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.

1 – SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF

I mentioned James Garner already, right? This is Galaxy Quest for Westerns. There was a non-sequel followup, with several of the same actors, in a similar story, but Support Your Local Gunfighter has different characters (granted, doing the same things).

This is one of my five favorite Westerns, and I’ve watched it many times. Garner is a mix of Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford in this 1969 movie. I’d install the Tubi app just to watch this one. If you like it, you should definitely watch Gunfighter as well.

2 – A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers introduced us to Inspector Clouseau in 1963. The Return of the Pink Panther didn’t come out until 1975 (Alan Arkin played the role in a 1968 movie). Seems people forget that in 1964, A Shot in the Dark hit theaters only six months after The Pink Panther.

This is my favorite Pink Panther movie, and I developed a lifelong crush on Elke Sommer from this one. Tubi has all the Sellers ones, the two ‘official ones’ without him, the two Steve Martin reboots, and a couple of the cartoon series’. Everything but the Alan Arkin one. Clouseau is a supporting character in the first movie. I much prefer A Shot in the Dark.

3 – GET SHORTY

This is a superb book by Elmore Leonard. And the 1995 adaptation starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Renee Russo, Danny Devito (and the always underappreciated Dennis Farina) nailed it. It’s one of the best book/movie adaptations around. The sequel – Be Cool – is good, though not great. Both are worth watching.

Prime did a streaming series in 2017 with Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd) and Ray Romano. It ran for three seasons and I think it’s terrific. It sets up with the basic premise of the novel, but is basically an original story after that. Which is fine with me. I loved every episode. I talked about it here. So, book, movie, and series: you should check out Get Shorty.

4 – EIGHT MEN OUT

Baseball snobs like to immediately attack the inaccuracies of Eliot Asinof’s book. Whatever. I’m a fan of the book. And this is a top five baseball movie. The cast is deep, and visually it’s got that baseball nostalgia factor. And I think it conveys the almost slave-like conditions under the reserve clause (I’m pro-management, not pro-union; though both sides are greedy twits that may ruin the game again. But the options were to take what owners offered, or quit. That was it).

I recommend reading the book, but this is a movie absolutely worth watching.

5 – ARMED AND DANGEROUS

There are several John Candy movies. While he was pretty much always good for a laugh, his movies are hit and miss. It’s fine if you liked Canadian Bacon, Who’s Harry Crumb?, and Hostage for a Day. But as with Humphrey Bogart, he did make some stinkers.

But Candy and Eugene Levy do make Armed and Dangerous a good one. Meg Ryan, Robert Loggia, and Brion Jones join in this Harold Ramis scripted flick. A fired cop (Candy) and an inept lawyer (Levy) are forced to join a corrupt union when they get jobs as security guards. Co-written by Stacy Keach’s brother James, their father makes an appearance.

I always thought this was underappreciated John Candy. I’ve never seen It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, but I’m going to check it out. On Tubi.

6 – DEAD RECKONING

And speaking of my favorite actor of all time…Dead Reckoning is a ‘good but not great’ hardboiled Noir starring Bogie. WW II parachutist Rip Murdock’s (Bogart) buddy goes AWOL rather than receive the Medal of Honor. Bogie looks for him and murder and mayhem follow. Lizabeth Scott is a femme fatale, and Morris Carnovsky is the bad guy club owner.

Bogie made a slew of good movies in the forties, and this is one of them. It’s not on a par with The Maltese Falcon, This Gun for Hire, or Murder My Sweet, but it’s still a good example of the hardboiled genre. Like Johnny O’Clock, or Nocturne.

And I just saw Johnny O’Clock on Tubi, and watched it again. Here’s a spoiler-filled essay on my favorite ‘almost but not quite great’ Noir. Watch it back-to-back with Dead Reckoning.

7 – SOLOMON KANE

I commented that Dark Winds was a good 70s cop show, but not good Tony Hillerman. I feel similarly about Solomon Kane. I like it as a sword and sorcery movie, but it’s a long way from Robert E. Howard’s Puritan avenger of wrongs. And that’s fine. They could have made a bad Solomon Kane movie, and then it would be a total loss.

James Purefoy is good, and he wanted to do a followup. But since the movie didn’t even get an American release (it eventually found its way over here with limited showing, but it was well over, and the International take didn’t make back even half of the budget).

Solomon Kane could have been truer to Howard’s character and stories. Noting the distinction between sword and sorcery, and fantasy, this is an S&S movie definitely worth watching.

8 – PRESUMED INNOCENT

There were others who did legal thrillers, before John Grisham (I’m a big fan of Richard North Patterson), but he clearly ‘took things to another level’ with his books, and the movies from them. Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent was a successful film, with Harrison Ford. Tom Cruise’s The Firm followed a year later.

This is a very good legal thriller. Turow continued to write best-selling books (check out The Burden of Proof, featuring the defense attorney from Presumed Innocent). The movie has a real twist at the end. Good book, good film. And it’s free on Tubi.

9 – HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS

I don’t think there’s ever been another movie like Animal House. It’s a unique classic. But if I had to name one movie to join it in that solo club, it would be Hollywood Knights. Set around the hijinks of a car club in Beverly Hills on Halloween night.

