Oscars 2026 Recap + Season 10 Bracket Challenge Begins (Round of 32)

0:00 On today's Film and Whiskey, we're talking about the Oscars 2026. We'll give a quick recap of all of our thoughts on this year's winners and then Brad. Dude, it's bracket time. That's all ahead on film and whiskey. Well, hey everybody, welcome into the Film and Whiskey podcast. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad Jeep.

0:40 And Brad, we're coming at you with another special bonus episode. Bonus episode. I'll tell you what, dude, there is nothing like getting on the horn with you at the butt crack of dawn. Talk about last night's Oscars 'cause we had the option to stay up real late and talk about the Oscars and I said no, let's sleep on it. You know, I want my first words that I audibly say to be captured on Mike tomorrow morning. Absolutely. My my Husky sexy voice is here to talk all about last night's Academy Awards, which I think the banner headline of this year's Oscars is Brad G watched some of this.

1:22 That's true. I watched a lot of this, Bob. I think I started watching at like 8:30 or so and I I watched through to the end. My wife was sleeping in bed next to me and I had my laptop open. Break it. Breaking all the marriage rules. You've ever heard of the Christian Marriage Conference? I'm so proud of you, first of all, for, for watching the Oscars telecast, Brad. And I have to say, you know, I found what I watched of it last night to be pretty good. Not a bad telecast. I don't usually like award shows in general. You know, I watched the Oscars most years, but this one seemed to move at a decent pace it it did not break the four hour mark, which really is insane that these things would ever go 4 hours. But yes, I'd like to hear your thoughts, just in general, as a guy who never watches the Oscars. What'd you think of the telecast? I I think that you've used the word telecast 3 times and that's a very old fashioned word.

2:19 You know, I have to, I have to use it now because it's going to go straight to YouTube in a couple years here. Then you definitely can't call it a telecast anymore. It's not. A. It's live telecast. Right. I thought it was pleasant, I I really enjoyed Conan O'Brien. I thought he was he was usually short, to the point and like his jokes landed and that's. That's all I feel like you can ask for from a host when I think it was the K pop Demon Hunter song one. The lady was talking about K pop and how cool it was. And she thanked everybody. And then like the dude swooped in and was like, and I also want to thank. And they pulled the mic on him and Conan just goes, man, to retract a mic on a man in the middle of his speeches. Hilarious.

3:09 It was parade killed man. I was yeah. I was laughing very hard. I like Conan. He has just enough of like the old fashioned showman in him, but he also has that like David Letterman streak of very irreverent host. And it's a nice balance because he's not offensive to the guests in the room and he's willing to tell a joke so stupid that he knows it's not going to land. And I think you need somebody with that sort of charisma to be hosting the Oscars. It's it's been really nice, man. I do. I do still worry about the future of the Oscars. I just think that, like, most people don't care. Like, no one cares what wins an Oscar anymore except people like you and me.

3:49 And I think that's a brilliant segue into talking about this year's winners because after all of this hoopla, Brad 1 Battle After another did in fact, take home the Oscar for best picture. It won, I believe, 5 or 6 Oscars on the night, 6 Oscars on the night because it added that new category of best casting. So the Oscars included best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best supporting actor, best casting, and then I believe, best editing. It won as well, which means that it did edge out Sinners, which was its primary competition in best picture. Sinners took home, I believe, 4 Academy Awards last night. So they both did kind of, you know, share the wealth a little bit. Brad, I know that you personally just truly hate everything that one battle after another stands for. So now that it's actually just done the job of winning picture and director, what are your immediate takeaways here? I mean, it's a sign of our times, right? For me, what made me realize it was There Will Be Blood did not win best picture.

4:57 Right. A very subtle and beautiful critique of American capitalism of a fanatic American church. Culture, but beautiful for sure. Compared to 1 battle after another, it was it is subtle. I'm like, I'm sorry compared to that. And so I think that's why I say it's a sign of our times. Like we don't have any subtlety anymore as an American culture it like we want to be just slapped in the face with our own political beliefs so that we can feel good about ourselves. And that's what that's what we got. We got it good and hard Bob we got we got 1 battle after another just a bad movie.

5:40 The more I reflect on it, the more. I just listen, I don't think it's a bad movie. I do think now, now we can put a pin in 2025 and I can just definitively say I am not on this train of like every year's a great year for movies. Like 2025 was a down year for me. Yeah. I mean, like there were good movies. I don't think I saw any transcendent 10 out of 10 masterpieces the way. There was no past lives. No past lives, no Oppenheimer, no holdovers, no Anatomy of a Fall, no Godzilla minus. 1/20/23 was a freaking banner year for movies and the last two years have not lived up to that. And that's OK. Like we have these ebbs and flows. But to your point, Brad, like There Will Be Blood did not win the Oscar in 2008 for the year 2007. It's because 2007 was an incredible year for movies. Like look at the nominees in 2007. You've got Michael Clayton, you've got There Will Be Blood, you've got Atonement, you've got I believe Juno snuck in there. And then the winner is No Country for Old Men. That's like, that's a great lineup of best picture nominees and not including the ones that didn't get in because we only had a field of five back then.

