always watch Garner when I can. Tubi has TV shows too (that will be another post), including some fun cartoons, like Pinky and the Brain.

But here are ten movies you should check out for free on Tubi. Of course, there are well-known flicks like Rain Man, Legally Blonde, The Untouchables, The Graduate, Bull Durham, etc. But I wanted to talk about some that maybe you haven’t thought of in a while.

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Fauxnan the Barbarian

Fauxnan the Barbarian

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Deathstalker (New World Pictures, September 2, 1983)

A veritable cornucopia of dodgy barbarian and barbarian-adjacent movies that I have never watched before, and will probably never watch again.

Deathstalker (1983) – USA/Argentina

Inspired by a recent foray into the Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus, I suddenly had a hankering for more of the same, and so here we are.

Never one to miss an opportunity to cash in on a zeitgeist, Roger Corman saw the response to the the previous year’s Schwarzenegger grunt-a-thon and fast tracked this hokey slice of sword and sorcery, roping in sometime collaborator James Sbardellati to direct Howard R. Cohen’s cut and paste script.

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When is a Sidewalk Fully Dressed? – The Hudsucker Proxy

When is a Sidewalk Fully Dressed? – The Hudsucker Proxy

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The Coen Brothers are among the finest filmmakers of my lifetime. Joel and younger brother Ethan started with Blood Simple in 1984, writing, directing, and producing together for the next few decades. And they produced some of the era’s best films. Dark comedies like Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, and Intolerable Cruelty. The Big Lebowski is a prolific meme generator. And O Brother, Where Art Thou is a masterful ‘modern’ retelling of The Odyssey.

They raised the Noir stakes from Blood Simple, making The Man Who Wasn’t There (a black-and-white film in 2001? That’s bold). And the chilling No Country for Old Men.

Miller’s Crossing – heavily influenced by Dashiell Hammett’s The Glass Key – is one of my Top Five Hardboiled films of all time,

Joel worked as an assistant film editor (back in the days when they literally cut and spliced together reels of film) for 1981’s Evil Dead. That was the first movie which Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell made (that’s a post subject some day). A friendship formed between Joel and Sam, and the ‘two camps’ would intertwine.

The Coens made a ‘fake trailer’ for Blood Simple, and Campbell – who is not in the movie – played the murder victim. The Coens’ next film was Crimewave (written with, and directed by, Raimi), and they wrote the lead for Campbell. He wasn’t remotely a star yet, and the studio wanted ‘a name’ and vetoed the choice. The brothers and Raimi created an entirely new part – Renaldo ‘The Heel’ – to get Bruce in the movie. …

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Dark Muse News: There’s something about Return to Silent Hill – It’s Mary!

Dark Muse News: There’s something about Return to Silent Hill – It’s Mary!

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The movie Return to Silent Hill (2026) is an adaptation of the psychological horror Silent Hill 2 (SH2) video game that was rebooted by Konami under Bloober Team in 2024. This ‘return’ film is directed by Christophe Gans, who championed the original 2006 film (which loosely adapted the first video game released in 1999). With the resounding success of the Bloober SH2 video game reboot, fans of the horror series had hope that the movie would pack a 1-2 punch, but it has been received poorly. Why?

Not helping the United States release was an ill-timed blizzard that stretched across the country (Wikipedia even has an entry about the storm). I suspect if that were a fog-storm (do those exist?), then ticket sales would have skyrocketed. At this point, almost every blogger and reviewer who has seen the movie has been pissed since it did not seem to represent the core elements of the game; I was in a similar camp until I dissected the film for this article. Here’s the Deal.

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Excalibur: The Holy Grail of King Arthur Movies

Excalibur: The Holy Grail of King Arthur Movies

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Excalibur (Warner Bros, April 10, 1981)

Excalibur (141 minutes; 1981)

Written by Rospo Pallenberg and John Boorman. Directed by John Boorman.

Loosely based on Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory.

What is it?

A classic telling of the story of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the quest for the Holy Grail, and the magical sword Excalibur.

Many filmed adaptations of that story have followed. This one, however, with its heightened sense of wonder and layers of magic woven throughout, probably remains the best-loved, most visually stunning, and most talked-about of them all.

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John Cleese Does Sherlock Holmes (and better, the first time)

John Cleese Does Sherlock Holmes (and better, the first time)

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I reinstalled Elder Scrolls Online, which is a rabbit hole I jump down periodically. I usually do side, and zone, quests. But when I decide to follow some of the main storyline, I am delighted to come across John Cleese’s Sir Cadwell. He is the a rather mad soul shriven who guides the characters in Cleese’s inimitable style. Every scene with Cleese is fun, and he also plays a part in one of the large DLCs.

