Pop Culture Happy Hour - Our Favorite Movies On Tubi

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

The streaming service Tubi has become a repository for a wild assortment of movies, TV shows, and original properties. They’re all free to watch, provided you’re willing to sit through some ads. So we asked some Tubi-philes to recommend some great movies that you can find on the service: Hundreds of Beavers, Color Out of Space, Petey Wheatstraw, and Mambo Italiano.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Tooby has become a repository for a wild assortment of TV shows, movies, and original properties. They're all free to watch, provided you're willing to sit through some ads. So we asked some Tooby files to help us sift through the thousands of offerings. I'm Stephen Thompson, and today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we are recommending some great movies that you can find on Tooby. Joining me today is freelance music and culture journalist Rihanna Cruz. Hey, Rihanna. Hey, Stephen. Also with us is Jordan Morris. He's a writer and the co-host of the podcast's Jordan Jesse Go and free with ads. Hey, that's an appropriate name. Hey, Jordan. Hey, great to be here. It is great to have you. So if you haven't used Tobe, it's an ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox. It's got a deeply eclectic catalog that includes thousands of movies, a few of which we are discussing today. Jordan and Rihanna, we wanted to have you come on and share a few of your favorite To Be finds. We're

specifically focusing on movies. Jordan, I'm going to start with you. Give me your first pick. Okay, so my first pick is hundreds of beavers, and like any good movie on Tobe, when you're describing it to people, it should sound like you're making it up as you go. Yes. So it is a black and white slapstick comedy with video game logic. It is not from the 20s. It came out in 2024. It is made for I believe $150,000 by a indie filmmaker Mike Cheslick. It was filmed in Michigan and rural Wisconsin. Woo! The Pride of Wisconsin. One of the prides of Wisconsin, George. One of the many prides. One of the many prides of a beautiful state. So it is the story of a farmer who is plagued by beavers, played by members of the crew in these bad mascot outfits. They're not going for realism at all. It's all. all like very cartoony, very slapstick. And it's just farmer for two plus hours trying to kill as many beavers as possible.

It looks like a Charlie Chaplin movie. And it's just one of those like beautiful things that you would never see on Netflix. Peacock would never. It is so funny. And yeah, and I love that like websites like 2B are the places where this kind of thing thrives. You know, it's something a little weirder. It's something for, you know, somebody who wants something a little more off the beaten path. And we should note here, like, this movie was not made for Tooby.

It's just that Tooby is often a home for more esoteric titles. Yeah. This qualifies as an esoteric title. And something else I like about Tooby is that they do have a lot of great classics. Like, the last time I checked, Tooby is the place where you can watch The Apartment. The hundreds of beavers of their day. Of course, yes. And yeah.

And I think that's why it is such a fun website because it feels like you're browsing a video store in the 80s or 90s, you know? You know, it was kind of what streaming was when it started. And now it feels like, you know, when you go on a streaming site, they just kind of push their latest originals and maybe they have some weirder stuff. But it's buried kind of deep within the algorithm. But yeah, Tooby just has this feeling of like, what is this? Hundreds of what? Okay. You know, you can just press play as long as you're fine.

with a bunch of car insurance ads that are a little louder than the movie. I get the same six, like, progressive and, like, Trevago ads on loop. Right. Well, it's like anybody where you watch something kind of esoteric on cable somewhere, and it's like, wow, Sky Rizzi really bought into this one. Yes. You know, and you just wind up seeing the same Sky Rizzi ad twice in the same commercial break or whatever. Yeah.

So, yeah, there's a little bit of that for sure. And you're 100 to Beaver is just a great example of, like, You're just flipping around. You're like, what is this? I think I've heard of this. Now, Rihanna, you are also a hundreds of Beaver's fan, correct? I saw it in theaters, actually. I saw it at like a local independent theater in Los Angeles.

Shout out the Lumier Music Hall. I was the only person in the screening. It was just me. But that's the beauty about To Be picking up these movies, you know, and curating their catalog is that browsing on it and picking, you know, I ran the movie, it feels like you're getting like a curated screening. It's a movie that feels like it should be given to you by somebody else. And that's like you have to watch hundreds of beavers.

