A really damn good Tubi movie.

I have a tendency to rate Tubi movies on a scale of “for a Tubi movie,” meaning I don’t expect a lot out of them. For example Night of the Caregiver was crappy even for a Tubi movie. Covid 420 was unsurprising yet enjoyable for a Tubi movie. And Miracle Valley was really good for a Tubi movie. Cinnamon is a really good movie, and not just “for a Tubi movie” but for any movie in general. And it’s a bonafide Tubi original.

Cinnamon was directed by Bryian Keith Montgomery Jr., a name that in addition to being really long is probably familiar if you’ve seen 2015’s “Lori Sheedy, Fuck You”. I haven’t. Montgomery Jr. also wrote the movie.

The film stars the fantastic Hailey Kilgore as Jodi Jackson, a gas station worker looking to break out of town and make it big as a singer. She’s also a very talented singer, don’t you know. Jodi gets wrapped up in a bad business partnership between Wally (Damon Wayans) and James Walker (Jeremie Harris) who own the gas station she works at. To top things off, Jodi is the victim of a robbery at the gas station and now James is pretty sure she and her Puerto Rican prince Eddie (David Iacono) are involved in the whole thing. In other words, a story you and I can probably relate to.

Can they make it out alive? Why not, it’s a movie after all.

It isn’t rare that I find films where a specific actor drags everything down, like Bruce Willis in most films where he has a supporting or cameo role or everyone not named Bryan Cranston in Godzilla. It isn’t that often that I find almost the entire cast of a film this charismatic and interesting. You can point to any of the main characters in this film, and there are a lot of them, and they’ve got a pretty fleshed out story.

Oh and Damon Wayans is in this film, in case you forgot. He does do serious films from time to time. Lauren Buglioli does a great job as Heather, Wally’s white woman. I don’t know why Dan Lauria gets such high billing as Mario, the greasy Italian pizza man who shows up for all of two minutes. Rafael Castillo is here as is working man L. Warren Young and Jay DeVon Johnson, among others.

I think my favorite side character is Nicole Sky as Toni, the constantly horny pizza delivery lady. She has a lot of confidence and it really shows in her character when she’s talking about banging the dudes she delivers pizza to. And they are hungry.

And it’d be insulting of me to list off the cast without mentioning that they got none other than Pam Grier herself on top billing. You may recognize Pam Grier from her radio station in Grand Theft Auto V, the original live action Amanda Waller on Smallville, Ms. Wardroe in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and of course 1974’s Foxy Brown and a bunch of films from that era. Pam Grier plays Mama, the head of the family who radiates intimidation whenever she’s in the room. Nobody sleepwalks through this film, but Pam Grier had me on the edge of my seat every time the camera focused on her.

It’s rare I say this about a Tubi movie, but at an hour and a half this film was way too short. There’s so much happening and you get invested in the characters and plot and action and backstabbing that the next thing you know the film is wrapping up its third act and it’s all over. It feels like the film is constantly sprinting throughout the runtime and honestly I think they could have fleshed it out to at least two hours and still kept it interesting.

Cinnamon has everything I want out of a movie. Cowboys, beautiful women, gunfights, Pam Grier. Damn I love Pam Grier. A chick with drive who don’t take no jive. Watch more Pam Grier movies.

Rating: A