Cinema Oblivia

Episode 28: Chariots Of The Gods (with The Juptier Effect)

In 1970, a German documentary called Chariots of the Gods came out. It proposed the entirely unscientific idea that ancient aliens helped create humankind's greatest achievements. It was nominated for an Oscar, made millions of dollars, and completely ruined The History Channel.
Mandela Effect chronicler Joe Odber and I talk about this train-wreck a flick, its shocking racist origins, and the damaging effect it continues to have on society.
We also talk about The Jupiter Effect, a film in which George Kennedy tries to warn us about Jupiter.
Or something.

Episode 27: Runaway

It's the other Michael Crichton movie about robots running amok. Yes, after Westworld (but before Jurassic Park) Crichton wrote and directed this tale for the big screen, where Tom Selleck fights an evil Gene Simmons (is there any other kind?) and his legion of killer acid-spitting spiderbots.
Diamond Feit joins me to discuss this lesser, but still wildly entertaining, Crichton effort, a charming look at a possible future world we sadly never got.

Episode 26: Running Scared (2006)

No, NOT the Billy Crystal/Gregory Hines buddy cop comedy (although that's also a good movie)!
Instead, Madeleine Koestner from the Unnamed Film Festival and I are talking about the forgotten Paul Walker vehicle by Wayne Kramer (not the one in the MC5).
A huge bomb when it came out, this movie has gone on to be a cult classic, and rightfully so, it's an absolutely bonkers flick. Listen and find out how bonkers it is!
Content Warning: Running Scared is a film that references child abuse, and we talk about those scenes in detail.

Episode 25: Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon

SHO
NUFF!
That's all that needs to be said about this stone cold CLASSIC starring the one and only Taimak and the late great Vanity, but somehow T.L. Foster and I manage to talk for nearly 90 minutes about how great this movie is. Because it's really great.
Yeah, it's not that obscure or forgotten but I've had a shitty few months, humor me.

Episode 24: Viva Knievel!

Leslie Nielsen tries to murder Evel Knievel so he can use his corpse to smuggle dope. Gene Kelly tries to help Knievel, but he's held hostage by Dabney Coleman. Lauren Hutton wants to take a photo of Evel breaking his neck, but is also in love with him so she feels bad about it. There's also a kid with a mop top. And orphans.
Viva Knievel! is a weird movie. Elliot Long joins me to try and make sense of it. I don't know if we succeed.

Episode 23: Ghost World

Ghost World isn't a movie about ghosts, it's a movie about teenage isolation, misanthropy and self-hate, which are actually way scarier than anything supernatural.
The totally awesome Maddie Copp and I talk about this early-2000s classic of malaise, go over what we think the film is trying to say, and hypothesize about where its protagonists would be in the year 2021.

Episode 22: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers

Ever wonder what would happen if a Japanese filmmaker decided to make their own tribute to Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise, while throwing in a bit of The Who's Tommy and possibly a slice of the Faustian disco musical, The Apple?
Well, wonder no more, because that's exactly what happened with The Legend of the Stardust Brothers, a magical lost Japanese film from the 80s. I'm joined by Third Window Film's Adam Torel to talk about why he decided to re-release the film, and what it has to say about Japanese media, when it's not being totally crazy.

Episode 21: Ravenous

You are what you eat, and today Sonya Ballantyne and I are eating the late-90s cannibal western megabomb, Ravenous. Well, we're not so much eating it as discussing its troubled production, portrayal of First Nations people, and what the hell metaphor they're trying to go for in this flawed, but interesting, flick.

Episode 20: Full Contact

When people talk about Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s, John Woo and Jackie Chan are usually at the forefront of the conversation, but Ringo Lam also released some amazing films during that time.
For example, Full Contact, the dark, grimy and crazy 1992 classic that serves as an evil twin to the glossy and sleek Hard Boiled. Henry Gilbert from Talking Simpsons stops by to talk about this unjustly forgotten bloody masterpiece.

Episode 19: Gymkata

T.L. Foster wanted to talk about Gymkata, so today we are talking about Gymkata! Legendary for being "so bad it's good" but is it really just bad? The Kurt Thomas gymnastic vanity project gets all the discussion is deserves, and then some!