Constance (Ashley Love-Mills) wants to be famous, but her boyfriend and manager, Lucas (Donovan Carter), is bad at his job. She wants a showcase with Arbor Way Records’ Tyree (Barton Fitzpatrick) and J Money (Jamal Lloyd Johnson), but they laugh in his face. However, she talks them into giving her a chance but be careful about what you wish for.

Darla (Lauren Darlene) had been at the label for some time, and she tried to warn Constance and her fellow new girl on the block, V Shaw (Miah Blake). She’s unhoused now and addicted to drugs, so they don’t believe her. But didn’t the opening of this movie show someone else getting killed? Maybe this recording career isn’t safe.

Poor Constance. First, she’s in a three-person band called Gemini singing a song called “Loosey Pussy,” then she’s having music executives try to steal her from her man; then, by the middle of the movie, everyone around her starts getting murdered.

Directed by Kevin Arbouet (Gridiron Grind) and written by Briana Cole (Sugar Mama) and Patricia Cuffie-Jones (who wrote Immortal City Records, which is nearly the same movie as this one), this wants to be the story of Diddy, yet it skips the filth and baby oil. I wanted it to be as unhinged as the best Tubi Originals, yet it stayed in the world of the expected.

You can watch this on Tubi.

This Tubi Original comes from director Victoria Drew (Love You to Death: Mommy’s Missing) and writer Savannah Lucas (Viewer Discretion Advised: The Story of OnlyFans and Courtney Clenney, Scariest Monsters In the World) and is all about Lonnie David Franklin Jr., known as the Grim Sleeper because, unlike many serial killers, he took a break from killing for 14 years before starting again. He was convicted for the murders of nine women and one teenage girl.

His crimes may have started in 1974 when he was in the Army. A 17-year-old girl in West Germany was assaulted by Franklin and two other soldiers while he took photos. After she told him she wanted to see him again, he gave her his phone number, which is how he was caught.

The Grim Sleeper’s crimes were a big deal in the 1980s when he was known as the Southside Slayer and committed the Strawberry Murders, which was a code word for sex workers who did hard drugs. The killer only came for black women in South Central Los Angeles, and the police may not have warned them enough of the danger. By 1987, when the case went cold, the Los Angeles Police Department. They believed that there could be as many as four serial killers committing these crimes.

Today, it’s believed that some clients of these sex workers could have killed these women unrelated to the overall crimes. At the same time, serial killer Louis Craine committed at least two of the murders, and Daniel Lee Siebert, Chester Turner, Ivan Hill and Michael Hughes killed one victim. Yet seven victims were all killed with a .25 caliber gun, and the murderer was never found.

In 2007, Janecia Peters’ murder — and the DNA analysis that didn’t exist in the past — led to evidence in at least eleven unsolved murders. LA Weekly reporter Christine Pelisek reported on this case extensively and even interviewed the sole survivor, Enietra Washington, who described Franklin, who was on unsupervised probation and didn’t have to add his DNA to the national database.

How did they catch him? He did this by getting his saliva off the pizza crust where he worked. When they searched his home, they immediately found over 180 photos of victims — some unknown — were found. By the end of the searches, 1,000 or more photos and several hundred hours of videos of his victims were found.

This Tubi Original may not tell true crime fans anything new, but it certainly will get you started if you don’t know the entire story. What’s crazy is that there are so many murders — including the crimes of the Belize Ripper — that Franklin may have been responsible for. He died in prison in 2020 with no signs of trauma.

You can watch this on Tubi.

In February of 2018, Patrick De La Cerda was shot four times when he answered the front door, thinking that a package had arrived. He thought it was an engagement ring for his fiancée, Jessica Devnani. Instead, he found death.

According to Devnani, her ex-boyfriend, Gregory Bender, was responsible. They already had a restraining order against him after hundreds of abusive calls and messages. A judge made Bender turn over his extensive gun collection. The calls stopped until one night. The same night that De La Cerda was murdered.

Bender’s ex-wife, Daymara Sanchez — he was dating Devnani while married to her — found a notebook with the entire plan, which she gave to the police. The notebook pages had De La Cerda’s address, drawings of his home, and notes on how to enter and leave without being seen.

