July 2024

Popular movies and meat monsters

Author

Chance Shirley
July 05, 2024

My first recommendation for July isn’t a sci-fi movie. But I am extra excited that Make Popular Movies, a fun and quirky meta movie about self-important filmmakers, is on Tubi. Because I am friendly with one of the movie’s stars, John Gholson. Aside from being a good (and funny!) actor, John is also a comic book artist and just an all-around cool guy.

Mr. Gholson is also in Zero Charisma, a sci-fi-adjacent movie (it’s about role-playing gamers) that’s also on Tubi.

Speaking of friends’ movies, I’m also happy to recommend my pal David Cornelius’ movie Inhumanwich! It’s tough to explain Inhumanwich!, but it’s sort of an Airplane!-style sendup of 1950s creature features, made by folks who very much love 1950s creature features.

Also on Tubi…

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2022) — https://tubitv.com/movies/671945/beyond-the-infinite-two-minutes — I’ve heard good things about this indie time travel flick.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) — https://tubitv.com/movies/310137/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers — The original Body Snatchers movie is great, and this remake (the first of three) might be even better.

Jurassic Park (1993) — https://tubitv.com/movies/100003572/jurassic-park — It is wild that this movie is thirty (!) years old now, and I still don’t think anybody has topped its magical combination of practical and computer effects. It doesn’t hurt that Spielberg directed the heck out of it, Dean Cundey is a brilliant cinematographer, and the cast is uniformly perfect.

The King of Kong (2007) — https://tubitv.com/movies/100021384/the-king-of-kong-a-fistful-of-quarters — Not sci-fi, but this video game documentary is a lot of fun.

Missing Link (2019) — https://tubitv.com/movies/695331/missing-link — I really dig Laika so I don’t know why I haven’t watched this one yet.

Moonlighting — https://tubitv.com/series/300011361/moonlighting - Not sci-fi, but I’m just happy to see this classic TV show on Tubi.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) — https://tubitv.com/movies/100020044/wonder-woman-1984 — I’m not going to say this movie is great, but it has a weird Silver Age comic book vibe that I kind of dig.

On YouTube…

Apollo 13 (1995) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmJR0wCa-1s — Not science fiction, but a fictional movie about a real space mission. Smart direction and an incredible cast turn this true story into a terrific edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMVmiwt0b8c — Danger is his middle name, baby. YouTube is also streaming the sequels for free...

The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANPH7wtQ8_Y 

Batman (1966) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BeivZj9OyU — The classic 1960s Batman TV show was streaming on Tubi for a while. I really miss that. But the 1966 Batman movie is pretty great, too.

Contact (1997) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6y0mmI0N4 — I still have a soft spot for this one. It’s one of the first big movies I remember getting immediately when it came out on DVD, because I had just gotten a DVD player at the time. It's earnest and hopeful in a way I think Carl Sagan would have appreciated.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktQeTfFdPVY

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFOkCEdEaQU

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GYAqlOfML4

It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uhTlu7Ps0k

Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKmFueX8sqg — I am fond of these characters because of their appearances on the old Bullwinkle cartoon shows, so I guess I should check out this movie at some point.

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Lx9q5Cq0A

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-bHdttJ3dE

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAERiUyICuc

The Swarm (1978) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGtUUT71Y8 Disaster movie about one of the things that really scared us back in the late 1970s — killer bees. Also, I think I have a copy of this one on laserdisc.

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjbrcTq0dpE — I stopped watching Transformers movies after the third one, which is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Hopefully this one is better.

War of the Worlds (1953) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow1jE09IV3c — I still feel like this is the iconic War of the Worlds movie. I love how they changed the martian tripod walkers to hovercrafts for this one.

When Worlds Collide (1951) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_QvhHk_Yu4

On Pluto TV…

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) — https://pluto.tv/us/on-demand/movies/5ca2afe22ecfdaae4935745f/details

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) — https://pluto.tv/us/on-demand/movies/60da327bb8187f00136b07f2/details — My hot take on the Terminator movies is that the original is still the best. But Judgment Day is one of the all-time great sequels. As big-budget action blockbusters go, it’s hard to beat.

On Freevee…

Reacher (2022) — https://www.amazon.com/Reacher-Official-Trailer/dp/B09ML1QV1S — Not sci-fi, but Reacher is an awesome TV show and it is cool it is on Freevee.

On Kanopy…

Crimes of the Future (2022) — https://www.kanopy.com/product/13106280

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) — https://www.kanopy.com/product/13615084

Overlord (2018) — https://www.kanopy.com/product/14120524 — World War II troops tangle with Nazi zombie super-soldiers.

Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) — https://www.kanopy.com/product/14164877

On Hoopla…