Media Obscura - Retro and Obscure TV/Movie Reviews

Close Encounters of the Third Kind or: Full Disclosure, this rips harder than just about anything else Spielberg “I’m Mr. In Contention for being the Greatest Filmmaker of All Time” Spielberg has ever cooked up. Take that Jurassic Park! 

 On this episode of Glaring Admissions, Nick and Raekwon sit down to review and provide an analysis/retrospective on 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, t...

On this episode of Glaring Admissions, Nick and Raekwon sit down to discuss First Blood, a smart and criminally underlooked action film/thriller from 1982. In the process, they explore an interesting question: would we have been better off had we never gotten any Rambo sequels? Their conversation also covers the production history of the first Rambo movie, some insights into the alternate versions...

Wanna get full video versions of Glaring Admissions up to two weeks earlier than everyone else? You can do so by becoming a Patron/Channel Member! Links below. On this episode of Glaring Admissions, Nick busts out the movie that made Jackie Chan a star in America, Rumble in the Bronx! This episode finds him and his faithful co-host Raekwon discussing: - The differences between the US and Hong Kong...

Glaring Admissions shall return in... This podcast episode. On the final Glaring Admissions of 2024, Nick and Raekwon sit down with their friend (and original Media Obscura co-host Mike's brother) John to discuss GoldenEye! It's his first time watching a 007 movie before, and that leads to a long and playful conversation about the franchise and where he should take things from here. As for the mov...

Scream! Louder! Scream is a 1996 horror film directed by Wes Craven. It follows a group of teenagers (led by Neve Campbell) and a reporter (Courtney Cox) that are getting attacked by a killer wearing a common Halloween mask. The film is known for helping revitalize the slasher genre in the 90s and for being a deconstruction of its tropes. Despite coming out right before Christmas and not being exp...

The best movie podcast duo out there (sorry, not sorry) is back to discuss John Landis 1980 musical comedy, The Blues Brothers! Raekwon’s never seen it before and, boy oh boy, did Nick feel the need to change that. For those of you that don’t know, The Blues Brothers is a film adaptation of the popular SNL characters of the same name/real blues revue band led by Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. The f...

Nick and Raekwon are back to chat about Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick on the latest episode of Glaring Admissions! Be sure to drop your thoughts on whether or not the 2022 sequel to Top Gun can really be considered a classic already down in the comments, as well as your thoughts on the series as a whole.

Independence Day is a 1996 action/disaster blockbuster that was directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars Bill Pullman, Will Smith, and Jeff Goldblum (among many others) as humans forced to scramble to fight off an alien invasion in the days leading up to the 4th of July. The film was released to massive success back in the 90s and briefly held the title as the second highest grossing film of all time...

Mulholland Drive is a 2001 surrealist drama/mystery that was written and directed by David 'Garmonbozia' Lynch. The film stars Naomi Watts and Laura Harring as two women investigating the circumstances that brought Harring's character (Rita) to Watts' (Betty, not Betsie's, I promise) door. Along the way, surrealism happens. Ya know, Lynch stuff. Chapters: 00:00 - Opening 00:38 - Movie Trailer 01:3...

Total Recall is a 1990 Paul Verhoeven directed adaptation of the Phillip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale." It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid, a construction worker who dreams of going to Mars and stops at Rekall Incorporated to have the memories of one such trip implanted into his brain. However, something goes wrong. It appears that "Douglas"...

Introducing Glaring Admissions, a show dedicated to watching/discussing iconic, famous movies that we've somehow missed out on! Join us on our inaugural episode as we sit down and discuss Steven Speilberg's iconic 1993 action/suspense/horror classic, Jurassic Park! It's spawned *a lot* of sequels, was worked on concurrently with Schindler's List and, surprise surprise, affirms that...

Check out the full-video edit of this episode, complete with cutaways, on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscDbMTovs2Zww6by8HSDMg 1986's BMX, underdog, feel-good, teen, coming of age cult movie "Rad" is coming back to theaters this Thursday for a holiday called "Rad day" and, in preparation for it, I decided to sit down with my good friend/podcast co-host Raekwon to give t...

Media Obscura's back and, on this week's episode, we're tackling Wild Wild (ficka) Wild Wild West, the 1999 Will Smith Box Office bomb! Join Nick, Sierra & Raekwon as they reminisce about this (not so) classic 90s action comedy! It's a film they all grew up with and have some nostalgia for it, so you'll be sure to hear the good, bad and ugly about this cowboy dud. Also, if...

Nick and Raekwon (sans Sierra) tackle the 2008-2009 Terminator television series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Also, Nick loses his voice doing his Schwarzenegger impression.

Team Obscura reassembles to watch the 1990 unlicensed Dragon Ball movie, Dragon Ball: Fight Son Goku, Win Son Goku. The film centers around Son Goku's first adventure to collect the seven magical Dragon Balls and features his friends Bulma, Puar, Oolong, Master Roshi, and Yamcha as well as the evil King Pilaf and... Nappa for some reason? Oh yeah, and Nick gets Wu Tai and Wu Tang mixed up.

Team Obscura checks out the 2001 Brendan Fraser comedy "Monkeybone," directed by Peter Sellick.

The gang's back and they're looking at the 1965 Russ Meyers exploitation flick "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" on this weeks episode!

Team Obscura (re)returns after a month long hiatus due to some health/life stuff to cover the 1989 movie Earth Girls Are Easy! The movie is a musical science fiction romantic comedy that was directed by Julien Temple and follows Geena Davis as a bride-to-be as she navigates adultery, the existence of alien life, and other generally rom-com/sci fi things in a highly B-moviefied version of Los Angel...

Team Obscura chats about Richard Linklater's seminal 1990 film "Slacker," and spirals off into conversations about Linklater movies in general, education and the value of good conversation. 

Team Obscura sits down and chats about the 1978 Bruce-ploitation movie "Game of Death," a feature film built off of unused footage from an unfinished Bruce Lee movie. The gang also chats about fake Rob Schneider movies, film twitter, and the world not being the worst someday hopefully maybe please just please. Check out more episodes of Media Obscura on your podcast player of choice, or hit us up...

Team Obscura checks out the 1988 Ivan Reitman comedy film, Twins, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito! Also in this episode, the gang talks about nerd culture/the death of mid-budget movies and Nick launches into way too many middling impressions. Check out some of our other vintage and strange movie/television discussions at https://themediaobscura.com/

Team Obscura returns for their first [full] episode in over a year to cover the 1998 buddy cop flick, Rush Hour. Also, Nick exposes a strange obsession with the movie's villain, Sang. Check out some of our other vintage and strange movie/television discussions at https://themediaobscura.com/

We're back! Check out this reintroduction to the Media Obscura podcast as we update you about what's been going on for the past year. We'll be back on 2/8 with a brand new episode about Rush Hour!

Team Obscura checks out the seminal 1978 superhero movie "Superman." directed by Richard Donner and starring the most iconic of the men of steel, Christopher Reeve! Check out some of our other vintage and strange movie/television discussions at https://themediaobscura.com/

Team Obscura (and Jackson) come together to check out the 1987 Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox music drama, Light of Day! Check out some of our other vintage and strange movie/television discussions at https://themediaobscura.com/