Yeah, it's like something someone showed you in like a dorm room, your freshman year of college. Like someone had a VHS tape that was hand labeled. And I always think about when I'm browsing on Tooby, I think about when I was a kid and we would go to Kmart. If we would behave, there was a. a bin of VHS tapes by the cash register. And it was like random cartoons. It was a lot of Godzilla movies. A lot of public domain. A lot of public domain. Like celebrity workout tapes. And I'm like, Tube is if that bin became a website. But I do agree with Rihanna. It's like it's kind of a curated madness, you know? Curated madness. I'm here for it. All right. So Jordan, you recommended

hundreds of beavers. Rihanna, give us your first. recommendation. All right. So something I think that is amazing about Tobe as we've been talking about is its recommendation algorithm specifically. I mean, maybe it's because I use Tobey all the time. It's my number one streaming service, but it knows me so well in a way that I really, really love. And so a couple years ago, it thrust this movie into my feed and is really like one of the most me movies I've ever seen. It's called Mamba Italiano. And, and, And it is basically like a 2000s gay rom-com kind of similar to but I'm a cheerleader. This character, Angelo, is the son of Italian immigrants, one of whom is played by Paul Sorvino

and is trying to come out as gay to his parents while also dating his Italian best friend, Nino, who doesn't want to come out of the closet. And so hijinks ensue. Things have changed slightly in the landscape of, like, gay movies and gay content since the first time I watched it. But I thought at the time it was refreshing, and it still is, to have a gay movie that felt, a real, but also healthy. It's a very healthy movie. It's very sweet. Honestly, like, my mom's Italian, and it made me really connect to those characters.

I saw like real lived in quirks saturated in this movie. It's really, really sweet. It's shot so lovely. It's really oversaturated in technicolor. It kind of plays like a sitcom a little bit. Like the humor is very sitcom-esque. The blocking is very sitcom-esque. But it's funny.

And that's the thing. It's like I think it's Paul Sorvino's best role. He plays Angelo's dad. He's hilarious. I need more people to see this movie because, it spoke to me and it's very underseen. You had me at D, but I'm a cheerleader comparison. Yeah.

That's great. Well, I watched it and I was like, that feels like the closest conduit. Like, it's very like plotted by the books 2000s rom-com, but I really loved it. It feels like the characters have real motivations. It feels like it reflects real life honestly. And I love a coming out of the closet comedy and this checks off all my boxes. So one thing I love about this pick, kind of in relation to Jordan's first pick, is like Jordan's first pick is an esoteric movie that gives you exactly what its title suggests. Your first pick is a movie that sounds generic in one way, but you would never necessarily glean what it's about from the title.

Like the title might as well be, that's a moray. Exactly. The moon hit my eye. Right, exactly. So that title, I would look at that title and be like, okay, I know what that is. Right. But I would not think what you just described. So that's a good example of a movie that a lot of people who would enjoy that movie are going to miss it because the title suggests something that's not. Well, right. And the poster is like a terribly photoshopped, like, classic 2000s comedy font. Like, I don't really know even why I clicked on it, like how it found me. But that's the thing. Like I said earlier, like Tubey's algorithm is honestly really good and really based because it gives me things that I think.

You use the word based on ironically in the year 2026. I'm very impressed. Yeah, it is based. It is based. Toby's algorithms based. So yeah, Mamba Italiano, great flick. Nice. All right. Thank you, Rihanna. All right, Jordan, hit me with your second pick. Yeah, so I don't think we could do this segment without mentioning at least one Nick Cage movie. I would say that Nick Cage's movies compose probably 30% of Toobie's content. So there's a lot.

As opposed to only 15% in the actual world. Right. Yes, exactly. So slightly overrepresented on Tooby. The man loves to work. My favorite Nick Cage movie currently on Tooby is Color Out of Space. And this is a cosmic horror, body horror movie. I think it's based on an HP Lovecraft story.

Nick Cage as an alpaca farmer. Of course. And again, typecast. Typecast as always. Yeah, that old chestnut. A kind of a psychedelic meteor lands on his property. And things go bananas from there. There's a lot of, like, great gore.

There's a lot of, like, great practical makeup effects. It's really trippy. It's really funny and weird. It's very shocking. And it's definitely one of those Nick Cage movies. Like, I'm thinking of pig. I'm thinking of the unbearable weight of massive talent. He's always fun to watch, but sometimes the movie around him isn't matching what he's doing, you know?