6:50 And I think if one battle after another comes out in 2007, it's not even nominated for best picture. And I know that critics love it. I know that people are telling you it's the best movie of the decade. I just happen to disagree. I thought it was a good movie, but like, kind of just like a Nora last year. It's like, I just don't know if this is going to have the staying power where we look back on this 10 years from now and think, like, oh, my God, one battle after another. That movie year must have been awesome. Yeah. I just don't see it man. I mean even Anora, I think Anora was a way better film than one battle after another. Like at at the end of the day Anora had a message that was about the human soul and experience whereas 1 battle after another was just this political like very shallow piece of garbage so.

7:43 Wow dude, I. Bro. You're coming in spicy today. And yet only in one of those films did anyone drink a few small beers. Brad, that's. Dude, Benicio is great. Like, I'm sorry, Benicio's incredible in that movie. You know what I will give a quick plug. I I Benicio Del Toro was nominated for best supporting actor. He did not win because Sean Penn won, which I know Brad probably has a spicy take about that one as well. I have said all year long, I think Benicio should have gotten more attention for the Wes Anderson movie, The Phoenician Scheme that came out this year 'cause he's the star of that movie. He is unbelievable in that movie.

8:24 And I think Brad, especially if you're looking for movies that are like ultimately about the human soul and experience, I would love for you to go back and watch The Phoenician Scheme because it's Benicio, it's Wes Anderson, and it's maybe Wes's best examination of like what it means to be a person. And I, I think you'd really, really like it. I wish that movie had gotten more love this year. Yeah, I I remember you talking about it when it came out. I never got around to it, which should surprise 0 people. Yeah. All right, let's let's get to the other big award for the night, which I think was probably the most contested one, which was best actor. Yeah, I will say I think this was kind of a down year for movies. Every performance in the best actor category was fantastic. And I really could have seen this award going multiple different directions.

9:13 So for a long time. And and here's the thing about the Oscars is like, it's not just a case of who was the best, it's a case of we're going to nominate what we believe to be the five best or five representative people here, and now they're going to spend two months campaigning. And so it's this weird combination of like, you know, a presidential election with the campaign and how they run their campaign and how they position themselves. And, and like the performance that preceded it. It's like if American Idol was they give one performance and then they spend two months trying to convince you after the fact that they're a good person instead of just like a performance and a vote. And so, like, Timothy Chalamet had been in the lead for Marty Supreme for essentially the entire Oscars race. But there had been this sort of like, bubbling under the surface that people were getting kind of sick of Timmy because the Marty Supreme marketing campaign started off with him essentially, like, impersonating his character, who's like, a very cocky asshole in the movie.

10:21 And it took a long time for people to figure out that, like, the reason that Chalamet was acting so cocky was because he was trying to get, like, Gen. Z to go see this movie, Marty Supreme. And it worked. It made $100 million like that movie. There's no way that movie should have made $100 million. And it did. But it left a bad taste in people's mouths. And then he gave this interview a couple weeks ago where he said something to the effect of, like, I want to help keep the movies alive. I don't want the movies to become irrelevant like ballet and opera. And the people who were looking for outrage said we love ballet and opera. It's like, first of all, no you don't.

11:01 Do not buying tickets to the ballet and the. Opera. I saw a stat after that happened because even I heard about this Bob, that I think it was like 52% of American adults had been to the movies in the last year and .7% of American adults had been to the ballet or opera in the last year. It's like the thing. People, I think people are really starting to turn on Timmy. This is bad for his image and his career. Like he's, he's entering that weird Anne Hathaway zone where like people hated Anne Hathaway for a while and she had to do like a complete I, I don't know, it happened. It happened, but I think it's because he's dating a Kardashian and he seems to a lot of people and like, you know, this, he's going to have to go back to the drawing board here. I will also say I am in complete agreement with what he said. If you actually listen to what he said, all he was saying was like, I want to help keep the movies relevant. He's not talking about like, is opera good or bad? Is ballet good or bad?

12:04 It's just the fact that like culturally they do not have an impact anymore. I'm sorry. Like he's right and I want a guy who wants to champion the movies. Like that's, that's just who I am. That's what happens when you let crime run rampant in your cities. Bob and a prominent family like the Wayne's get shot and killed outside the opera. I'm sorry. Listen, man, yeah, this is all the Joker's fault. That's exactly what we're saying. So anyway, all that to say, Timmy was in the lead. He really lost the lead. And in the last couple weeks, it's been like, who's going to win this award? Because we had the used to be called the SAG Awards, now called the Actor Awards. Michael B Jordan wins best actor. And everyone's like, Oh, we kind of forgot about this guy through the whole race.

12:52 And you could tell that in the background his his publicist, his like, you know, the marketing team at Warner Brothers was pushing this narrative of like, but he played twins because every like anonymous Oscar voter article that I've seen over the last couple weeks, they've been like, who you voting for for best actor? And if it's Michael B Jordan, it's like I'm voting for Michael B Jordan. He played twins. That was like two different roles in one movie. So it worked, man. And Michael B Jordan wins best actor. And I will say I really like Michael B Jordan. And he seems like, you know, every report I've heard is like he's a great person to work with. He's a genuinely good dude.

