3 movie masterpieces hidden away on Tubi right now

The old adage “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” is true. Nothing is ever truly free. There is, however, such a thing as “free with ads,” like on the ever-growing streaming service Tubi, whose voluminous library seems to grow by the minute.

While that’s certainly nothing to complain about, it can be overwhelming to figure out what to watch on Tubi, so we’ve pulled out three true masterpieces from its catalog — two comedic films and one bit of stick-in-your-head, potentially nightmare-inducing psychological horror. Hopefully, the former will help counteract the latter.

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Death to Smoochy

Death to Smoochy was panned by critics, regarded it as nothing more than a crude, 90-minute “I hate Barney” joke, when it hit theaters in 2002.who And while the film definitely has an axe to grind with a certain purple dinosaur, it also has a lot more to offer thanks to director Danny DeVito and his unconventional use of his two leads.

Death to Smoochy delves into an absurdly seedy world of children’s television where the number one star is Rainbow Randolph (Robin Willams), a greedy, unscrupulous song-and-dance man who gets busted early in the film for accepting a bribe from some parents who want their kid featured on his show. The bust leads to the immediate cancellation of The Rainbow Randolph Show and the unraveling of his mental state. He only becomes further deranged when his timeslot is taken over by Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), a cornball who dresses up as a character named Smoochy the Rhino. The only solution, according to Rainbow Randolph, is to kill Smoochy.

First and foremost, Death to Smoochy contains all the best hallmarks of a DeVito-directed comedy. Like Matilda, it has broad, snappy, hilarious characters. Like Throw Momma from the Train — which is about a pair of guys who swap murders for each other — Death to Smoochy has a pitch-black premise that’s handled playfully. Also like Throw Momma from the Train — which ended with both would-be killers becoming published authors — Death to Smoochy rewards its horrible-yet-lovable characters with an absurdly unwarranted, yet still somehow appropriate, happy ending.

DeVito’s best move in Death to Smoochy though was his casting, particularly of Norton and Williams. Norton’s always been a chameleon, able to disappear to whatever role that’s been handed to him, yet it’s still surprising to see a guy capable of such intensity play a happy-go-lucky kid’s show host. Meanwhile, Williams is doing a few of the things we’ve seen him do before, but not all in the same place, like he’s a chef using familiar ingredients to create a new recipe. He’s loud, emotional and improv-y while also being dark and conniving as he’s losing his grip on sanity. The result is one of Williams’ best and most memorable performances, which says a lot for a guy with that many beloved characters.

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A Shot in the Dark

Peter Sellers truly was a comedic genius thanks to his funny, unmistakably unique characters as well as his technically perfect physical comedy work. And while Dr. Strangelove is mid-century star’s best movie, his most famous character remains the stupid, bumbling, unshakably confident French detective Inspector Jacques Clouseau from the various Pink Panther films.

Clouseau debuted in the 1963 ensemble heist film The Pink Panther, but that was more of a vehicle for David Niven than Sellers. Seller was just the breakout character, so they gave Clouseau his own series of films that featured titles like The Return of the Pink Panther and The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Most of these same-y sounding titles used the Pink Panther name to let the audience know that Clouseau was in these movies, despite the fact that “The Pink Panther” was just the jewel that was being heisted in the first film and only occasionally was shoehorned into the sequels.

Sellers played Clouseau in six different films but… most of them aren’t very good. While Sellers’ work as Clouseau was always meticulously executed and often, truly laugh-out-loud, most of the mysteries the Inspector is solving plod along, then stop for some brilliant piece of physical comedy, then they resume their ho-hum plot. Even the original Pink Panther, which at least has a coherent story, is a little sleepy when Sellers isn’t on screen.

Sellers was, however, in one truly great movie with his signature character, one that contained all the precise physical comedy of the others while also being a satisfying mystery story — 1964’s A Shot in the Dark. Like all of Sellers’ Pink Panther films, A Shot in the Dark was directed by Blake Edwards. It centered on the murder of a chauffeur in a country home with a list of wealthy suspects. What’s interesting about A Shot in the Dark is that it wasn’t meant to feature Clouseau. It was a preexisting story that had been a successful play by Harry Kurnitz, which he’d adapted from a French play. But, with Clouseau’s breakout performance, The Mirisch Company wanted to put Clouseau in another film right away so they replaced a play’s pre-existing detective with Clouseau.

Earning just $12 million, A Shot in the Dark was only a modest success, which is why the “Pink Panther” name was used for all the sequels. The scheme worked too, as the next film with Sellers as Clouseau, 1975’s The Return of the Pink Panther, earned a whopping $75 million despite the fact that it wasn’t nearly as good as A Shot in the Dark.

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The Babadook

Every year there are lots of good horror films that are made as the genre seems to increasingly be the only one where a mid-budget original idea can break through and become a hit, even in movie theaters. It’s still somewhat rare though that a really great horror character breaks through and transcends its own film. It happened in 2025 with Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys in Weapons and in 2014 it was the mysterious Babadook.

The Australian film The Babadook was a psychological horror film where a grieving widow and her son are terrorized by a shadowy monster named the Babadook who they first hear about from an old book of mysterious origin. That magnetic, memorable monster name combined with the German Expressionistic visuals of a top-hat wearing evil force made up of distorted shadows, The Babadook seemed to be based on something old, like some bit of folklore or like it truly was from some old book. But no, it was the original creation of Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent who wrote and directed the film, adapting an earlier short film she made.

Just watch The Babadook and you’ll see why the titular character is truly a monster for the ages. It’ll stick in our head along with the opening line from the in-movie book “If it’s in a word, or it’s in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook.”