It was Robert Wuhl’s first movie, and he was SO terrific that a band named themselves after his character, Newbomb Turk. With several now-familiar faces, it’s got more of an Animal House vibe than any other movie I’ve seen. Since it’s free on Tubi, you REALLY should catch this if you’re a fan of that kind of humor.

10 – CADENCE

The number 165 US box office movie of 1991 may be the best little flick you’ve not seen. Charlie Sheen is put in a US military prison in West Germany, run by martin Sheen. Lawrence Fishburne is the leader of the other prisoners – all black. I only just now realized Charlie’s brother Ramon is also in it.

Martin is a miserable SOB and Charlie has to deal with the other prisoners, as well as the commander. This gets bad reviews, but I really like it. And Harry Stewart (‘Cornbread’ in the movie) sings a song called End of My Journey. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I often cite That Thing You Do! as a terrific little movie many people overlook. But it’s still got the Tom Hanks name on it. Cadence is one even fans of the Sheen family may not know of. And you absolutely should check it out on Tubi.

BONUS FLICK

11 – AWAKENINGS

I saw this movie at the theater, back in 1990. I haven’t watched it since. But I remember that I teared up at the end. One year after Dead Poets Society – and three years before Mrs. Doubtfire – Robin Williams is a neurosurgeon, trying to break through to victims of Parkinson’s Disease. Robert DeNiro is one of his patients. There’s a bit of humor in this movie, but it’s a medical drama. And damn, it hits HARD. My mom told me this past weekend that she’s remembering less and less. Parkinson’s fucking sucks.

John Heard, Anne Meara, and Penelope Ann Miller fill in a solid cast. But this movie is a tour de force for DeNiro, with Williams showing his acting chops. If you want a powerful drama, give this a watch. And maybe have some tissues handy.

MORE

I could list a couple dozen more movies – good and maybe not so good – you can sit down and watch: Deal of the Century, The Big Store, The Boondock Saints, Point Break, Mulholland Falls, The Majestic, The Thee Amigos, The In-Laws, Meatballs, Clerks II, Crossroads, Krull, Runaway: Just scroll and you’ll find things from every genre.

I loved the twist at the end, of No Way Out. I have it on VCR in a box somewhere. I think I’m gonna watch it on Tubi. And maybe The Getaway, and China Moon. And as I mentioned, you can deep dive into a plethora of TV shows. I just added Hardcastle and McCormick to my ever-growing list.

I do watch stuff from RokuTV, and PlutoTV. But I have really leaned into Tubi since canceling my streaming apps. And I’m quite happy with the decision.

Some previous entries on things to watch:

The Hudsucker Proxy
Let’s Go to the Movies:1996
Firefly – The Animated Reboot
What I’ve Been Watching – February 2026 (The Night Manager, SS-GB, Best Medicine)
What I’ve Been Watching – October 2026 (Return to Paradise, Lynley, Expend4bles, and more)
What I’ve Been Watching – August 2025 (Ballard, Resident Alien, Twisted Metal, and more)
What I’ve Been Watching – May 2025 (County Line, The Bondsman, Bosch: Legacy)
What I’ve Been Watching – October 2024 (What We Do in the Shadows, The Bay, Murder in a Small Town)
What I’m Watching – November 2023 (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, A Haunting in Venice)
What I’m Watching – April 2023 (Florida Man, Picard – season three, The Mandalorian)
The Pale Blue Eye, and The Glass Onion: Knives Out
Tony Hillerman’s Dark Winds
The Rings of Power (Series I wrote on this show – all links at this one post)
What I’m Watching – December 2022 (Frontier, Leverage: Redemption)
What I’m Watching – November 2022 (Tulsa King, Andor, Fire Country, and more)
What I’m Watching – September 2022 (Galavant, Firefly, She-Hulk, and more)
What I’m Watching- April 2022 (Outer Range, Halo, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, and more)
When USA Network was Kicking Major Butt (Monk, Psych, Burn Notice)
You Should be Streaming These Shows (Corba Kai, The Expanse, Bosch, and more)
What I’m BritBoxing – December 2021 (Death in Paradise, Shakespeare & Hathaway, The Blake Mysteries, and more)
To Boldly Go – Star Treking – (Various Star Trek incarnations)
What I’ve Been Watching – August 2021 (Monk, The Tomorrow War, In Plain Sight, and more)
What I’m Watching – June 2021 (Get Shorty, Con Man, Thunder in Paradise, and more)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
What I’ve Been Watching – June 2021 (Relic Hunter, Burn Notice, Space Force, and more)
Appaloosa
Psych of the Dead
The Mandalorian
What I’m Watching: 2020 – Part Two (My Name is Bruce, Sword of Sherwood Forest, Isle of Fury, and more)
What I’m Watching 2020: Part One (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Poirot, Burn Notice, and more)
Philip Marlowe: Private Eye
Leverage
Nero Wolfe – The Lost Pilot
David Suchet’s ‘Poirot’
Sherlock Holmes (over two dozen TV shows and movies)

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.