13:32 The the Academy seems to like him. And I think he has like movie star charisma and persona. I don't think he was even the best part of the movie Sinners. But like, I don't hate the win. It's nice to see somebody under 50 win this award for a change. It gives me a little bit of hope for the future of Hollywood. But I don't know, man, where, where are you at on the Michael B Jordan win? I loved it. I, I think he, you know, of all the, of all the best actor movies I saw this year, I thought all two of them. I thought he did a really good job. I think it would have made sense if Leo got it. I think that this would be another example of like if Leo hadn't won for the revenant.

14:15 I think he wins for one battle after another, right? It is fascinating that there I found myself thinking like, man, Leo got away from another Oscars without a, without a little statue that like that was one of my first thoughts when Michael B Jordan got it. As far as Michael B himself goes, like that's great, man. He's a great I, I can't even call him young anymore. He's probably in his 40s, thirty. He's like. 393839 Yeah. OK, yeah. So I mean, he's got another 20 to 30 years ahead of him. I'm curious to see where he goes with this. It's not quite an Emma Stone, though, who has won, like, what, 3 best, best actress?

14:59 So I, you know, we've got some young people, Bob. There's hope. You can hold on. It does. Remind me a little bit of like when Jamie Foxx won for Ray and I think Jamie Foxx is better in Ray than than Michael B Jordan is in Sinners. But it's been a long time since like just an objectively cool guy, one best actor and a guy that like is going to go make movies that aren't Oscari movies and open those movies to a lot of box office because he's just a cool guy. Like, Will Smith wins his Oscar in horrific fashion a couple years ago, but he had also kind of already crested as like a cool guy that you go see in the movies. So it's it really is nice to see somebody that's still kind of on top in the movie star. Like he's still got the juice, you know what I mean? When you're when your wife is openly cheating on you, I I think your your peak was a while ago but. Yeah, dude, we, we don't support cucks financially the way that we do other one.

15:54 Thing America is still not down with. No, not at all. All right, man, listen, I don't want to give a full list of the Academy Award winners from tonight. There was 24 different categories. We already talked about the two biggest winners in one battle and sinners. I think Frankenstein wins three Oscars below the line, which is great. You know, like they love Guillermo del Toro in the Academy. I thought that movie kind of sucked, but like, what are you going to do, you know? I will say Jessie Buckley, I did not see Ham Net. I really liked her speech out of every person who won an award. I just was like, wow. She just talked about the beauty of motherhood and how thankful she is to be a mom and make a movie about moms.

16:37 And thank you Academy. I was like I was in. I want to go see Hamnet now. First of all, Hamnet pretty good. Jessie Buckley, all time great performer. Like, it is really crushing. Dude. She's so good in that movie that for the entirety of awards, she won every award. Like no one has even remotely challenged her this entire award season. And so to get to the finish line and have people still like you this much says a lot about how good that performance was. And she's a great actress. So it's nice to see her like, finally get an Oscar here. Here's my question. Is voting for the Oscars open through all of these other awards?

17:21 So some of the awards are like, I don't, you know, everything's a precursor, right? But some of the awards are kind of like where we whittle down what's going to get nominated. So at the very end of the the calendar year, you'll have your critics guilds give their awards out. And that kind of gives us a sense of like, here's going to be the major players, like 1 battle after another is winning everything. That's probably going to be a major player, you know, sinners, whatever it might be. And then you get to the beginning of January, and some of the Oscar categories have what's called short lists. So like, I don't know, like the visual effects category. Well, I don't know if that's one of them or not, but that's where the 400 movies like that could be.

18:03 Yeah. Like the just the visual effects department of the Oscars will say like, hey, we're going to focus our nominees on this list of like, 20 movies. And we think that this is the short list. Let's pick 5 from this. Now, not everything is voted on that way, but then you kind of get into the early awards like the Golden Globes and the Sags and everything else, and that kind of helps narrow down what's going to get nominated. And so when the Academy Award nominations come out in mid January, it's like, OK, here's the nominees. I think there's a couple weeks off and then voting opens. But even if voting's not open, all those other award ceremonies are part of your Oscar campaign. Like if you win a Golden Globe, it's nice to have a Golden Globe.

18:48 Your speech better be damn good because it's your first chance to impress Academy voters. You know what I mean? So like, it's, it's interesting how they do it. I wish there weren't so many award shows because then by the time we get to the Oscars, like everyone, it's March, dude. Like, I don't care about 2025 anymore. I want to watch 2026 Movies Now. Yeah, that, that is interesting. I, I feel like it would be better for the voting if it was just like before all the other awards. Now I know that you lose all the gossip and like hype around it. Then to me, if you want a pure like vote just based on the performance, not on if Timotei is talking about ballet and and opera. Like you got to vote right after nominations are put out and not let all this other stuff influence you. I know that that's not our culture, but. Yeah, and, and I'm in, I'm the same way, but mostly because it doesn't make sense practically for like the movie's performance, like because of the way movies are released. It used to be that like Christmas was the big Oscar push.

19:54 And so movies that hadn't come out yet, it was like, we'll drop it at Christmas. It'll get a ton of end of year buzz. It will get an Oscar nomination out of that. And then that'll really spike this movie's performance 'cause it's still in theaters from three weeks before, right. And now it's like some of these movies don't even release wide. Because it's such a small movie that they're only hoping for Oscar nominations. And so if it doesn't get any Oscar nominations, they'll just kind of dump it and they don't lose that much money and no one's heard of it and no one's seen it until mid January. And then they'll finally be like, here you go Ohio. You can have one theater showing this movie now that it's nominated for Oscars. It's really screwed up the like the economics of the Oscars. Because if I've never heard of it, I like me personally. I get curious.