In May of 2021, Bender was found guilty of first-degree murder and is now in prison, doing a life sentence. This Tubi Original, directed by Victoria Duley (who has made several Tubi true crime stories) and written by Curtis Paine, explains the events of this case and how the law got justice for De La Cerda.

You can watch this on Tubi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jye9dIrxLt4

Will there be a psychic — Beatrice (Roma Maffia) — who was part of the original events that cursed this necklace? Will the children be in supernatural danger? Will it be set in the 60s and have some of that Conjuring feel? Will there be a seance? Will there be a mid-credits tease of a sequel? How many possession movies do I watch a year?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. At least six hundred and sixty-five.

Director Juan Pablo Arias Munoz and writer John Ducey give you what you want from a movie like this, but this is very much a grandma who knows you like Ed and Lorraine Warren movies,s. Hence, she bought you the new one without knowing it has nothing to do with them. That said, this is a Warner Bros. movie, and in another time and place, perhaps pre-pandemic, this would be a January theater movie, orphaned in a time when no one goes out to the movies, but then again, no one at all goes to the movies these days.

A tip to men: Don’t give your estranged wife murder jewelry.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Ruby (Elizabeth Gillies) has had her life subsidized by her mom and dad (Diedrich Bader, as always great), as well as her roommate Whitney (Dia Frampton) telling her that she can’t afford her rent any longer. But now, the cash is running out, and she has to find a job quickly. And that brings her to Spread magazine, which is run by Frank (Harvey Keitel), who is a combination of Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt. The magazine is dying, as print is on the way out, so even if she hates this job, it won’t last long. And if all that isn’t the worst, she’s just been dumped by her boyfriend, Orson (Jonah Platt).

While the idea of revolutionizing porn for women isn’t new — Candida Royalle did it decades before — Spread is the kind of movie I like, as it’s very much a “hijinks ensue” film. Easy subject — bright but undriven girl finds herself working for a porn magazine. And hijinksensuee.

Directed by Ellie Kanner and written by Buffy Charlet, this has a good cast, which makes these movies work. Keitel is, as always, better than the movie he’s in. Teri Polo is excellent as Prudence, the secretary who keeps Spread in advertising money. Tim Rozon, Doc Holiday from Wynonna Earp, is the money man who wants to close it all down. Diora Baird is Xtasy, the ex-porn star and now agent who becomes Ruby’s new mom. And for a movie about the porn industry, this is very chaste, other than having a dildo closet.

That said, its lead learns essential lessons, and despite that much-hated downer third act, it all comes together. I miss silly sex comedies, so I probably liked this more than if it came out in the genre’s glory days. But hey, I’ll take what I can get. That said, I still wonder. Who is buying print porn today?

You can watch this on Tubi.

Based on the comic book series by Beau Smith, Wynonna Earp was a four-season SyFy series in which Melanie Scrofano played Wynonna, the great-great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp, who came back home to fight the demonic ghosts of the outlaws her ancestor killed all those years ago. A few years later, Earp and her Peacemaker are back, as are several of the characters, in a movie from Tubi that finishes off some of the show’s storylines.

This starts with Wynonna’s sister, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), enjoying married life with her wife, Deputy Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell) and Wynonna and Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon,) trying to figure out their relationship as they run scams at casinos, just in time for Mina (Karen Knox), a girl from the group home where Wynonna grew up and who has spent twenty years in Hell and wants revenge, to show up and start killing people.

I never watched the series that this is based on, but I liked the characters enough here that I both want td see why fans were upset by some of the decisions made in this film. Directed by Paolo Barzman (the son of blacklisted writer Ben Barzman, who wrote The Boy with Green Hair ), who directed 21 episodes of the series, and written by Emily Andras, the showrunner of the original show, this made me want to make up for the fact that I skipped watching its inspiration. Hopefully, Tubi can make more than just this one film and return to Purgatory.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Michael Jai White has been a dependable action hero for years. He’s never reached the JCVD or Dolph level, but he’s always there when we needed him.

