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, the iconic science fiction film that was helmed by the iconic director of Jaws, ET: The Extra Terrestrial, and Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg! In the process, they ponder whether anyone else could’ve made a movie that’s quite as good (in spite of its few flaws) as Close Encounters. Including Steven Spielberg himself!

Their conversation also discusses the way that Spielberg seems to love making movies about aliens, how his humanist touch to storytelling elevates the material, and how he may be trying to evoke his iconic alien movie once again with 2026’s Disclosure Day, another film about aliens coming to Earth and the attempt of several human characters to make sense of it.

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 of the movie that we almost got back in the 70s, Rambo's place in the history of mental health and the introduction of PTSD into the American lexicon, and the sequels that came out and tarnished this first flick's reputation throughout the 80s up to today.

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 cuts of the film (also known as Red Bronx in Japan), and which one is better/easier to find on streaming/physical media- How Jackie Chan movies were altered for American audiences, and marketed (including the infamous and dubious claim that Chan 'never uses stuntdoubles.'- Why Rumble in the Bronx was a turning point in Chan's career, as it made him known in America.- And whether or not the movie is truly a 'seminal' piece of cinema, or if it's even worth revisiting 30 years later.Support the channel:Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NicheCaesarChannel Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscDbMTovs2Zww6by8HSDMg/joinSocials:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nichecaesar.bsky.socialLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/nichecaesar

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 movie itself, GoldenEye is an installment in the long-running Eon James Bond series of films. It was the debut of Pierce Brosnan as 007 and finds him squaring off against a rogue MI6 agent over control of a weapon known as the GoldenEye, a powerful Russian satellite that can discharge an EMP blast. Along the way, he teams up with one of the satellites operators, Natalia, and fights off Alec Trevelyan's henchman Xenia Onatopp too. Yada yada yada, dun nun na nunnnnnnnn, oh yeah and Judy Dench is M.

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 expected to be a hit, the film ended up being a runaway success that has since spawned five sequels and a TV series.