20:40 I'll go see that movie. But like John and Jane Doe in Ohio, they're looking at the. List of like. Right, like what's nominated for best picture and it's like it's January. I didn't hear about this movie all of last year. Like I don't understand. And so I'm I'm with you. I think that like nominations should happen and the, the Oscars should happen soon after that because the only thing that gives these movies the potential for a box office bump is an Oscar win. And so to have the, the nominations come out mid January and the awards not happen until mid March, there's two months where most of America is not even thinking about these movies. They're certainly not in theaters anymore. We're not going to see them.

21:25 They're not making more money. So you're just giving yourself 8 weeks to like hobnob with people in LA and it just like it. By the time they actually get awarded, the relevance of those movies has declined significantly in terms of like public discourse. I mean, if there's anything we know about people in LA, though, Bob, it's that they like to hobnob with people in LA. They sure, sure do, man. Brad, we are here today not to talk about the Oscars. We're here to talk about the season 10 bracket challenge, which I want to get to here in 60 seconds, but I want to turn it over to you. I've been doing a lot of talking here, overall impressions of this year's Oscars, and did it inspire you to go watch anything that you have not seen yet?

22:10 A ham nut. I, I, I really enjoyed Jesse Buckley. I'm curious to, to see that. I, I think that the overall the Oscars were nice. There's only a few people who like got up on their political soapbox and I was like, OK, whatever, let's let's move on. It was enjoyable. I I think I'd watch the Oscars again, Bob. We did it. I will. Say we did it the. The tribute to Rob Reiner was really beautiful. How did I forget? Bob? Bob, this is the most important thing that happened at the Oscars last night during the In Memoriam section.

22:53 Our boy Robert Duvall sadly passed away last year. And do you want to know, do you want to take a guess as to what movie they pulled from for his? Like, here's the dude. Here's the line that represents Robert Duvall. Of all the Robert like the Godfather, The Godfather too, like the Great Santini, I don't know, freaking like To Kill a Mockingbird. Boo Radley. This is Robert Duvall and the movie they pull for him. Brad second hand Lions. What are the greatest movies of all time? Bob I literally. Jumped out of my seat and like cheered. I was so freaking jazzed. That's what I will just send you like the Vin Diesel GIF of him just saying like the movies.

23:42 Yes, that's what the movies are about. Is Brad jumping out of his chair at the In Memoriam? First of all, not not the etiquette you're supposed to have during the In Memoriam segment. If I had been in whatever theater they were in, everybody would have been like, this guy needs to. Be escorted out of here right now. It's a little bit better than like when I, I was telling my buddy, we were talking about when Robert Duvall died and his only frame of reference is the Family Guy episode where they're all about to drown and, and Peter does the I don't like the Godfather. It insists upon itself because Chris's reaction is just Robert Duvall. Like he just screams Robert Duvall.

24:23 That was my buddy's reaction. And I was like, oh, did you see Robert Duvall died? Robert Duvall. The guy that Chris screams about, well, it's good though. It's good to know that you have friends who are less informed about cinema than me that that makes me feel. I, I want to have an Oscars party one of these years, not because I care that much about the actual broadcast, but just because, like, it's fun to get together and have a party, but like, nobody watches movies anymore, Brad. It's just me and you, dude. I was to say Zach would have to come up from Kentucky and it'd be you, me and him drinking whiskey alone, cheering in a room, cheering about Robert Duvall's death. All right, dude, it's time for us to get into the Season 10 bracket.

25:09 What do you say, dude? Let's get to it, man, I'm ready. All right, Brad, it's bracket time. It's time for the moment, we're actually here for today. Let's. Freaking go man I'm ready. Listen, every season I only do the movie reviews to get us to bracket challenge time. That's right, Brad, this is this is by far the best and most fun series of episodes every season. Absolutely. And I think part of that is because there's there's a structure to it, but there's so much chaos thrown into the structure that it's just like, I'm just winging this thing with my friend here and we're going to see how mad we can get each other. Yeah. And I have a feeling, Bob, that we're going to get pretty. And by we, I mean you are going to get pretty heated this this first episode.

25:59 It's going to be a crazy one. Let's take a step back because it's possible that someone has never listened to a bracket challenge episode of ours before. So the way this works is each of our seasons are structured by reviewing 32 movies so that at the end of each season, we can put those movies into a madness style bracket. Now, the timing this time is super fortuitous. Brad. I don't know if our bracket Challenge episodes have ever coincided with March Madness, The real March Madness. I don't think. So, but this is freaking great. We're going to get so much content out of this. I'm excited. So the way we're going to do it folks, is we're breaking this across 3 episodes over the next three weeks. So the last episode, the championship matchup of this bracket, will be coming to you on March 31st.

26:44 So today we're just going through the round of 32. Next time around we're going to do the round of 16 and 8 and then the final episode we'll get to the final four and our championship match up. Now, the operative assumption as we talk about these movies is that when they're facing each other in a match up, you have to ask yourself which one of these movies, if one of them had to get thrown into the fiery chasm, the pits of hell to be completely annihilated and never seen again? And you have to choose one. Which movie would that be? Sometimes it's very easy for us to throw something in the fiery chasm. Other times, Brad, it really is like choosing between two of your own children and trying to decide which of these two things I love has to get destroyed in front of me.