Originally known as Sunset Superman—yes, named for a Dio song, which is in the movie—it was directed and written by Jason Krawczyk, who also made He Never Died.

White plays JT, who just wants to get drunk and spend his military retirement hanging out with his grandmother (Jackie Richardson). To pass the time, he works for Trusted Trays, delivering meals to other older people and stopping men in pig masks from breaking into his Grandma’s house. These home invaders are almost all idiots, led by scrap owner Stan (Billy Zane, wearing a goofy mustache), who wants the copper pipes in the house, not anything important. JT keeps drinking and uses this time to bond with Rufus, her grandmother’s dog, who hates him for most of the movie. But after all they go through, they end up becoming pals.

As for Grandma, she doesn’t see or hear any of it. Maybe she should move closer to JT, whose life is so quiet these days that he’s trying to pick up the female henchpeople who are breaking into the house. I enjoyed this because it never takes itself seriously while giving opportunities for character development. It seems like everyone in it was having a great time making it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Let me suggest that if you’re flying to Texas, take the time to watch as many movies on the plane as you can. I’d wanted to see Reagan for some time and figured there was no better way to watch it than on an iPhone screen while trapped thousands of miles above the Earth, wedged between two people at 6:10 AM, while all I had to eat was packages of Biscoff cookies delivered by air hostesses.

Based on Paul Kengor’s 2006 book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, this starts as Russian politician Andrei Novikov (Alex Sparrow) arrives at the home of former KGB agent Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight) to learn why America defeated Communism. But did we? Oh well — let’s just go with it, right?

Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid; also Tommy Ragen and David Henrie when he was a kid) is the son of a mean drunk and a saint (Jennifer O’Neill!) who becomes a born-again Christian, lifeguard, radio announcer and, eventually, movie star. Despite losing his status as a leading man, he becomes the President of the Screen Actor’s Guild and battles the commies as they try to take over Hollywood. Horrible people like Dalton Trumbo (Sean Hankinson) and union bosses. This costs him his marriage to Jane Wyman (Mena Suvari), but he soon rebounds into the arms of Nancy (Penelope Ann Miller) and begins his political career.

Along the way, we get cameos from all sorts of Hollywood stars, as if this were The Greatest Story Ever Told 2K24, but instead about Reagan. Robert Davi? You’re Leonid Brezhnev. Olek Krupa, the bad guy from Eraser and Home Alone 3? Gorbachev. Dan Lauria is Tip O’Neill. Lesley-Anne Down is Margaret Thatcher. C. Thomas Howell as Caspar Weinberger. Pastor George K. Otis, who foresaw that Reagan would become President if he “walked uprightly” before God? It’s Pat Boone, in a scene with Chris Massoglia playing Pat Boone, that threatens the space-time continuum. Darci Lynn, who has been credited with the revival of ventriloquism, is a drowning girl. Kevin Sorbo is a holy man! Scott Stapp from Creed is Old Blue Eyes! What? Yes!

John G. Avildsen died before he could make this. The director of Joe, Rocky and A Night in Heaven? You have no idea how much I wish that had happened. Instead, Sean McNamara, the man who made Bratz, came in.

The first cut of this was 3 hours and 40 minutes, and yes, I always complain about long movies, but I want that version. Give us The Gipper cut. My favorite part of this, however, is the people being mean to Reagan montage, as people hold up Silence=Death si, guns and see most of the Genesis video for “Land of Confusion.”

Regan was shot in Oklahoma due to a state tax rebate launched in 2020, as well as lighter COVID-19 restrictions. For some reason, there was a COVID-19 outbreak amongst the crew during the shooting, which used the Temple of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry as The White House. Nothing to see there.

The soundtrack to this is something else. There’s contemporary Christian artist — and Youngstown, OH native and member of Glass Harp — Phil Keaggy playing “Sweet Child O’ Mine;” Bob Dylan covering Cole Porter’s “Don’t Fence Me In;” Robert Davi singing Lee Hazelwood’s “This Town” and “Nancy With the Laughing Face;” a Clint Black take on “Take Me Home, Country Roads;” Scott Stapp’s “Swinging on a Star” and Gene Simmons performing “Stormy Weather.”