And occasionally, like, the movie meets him where he's at. and it just works. That sounds awesome. You know, funny, it was directed by Richard Stanley, who was the original director of the Island of Dr. Moreau, starring Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando. He was booted off the movie. It's a whole wild story. That was a misbegotten film.

Yes, a famous bomb. And, yeah, and this is his, like, movie back, and it's, like, wild and Cage is just Cajun all over the place. He's at 10, but the movie is also at 10. And I think that's why it works so well. It's just a hoot. If you're looking for kind of a midnight movie, if you're looking for something to watch with other horrors, sickos,

the color out of space is a great choice. Sweet. All right. Color out of space. Rihanna, you got one more pick. Give it to me. All right. I think we'd be remiss to talk about To Be and not talk about its repository and support of black cinema.

They have Tobey originals made by creators who, like, very clearly have no money but have a vision that they want to put out into the world. I've seen many of these movies, Sugar Mama, et cetera, et cetera. But it also has a really large catalog of vintage black exploitation movies. To Be is really great at holding these genre flicks and kind of giving them space to shine. And so I bring you today the 1977, Rudy Ruey. Ray Moore movie, Pedy Wheatstra, aka P.D. Weechdra, the devil's son-in-law. And Rudy Ray Moore, he was Dolomite. He was Dolomite. He was the human tornado. He was Disco Godfather. We have to mention avenging Disco Godfather. I love Disco Godfather. I almost

recommend the Disco Godfather. But Petey Reacher, I think, is a little bit more wacky. A deeper cut. Yeah. Pedy is a stand-up comedian and has beef with another duo of comics named Leroy and Skillet. Basically, Leroy and Skillet are in debt to the mob and need to make up their money through putting on a stand-up show. But P.D. is a much more popular. He's much funnier. He's having an event on the same night.

Leroy and Skillet ask him to move the event. P.D. says no. They kill him. And this is where things get a little wonky, right? And you get the title involved because P.D. goes to hell, meets the devil, aka Lucifer. Oh, that's good. Oh, boy. Yeah.

Promises Pity his life back under one condition. He marries the devil's, quote unquote, ugly daughter to give him a grandson. And then he goes back to Earth. He has, like, the devil's cane, which causes havoc. Every single thing I could tell you about this movie does not do it justice. Like, I could sit here and be like, it's not really a comedy. It's a surreal, almost lynchy in horror. He has his own funky feature.

theme song, Pity Weech Straw. It's awesome. The first scene in the movie is Pity Weech Straw delivering like a rhyming prolog as what he does in Dolomite. He just rhymes and delivers these like lovely sayings. There's a graphic reenactment of P.D. Weech Straw's birth in which he comes out as a fully sized child. There's some genuinely horrifying images in this movie. And yet it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I love Rudy Ray Moore movies. I think he's one of America's most innovative and forward-thinking gifts to the cinematic medium, frankly. And I think P.D. Weed Straw is the clear example of that. So cult cinema, if you are a cult cinema person, if you are of a certain age and traded VHS tapes with your dirtbag buddies, we are recommending

To Be as a medium as a source. But again, you can watch the apartment on there. You can absolutely go on there and watch the apartment. That's right. This is not troma.com. This is not like specifically just cult cinema. And I do think it is like really great for a certain kind of movie lover who wants to watch the apartment but also wants to watch Pity Wheat Straw. Right.

And that's what I love about it is that like I watch a lot of B and C tier genre movies. I could search the word shark on 2B and have 30,000 shark movies at my disposal to watch. I love that and that's why I love the platform so much. Nick Cage is on 2B a lot, but just below him is I and Zering. But I could see an Ionzearing movie

and then I could go on letterbox to whatever and search up like some five star foreign flick that I've never seen and that'll be on 2B as well. and if you could get over, you know, the Sky Rizzy ads. The Sky Rizzy of it all. Every 20 minutes. Like, it's a beautiful watch. And I don't know.

I love the free ad support of television streamers because they give me like the feelings of scrolling on cable, you know, and flipping through the channels. It's basically just free basic cable. Yeah. And everything at my disposal is so epic and awesome. They don't just have one beaver. They have hundreds of them. All right.

Well, we want to know. What are your favorite movies that you have found on, Tooby? Find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash PCH. That brings us to the end of our show. Rianna Cruz, Jordan Morris. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having us. Yeah, this is a blast.

This episode was produced by Liz Metzker, Kayla Latimore, and Mike Katzif, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In, provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next time.