27:31 That would be. It's a harrowing experience, that. 'D be harder for you, Bob, because you only have two kids. For me, I would at least. Have two kids leftover. You've got her. You've got a spare. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, exactly. That's great. Now, OK, we're going to go through the bracket here in just a moment, and I guess to explain how it is seeded. The number one seed in our bracket really did earn that spot. So at the end of every episode when we review a movie, we give it a score out of 10. So a movie will have Brad and my score out of 10. And it's very easy to kind of sort, hey, which movies did the best at the end of the season. Sometimes we'll have like 2 movies that came out to an average of a nine out of 10. And in order to determine the tiebreaker between those two, we'll go to the IMDb score so that we kind of have like an audience vote. So whichever one has a higher IMDb score gets the bump. Now we've got a nice ordered list of movies. But what we figured out in the first couple seasons of doing this is that sometimes just because you gave a movie a 9 1/2, just because you respect a movie, doesn't mean that it's one of those ones that that has your heart. Absolutely.

28:39 If you're holding 2 movies over the edge, sometimes you'd drop a 9 1/2 movie instead of an 8 1/2 movie. And for that reason, at the end of every season, Brad and I go through and do kind of our heart list, our vibes based list of just here's how I would rank these on this particular day based on nothing but vibes. So we come, we come away with three different lists. We average the ranking of all those three lists to come out to our final seating. And it's very complicated. It's way more work than it probably needs to be for something like this, Brad. But I'll tell you what, It produces a bracket that neither of us like at the end of the day. And I think that's a sign that it's like the perfect bracket.

29:20 It often does. And like, if there's not a better sign of our our entering middle age, if not our love for a good spreadsheet, complicated formulas that like this is absolutely beautiful in my opinion. You know, we say complicated formulas we could definitely just use like the auto sum feature. It's it's the most basic of all formulas on Excel. It's, and I love it for that, the meme from Hangover when he's doing all the math in his head. How do I average 3 numbers? Yeah, dude. All right, I think it's time for us to dive into this bracket. Any final thoughts before we start revealing what the bracket is and what it looks like?

30:02 Curious since most of these movies other than two are movies we did in season 1. Did did Pulp Fiction win our first bracket? Or was it Vertigo? I can't remember. I'm fairly certain it was Pulp Fiction. I remember making like the little announcement picture to put on Instagram. So I believe Pulp Fiction was our winner the first time around. And that's a great point. Every movie except for two that we are doing this season is a revisit movie now. We had a couple movies that did not qualify for this season that we replaced with this year's 2O frontrunners, Sinners and 1 Battle After Another. You can go back and listen to those episodes.

30:44 And you've just listened to the Oscar recap, so I assume some Oscar gold was at play between those two movies. Hi Brad. I think it's time for us to dive into this. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen just for a moment so that if people are watching this, they can see the bracket themselves. I'll take it down in a moment. If you would like to download your own bracket and follow along, you can find it at filmwhiskey.com. It's right there up on the banner Season 10 bracket. The nice thing is that since we're only doing the first round matchups, you still have time to fill out your bracket and let us know who would win your Season 10 bracket. Brad, let's do it, man I'm ready. I'm pulling up the bracket here. Let's take a look at it. And we're going to be starting here up in the upper left quadrant as we always do.

31:30 Our number one seed for season #10 is Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, dude. Now, I think we should make a quick note that after all three of our lists got averaged, our 1-2 and three overall seeds were still tied for points. That's how good the top three movies in this bracket are compared to everything else. And it, it was kind of painful to have to decide which one to put at #1 So we ended up using a randomizer. And you know, I have no say in it at this point, Brad. It is in Fate's hands. The randomizer said that Vertigo is the number one seed of season 10. And a very well deserving.

32:12 There's a reason I couldn't remember if it was Vertigo or Pulp Fiction that won our entire bracket. Interestingly enough, Pulp Fiction, our fourth seed in this bracket. Yeah, I thought that was very interesting. That's The funny thing about these brackets too, is I think I was lower on Pulp Fiction than you were. I want to say it was like my six overall seed, but it was like it's my six seed. It's not like I gave it a bad ranking. And yet because these other three films were so high between the two of us, they came out ahead. So Vertigo is going to be our number one seed and it's going up against a kind of surprising 32 seed, 1 battle after another, which we've just talked about now.

32:53 This was a movie that Brad and I, you know, Brad liked it less than I did. I think I came out to an 8 out of 10. I like it fine. Brad was a little cooler on it than I was and because of that the average came out to I think something as low as a 7.25 for us. Which is. Pretty low. Your vibes list was also not kind to 1 battle after another Brad. Yeah, I I'm pretty sure it was my lowest ranked film and I but I will say this is a this is a composite this you had your vibe ranking in there. We had IMDb in there like I I don't think 1 battle after another is quite as historic as people are making it out to be. Yeah, I do not find it to be the transcendent masterpiece that everyone is claiming it's going to be. And I, I kind of always like, balk at this idea that, like, I can pinpoint the year something comes out, what's going to be remembered 15 years from now.

