Tubi, a new free streaming platform, launched in the UK this week in the UK. Owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, the ad-supported platform founded a decade ago in the US has been slowly growing its user numbers: according to Fox it now has close to 80 million monthly active users.
Thinking about joining Tubi but not sure what’s on offer? Given that the streamer is launching with 20,000 TV series and films, we’ve picked out some of our favourites below (listed in no particular order).
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (series 1 to 3, 2013-2014)
We miss Anthony – what we’d do for more of his darkly humorous and philosophical musings. This is the next best thing: old series of his food-travel series, where the chef-turned-presenter travels the world, trying food, meeting locals and soaking in the culture.
Insomnia (2002)
One of Christopher Nolan’s earlier films, this excellent thriller stars Al Pacino as a hardened LAPD detective sent to help with the investigation of a grisly murder of a teenage girl in a remote area of Alaska. He faces real issues when his primary suspect, Walter Finch (Robin Williams) starts playing psychological games.
Cruel Intentions (1999)
This romance thriller, featuring a very young Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair and Sarah Michelle Gellar, is a modern update of 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The tone remains the same: everyone is still as cruel and insufferable in Nineties New York as wealthy high school kids play games and manipulate each other.
Stephen Fry in America (2008)
This BBC six-parter, where Stephen Fry travels through all 50 US states (most of the time in a Black Cab for extra effect), is huge fun, as he meets a variety of characters and shares illuminating clips of the US’s massively varying cultures and extraordinary landscapes.
Kill Bill: Vol.1 (2003)
Uma Thurman plays assassin Beatrice ‘the Bride’ Kiddo in this electric martial arts film from Quentin Tarantino. Now a cult classic – how could it not be when Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A Fox are in her assassin squad – the story follows Bride’s revenge antics after her colleagues try to kill her.
The Borrowers (1997)
This fantastic kids film, based on Mary Norton’s 1952 book, still works for grown ups. After all, who hasn’t become infuriated by the disappearance of belongings inside one’s own home? Norton’s answer was simple: there are tiny people living in your walls and floor borrowing your stuff. This film adaptation stars the great John Goodman as a full-sized person who loses his rag.
The Beguiled (2017)
This gothic thriller from Sofia Coppola, based on Thomas P Cullinan's 1966 novel, is set in a school in Virginia in 1864, during the Civil War. When injured Union army soldier Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell) is found on the property, the few remaining teachers (played by Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst) aren’t sure what to do. They decide to take him in – a decision which unleashes a terrible chain of events.