Kitty Kelly’s sexual revelations about Nancy Reagan never come up. And Scott Baio isn’t in this. Otherwise, 200 stars out of 5.

Flying into Texas, looking for a movie to watch, I saw this description: “The story of a group of teenagers in small-town Texas who unleash a deadly force after playing the famous game in an abandoned house where a grisly massacre once took place.”

I never played Spin the Bottle as a teenager because I was building the database in my brain that enables me to write for you every day, dear reader, giving you the facts that you didn’t need about nudie cuties and foreign ripoffs. I didn’t have seven minutes in heaven, but I can also tell you about Mamie Van Doren and Mickey Hargitay.

Somehow, this movie was two hours and four minutes, which is about an hour too long.

Cole Randell (Tanner Stine) has just moved to Houston, a place where his mentally ill mother Maura (Ali Larter) lives. Back in 1978, in his family home, there was a massacre, so of course, that’s where he’s going to live. Being a popular high schooler, he’s also going to get another kissing part– not a rainbow party; do you remember when people were worried about that? — going and another demon is going to kill everyone because, yes, that’s what I signed up for while my life was in the hands of the cockpit on this flight.

Cole makes the football team, and despite his mother telling him Don’t Look In the Basement — a much better Texas horror movie — he’s soon down there making kissy faces with Kasey (Kaylee Kaneshiro), Milla (Ryan Whitney) and Sophie (Angela Halili) despite the fact that horrific events once happened there. Maybe he likes having a fear boner?

Justin Long shows up as the sheriff, who is also the father of Kasey and worried about this new boy in town, while Tony Amendola plays the priest, who has ties to the last massacre and exists only to give us exposition.

This feels like the 2000s PG-13 horror cycle, when movies existed for only a week ann disappeared mercifully, forever. Chop it in half, show some of the killings and make it weird, not dull. I realize that’s easy for me to say, not having made it and going through all the work, but I don’t know how anyone would be pleased with what this ended up being.

I love watching movies on airplanes. Yes, part of it is sad that a creator makes a movie with hundreds of people, and I experience it on a small screen with minimal audio, but on the other hand, I concentrate more on the films that I watch while high in the clouds than I do those on the ground. I had a plethora of choices, and I decided, “Hey, Blumhouse.”

Chris Weitz may be better known for About a Boy and American Pie than horror movies. He also made The Golden Compass and The Twilight Saga: New Moon and wrote Star Wars: Rogue One.

As this begins, we meet Maude (Riki Lindhome from Garfunkle and Oates), Henry (Greg Hill) and their daughter Aimee, who have started using an AI house program, AIA. Their daughter goes missing, and Maude is attacked after the AI stops listening to them.

We don’t hear of AIA again until her creators — Melody (Havana Rose Liu), Lightning (David Dastmalchian) and Sam (Ashley Romans) — come to meet him at the ad agency where Curtis (John Cho) works. They want to get people over their fear of AI and prove it’s harmless. He’s given his own AIA unit to use with his family — wife Meredith (Katherine Waterston), daughter Iris (Lukita Maxwell) and song Cal (Isaac Bae) — to see how it changes their lives.

For the most part, it’s positive. It diagnoses that Cal has atrial fibrillation and helps Iris get out of trouble when her boyfriend posts a deepfake sex video of her. Yet it starts to feel like AIA is taking over their lives, especially when it recreates Meredith’s deceased father (Keith Carradine, totally playing a John Carradine role) in virtual spirit form. The problem? They can’t turn off AIA any longer, and she begins to activate the real people she now controls, like Melody and two videoscreen-faced killers who live in a van that end up being Maude and Henry from the beginning, convinced that Curtis’ family is some Pizzagate child slavery group.

This was a $12 million low-budget film that made $13 million, so it was exactly what it should have been: a profitable little movie that ended up being better than it should be due to its cast. Dastmalchian adds something to every role he plays, and Cho and Waterson are great as the couple trapped in their own lives by an unseen intelligence. The end is pretty ridiculous but also prescient, if that makes sense. In short, it was a success; it helped a West to-East flight pass quickly.