Here’s a short ‘official’ video on the creation of the character. I think you’ll get the feel of this erratic character. Includes Cleese talking about it.

It’s a blessing he is still with us; active at 86.

Some folks are aware of his The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (discussed at the end of this post). I set out to write about that awful Sherlock Holmes parody movie. I wrote this essay instead. And ten years later, I still have no interest in re-watching and writing an essay on Strange Case. It is just too dumb.

However, I do think folks who like Cleese, should give a watch to a better Sherlock Holmes project he did four years before Strange Case. It’s out there on YouTube. And while it’s not brilliant, I found it entertaining Cleese. And I will always watch something John Cleese, which makes me smile. He’s genuinely a feel-good kind of guy. So, read on about Elementary: My Dear Watson.

John Cleese is best known, of course, as the sardonic Q opposite Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond in Die Another Day. He’s not as well remembered for his role in the British comedy troupe, Monty Python. I’m kidding!

On January 18, 1973, the final episode of Python’s third season aired. It was Cleese’s last episode with the group, which would continue on for one more season. That very same day, Cleese’s next project aired – Comedy Playhouse Presents: Elementary, My Dear Watson. It was produced by Barry Took, who had brought the Python members together.

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Let’s Go to the Movies: 1996

Let’s Go to the Movies: 1996

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1996 was 30 years ago. And it was quite the year for movies. Big-screen extravaganzas dominated the box office, and some movies outside the Top 10 still more than resonate today.

On July 3, Independence Day dropped. Man, that was a huge hit. EVERYBODY I knew saw, or was talking, about it. And smooth crooner Harry Connick Jr. became a lot more popular. With a US gross of $306,156,000 ($644,338,000 in today’s dollars) on a budget of $75 million, it was a smash hit.

Big-screen action continued the trend of domination, with Twister ($241,721,000) second, and The Rock ($134,069,000) fourth.

And at number three saw the birth of a mega-franchise that seven hit follow-ups and which only wrapped up last year: Mission Impossible. That first movie was an homage to the original series, and I really liked it. Then John Woo turned it into special effects cotton candy and I never watched another installment.

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Conan the Barbarian: Lamentations of a 35-Foot Snake

Conan the Barbarian: Lamentations of a 35-Foot Snake

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Conan the Barbarian (Universal Pictures, May 14, 1982)

Conan the Barbarian (129 minutes; 1982)

Written by John Milius and Oliver Stone. Directed by John Milius.
Based on the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard.

What is it?

The first film adaptation of Robert E Howard’s greatest creation: the Cimmerian warrior who was a thief, soldier, pirate, mercenary and king. We get at least a glimpse of most of those here, even if in a somewhat distorted form.

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8 Things I Think I Think: March 2026

8 Things I Think I Think: March 2026

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1– BATTLEFRONT II IS PRETTY COOL

I’ve posted before that Fortnite is my kind of shooter. Fast-paced, high action games like Marvel Rivals, and Call of Duty, aren’t fun for me. And I pretty much just die. Fast and often. I’d rather go play a Solo RPG or something. I had been stuck since finishing Grim Dawn (which I wrote about here). I tried a couple games, including getting into Red Dead Redemption II (which I like, it just hasn’t grabbed me like LA Noire did). I false-started a half dozen games.

My son likes Star Wars: Battlefront II, which I briefly tried. Died repeatedly. Quit. But I decided to give it another go. It’s got a single player campaign mode, with multiple missions, as well as a few other solo options. But it was developed as a Multiplayer shooter, reminiscent of Team Fortress 2.

There was a huge controversy upon release in 2017, regarding micro transactions, and Electronic Arts stopped new content and support, in 2020. But the game has had a couple of resurgences and hit an all-time high in concurrent players last Summer. The game is what it is, and there’s a lot of content for the frequent $3.99 sale price.

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Probing Questions, Part 2

Probing Questions, Part 2

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No One Will Save You (Hulu, September 19, 2023)

Hold onto your butts — my new watch-a-thon continues! You can find Part 1 here.

Who likes alien abduction flicks? I’ll soon fix that.

No One Will Save You (2023)

Kicking off the second half of this truncated list with the best invader film by far, 2023’s No One Will Save You, which had a somewhat muted limited theatrical release and subsequently can be found on Disney+/Hulu, but should not be overlooked.

Brynn (played brilliantly by Kaitlin Dever) is a young woman coming to terms with the death of her best friend and her mother. Her friend’s death is partly her fault, and for this reason she has been ostracized by the nearby town and is now living a solitary life in an expansive inherited farmhouse. Her grief is rudely interrupted by a home intruder, who only turns out to be a flippin’ alien.

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