33:47 There's only a few times that people have been able to accurately call that. And I just I don't see one battle after another being one of those movies. And because of that, Brad, I think this is a pretty easy first match up in the round of 32. So I'm going to take Vertigo here, the number one seed to move on. What do you think? Yeah, I'm also going to pick Vertigo, Bob. That's an easy, easy moving on. Vertigo's one of the best films ever made, so. Yeah. Now we go from that to a match up that I think will immediately spark debate and hatred between us because we're talking about the number 16 overall seed. We're talking right in the middle of the bracket here. Yeah #16 seed Star Wars Colon, A New Hope episode 4, A New Hope versus the number 17 seed, The Shawshank Redemption at before we get to the headline here, which is why is Star Wars at 16? Let's let's get Shawshank out of the way too. Shawshank is a movie that you and I have kind of grappled with over the seasons because you know, it's, it's IMD BS top rated movie of all time.

34:52 It's a movie that I think everyone on earth would agree is like a nine out of 10. And because of that, it's always ranked at at #1 on IMDb. There's was just a really funny instance of something like this happening a few weeks ago on IMDb where there was an episode of Breaking Bad that has a 10 point O. It was the only episode in TV history that had a 10 point O for years and years. And then a bunch of Game of Thrones fans went on and review bombed it down to like a 9.7. And it was this long conversation about fans of other things review bombing. And that's actually how Shawshank got up to #1 was that it had been the Godfather for the longest time. And I think when The Dark Knight came out, the Nolan fan Bros and the Batman fan Bros wanted that movie to be #1 so badly that they started giving The Godfather one star reviews to tank it really. And then Shawshank is just like, no one wants to give Shawshank A1.

35:48 So they're like, you know, it could, it could be #1 that's fine. I will say they showed it on TV last week. And that's a, that's a very intense movie. But I was flipping through the channels and it was right at the part where Andy escaped. And then Red gets out and goes to Zejuata Nejo. And I was like, hey, my 9 year old come watch the end of this movie with me. And so he watched Andy crawl to freedom. I turn the channel when the warden shoots himself. I don't want, you know, I see that. And he sees sees Red get his freedom too. And I was like, you know what? This is a pretty great movie, dude. I'm not going to lie. Like, it's a it's a really good movie. I don't think it's the best movie ever made, but I also don't think we need to hold it to that standard all the time. No, it feels like it's in a weird similar vibe to Citizens Kane where like it has this aura of like it's been the IMDb number one movie for like 15 years now. 20 years. I guess if it's around when The Dark Knight came out that was 2008 since it's insane to me that we have to hold it to this crazy high standard.

36:53 Like you said, it is so incredibly well made paired with being very likable and uplifting that no, like nobody's going to give it a one. Like there's a few trolls out there, but it also isn't standing up against something like The Dark Knight where you have a crazy passionate fan brace. That's like F Shawshank. It needs to go kick rocks. We're going to, you know, review bomb it. It'll never have anybody do that. So, so here we are. It's great. That's a great flick. Talking about crazy, passionate fan bases that will go to bat for their movie Star Wars at #16 and not just any fan base. Perhaps the craziest of all fan bases.

37:35 That's rude, Bob. I do. Well, I was going to say I do want to set you aside from the rabidness of the fan base because you don't really care that much anymore. Because I think you've accepted that Disney has just ruined everything at this point. But you'll still go to bat for the original trilogy. Would you say that Episode 4 is the most near and dear to your heart of any Star Wars movie or no? No, I would. That's really tough because I, you know, I saw the the prequels in theaters. I skipped school for the first time to go see a movie to see Episode 3. So in some ways, I would say episode 3 is near and dear to my heart.

38:21 Probably this is man, this is so hard. I there's a world where Empire Strikes Back is one of my is probably near and dearest. But there's something about Return of the Jedi that the ending of that film just like grabs me on a soul level. I, I will say that this time through, when I watched it for the podcast, I think I was more aware of its flaws than ever before. I still, I think I gave it a 9.5 if not a 10 sure. So like, I, I still think it is a nearly perfect movie that did so much for the world of cinema at large. And so I, I still think that, you know, Shawshank has had a cultural impact because of meme culture and like imitating Morgan, like imitating Morgan Freeman as a narrator, Like it's like meme culture in that or like crawling through poop to get to your freedom. So it's like it's got meme culture, It's got the IMDb mystique, but I don't think it has the cultural impact that Star Wars had.

39:27 I think it kind of pales in comparison. So for me, this is like an easy I'm moving Star Wars on. Yeah, this is a hard one for me because I also think that Episode 4 might be my least favorite movie. Of all time. Of any of the six that Lucas was involved in, and I don't think it's the worst one. I think episode 1 is like significantly worse than episode 4. But I I said this in the episode, man, I think episode 4 is kind of amateurish. Like I just think that there's a ton of stuff in that first movie that was saved by the edit. There's a pretty famous instance where Lucas shows all of his film maker friends, you know, Scorsese, De Palma, Coppola, Spielberg, a rough cut of it.

40:10 And they were like. This sucks, dude, like what are you doing? And only Spielberg saw the potential in it. And then, you know, they edit it. They had the music, it becomes Star Wars. But I think a lot of that amateurishness can't be taken out of the movie. It's edited in a way that you don't notice it as much if you're caught up in it. And for me, Episode 1 is a worse movie with a lot more technical mastery than episode 4. I think I came away this time giving it like an 8 and then I did my vibes list and I was like, I am once again swayed by not trying to hurt Brad's feelings. I I dislike episode 4. I don't think it's a bad movie, I just don't like it. I think it's poorly made.

40:53 Episode 5 is a masterpiece. Return of the Jedi is flawed, but I have a better time with it. And so I think for me, I'm going to move Shawshank on. And it's only because Shawshank is like a nine. I don't feel passionately about Shawshank. It's just like, I think it's better and I have to move it on. And that means that, Brad, I need you to introduce the Deus Ex machina here that we have called the Coin of Destiny. The the Mary Sue itself, the Coin of Destiny, it used to be. I haven't found it in a while. Oh, I just found it. Bob, give me one second. The real coin of destiny. I literally was cleaning off my bookshelf next to me the other day and I must have revealed it from behind some books.

41:38 We have a coin of destiny. This is not a sponsorship but it is a we like these guys. It is for Lucky 7. If you can see the video I'm showing it on camera. Lucky 7 distillery. Are they down in Tennessee or are they Kentucky? They source their stuff. I think they're in Kentucky though. OK, anyways, Lucky 7 Distillery sent us this coin, I think in season 1. And so from the start this has been a coin that we flip. Now the heads is the Lucky 7 logo and then the tails is the word spelled out. So that's our heads, that's our tails.

42:20 It is the coin of destiny. It does decide who. It doesn't decide which movie gets thrown into the fire. Inferno Bob. What it actually decides is who God has favor upon you or myself. That's true Now, as the slightly higher ranked seed, Star Wars is going to be heads and Shawshank will be tails, and that means it's time Brad for supremacy over each other. Flip that coin, all right? We have a heads Star Wars moving. On man by the skin of its teeth.

43:03 Dude, Star Wars is moving on into the second round. I'm going to make a note of that. And we have to say goodbye to The Shawshank Redemption. Andy did not, in fact, make it out of the tunnel of poop where he drowned a horrible death. Yikes. It was a real Oregon Trail situation for him. All right, man, that's probably going to be the longest debate we're going to have today, I would hope. So it's time for us to move on to one that is very easy for me, and that is the #9 overall seed West Side Story up against the 24 seed Forrest Gump. Now, again, Forrest Gump kind of falls into that Shawshank thing where most people think it's like an 8 out of 10, nine out of 10 movie.

43:43 It does have its detractors for being as big and cheesy as it is. I think the story for me here, Brad, is how West Side Story got all the way down to our nine seed. Because on your vibes list, you ranked it pretty low after giving it either a 9 1/2 or a 10 out of 10 on the episode. So, you know, explain yourself man. I I really like West Side Story. It's a really fun movie that is bright and bombastic and fun. I it just doesn't, I don't know, man. It's not my, it's not my movie. It's not my musical. I didn't grow up with it. There's something about it that I'm like, yeah, this is great. It it feels how you feel about Shawshank, where I'm like, yeah, this is this is a great movie.

44:31 I recognize the technical brilliance. It's well written, great performances, but it doesn't hold like any impetus over my soul. So I'm kind of like, yeah, you know, it just. Suffered a little bit. It's one of those movies where like you've got the movie itself and then you've got like the joy of watching, as our friend Zach Johnston would say, watching cinema cinema. And I don't just mean like the machinery, because sometimes, like with Shawshank, I respect the machinery of Shawshank, but like it doesn't really capture me the way some other movies do West Side stories like, yes, the machinery is there. And then there's this layer of just like, oh, I'm watching like a Dutch master at work here.

45:11 You know what I mean? Like it's just, it's, it's just. Why a Dutch master Bob I? Don't know. I'm trying to think of painters and I'm I'm mixing them up with machinery. Now I'm watching. There you go, this metaphor. All right, dude, I'm going to put West Side Story on here. Do you have any qualms about that with your vibes list? Should Forrest Gump make it on over West Side Story? I mean, I think there's a world where West Side Story makes all the sense in the world. I think I moved Forrest Gump on Man, I just. Dude, no. I just, I just like Jenny. I want to see her move on in the bracket.

45:52 Now is this totally vibes based because I'm almost positive you gave West Side Story a better score than Forrest Gump. I'm sure that I did. We we can Fact Check this really quickly. Forrest Gump Oh, I guess we there it is. Sorry Forrest Gump I gave a nine out of 10 and West Side Story I gave a 9.5. So I I did give it a higher score. Close enough. Yeah, not by a lot. I think, once again, that Forrest Gump, this is kind of the reverse of the last one. Forrest Gump has lived on in meme culture in a lot of ways. And I also think that just purely on vibes, I gotta pick Forrest Gump, man.

46:42 It, it's just such, I really hate this. Yeah. It's just such an incredible. So much because you won the last one. I'm I would like to think that I'm due for a win, but I I don't think that's gonna happen. So that's not how West Side Story. That's not how. That's not how Destiny works. No, it's not. West Side Story is the higher seed. It will be heads. Forrest Gump will be tails. Brad, flip the coin of Destiny and also I hate you so much. Man, man, Bob, you should not hate me anymore because we have another. Head.

47:22 Thank God. Yeah, screw you, Forrest Gump. And West Side Story is moving on. I listened. Back to our Forrest Gump episode the other day in the car, and it is first of all, it's a blast. But I just talked for the whole first half of the episode about how quotable Forrest Gump is, especially out of context. Yes, it is absolutely one of the most quotable movies. We added Anchorman on to this season, also one of the most quotable movies of all time. I think we have some some great quotable films this season and season 1 by. Well, we have one less now because Forrest Gump is gonzo. And that takes us to our next match up here.

48:02 The number 8 seed, the Tree of Life up against the number 25 seed, To Kill a Mockingbird. Now, the tree of Life is also, I think, victim for me. Brad, of. We had a guest on our podcast, Bilga Ibiri, one of the world's most esteemed film critics. And he, I mean, just gushed about the movie. Yeah. And I can see why in the moment, we all gave that movie a 10 out of 10 because I think the totality of it, it's like, such a towering accomplishment. But like the first 40 minutes and the last and and like moments in the middle and then the last like 10 minutes are incredible. But there's about an hour and a half in there somewhere that you've got to be really committed to make it through.

48:46 Yep. And you really do, if you ask me, on any given day, like, do you want to fire up the tree of life? It's not, that's not going to be one of them. You know what I mean? So like, it's a 10. That's also not a 10 for me. I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah. It does make sense. I mean, even Vertigo, like, I'd be more likely to fire up Vertigo. But Vertigo's a heavy movie, man. I'm not just going to whip that up on a random Thursday night and be like, yeah, it's time to watch, talk, watch Jimmy just, like, slowly lose his mind. That sounds great. I will say on the opposite side of Tree of Life though, we have To Kill a Mockingbird, which while you and I have said like one of the greatest courtroom scenes of all time, like hands down, it's right up there with like You Can't Handle the truth. Not the best movie overall.

49:32 No, and I think that that it felt a lot creakier this time around in getting through what it tried to do. I don't think it ever found the balance the way the book does between the innocence of childhood being shattered and the realities of the world and you know what the themes that it's trying to accomplish. And I will say, first of all, RIP Robert Duvall, whose first screen role was here in this movie as Boo Radley. I hate to see that go into the fiery chasm here, Brad, but I think Tree of Life does move on here, although I am marking it for a potential upset in the next round. Just because I it doesn't, it doesn't capture my heart the way others do.

50:13 Totally. I and I, I would argue it captures my heart a little bit more, but that's be rombly because I love Jesus and I'm a better human being than you. So. All right, well, that is the end of that quadrant. So our first four entries into the round of 16 are Vertigo, Star Wars, West Side Story, and The Tree of Life, all four of the favorites. Now we're moving into the bottom left quadrant here where we've got our number four overall seed, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction up against the number 29 seed, Sinners, a movie that I will note Brad liked more than I did.

50:54 And so, you know, Sinners is a fun little movie. I think it definitely has artistic merit. I am still a little surprised at how much critical and awards consensus rallied around this movie, which is, you know, again, a very well made movie. I don't think that it even remotely touches Pulp Fiction. Now, I will say, Brad, if you want to give us 30 seconds on spoiling your bracket a little bit, or at least your vibes list. I'm pretty sure Pulp Fiction was like your number one movie of the season on the vibes list, which I was a little surprised by. At I would say for me it's probably between our 2 heavy hitters on this side of the bracket between Vertigo and Pulp Fiction.

51:38 For me, the those are the two that looking back on our experience in season 1 and then like translating that to like our experience now in season 10, I think those are the 2 movies that stand out to me as seven years ago I was in love with these movies. Now I still find them to be absolute masterpieces. It feels to me like those are the 2 ones that really really just transcend any amount of where I'm at in life when I watch this movie. Yeah, man. And I think that over the years, I cannot recognize the insane cultural phenomenon and influence that this movie was on movies for 10-15 years afterwards. I also think Quentin Tarantino has made better movies since then.

52:32 And there are moments in Pulp Fiction that I don't know if he's ever topped. Like, it might have the highest highs of any movie of his. Yeah. But I don't know if, like, beginning to end, I would say it is his best movie all the way through. Sure. And so I'm. I mean, I'm this is a pretty easy one for me to move Pulp Fiction on here over sinners. But like the Tree of Life, I think depending on the matchups it faces in the bracket, this could be the victim of an upset here in the next couple rounds. Brad. Wow, that's that'll be you causing an upset, Bob. That won't be me. Yeah, I think we've established that at this point. All right, that takes us to our next matchup. Brad, do you have the bracket pulled up or should I continue introing all of these? So Next up we're talking an absolute bombastic, ridiculous, incredible film 198384. 84.

53:26 841984's Amadeus the Best Picture winner up against the Best Picture winner from the 535352. 5450 years old, so yeah. That's what a fortuitous match up, Bob. We're talking 1954's On the Waterfront, Bob. Which one of these could have been a contender? Oh, man, now you know not to critique your intro skills here, Brad, but you know this is your first time doing it. Yeah, totally. Step in and say the 13 seed Amadeus up against the number 20 seed on the waterfront. So Amadeus did end up a little higher. And I'm in very different places on these movies than I think I was prior to watching them from for this season.

54:10 Amadeus, I think is a movie that lives in your memory as a perfect movie. It's been. And you watch it and it's like there's a few moments that are slow. Like it's a really good eight and a half nine movie that has moments of 10 and the moments of 10 are what you remember it. It has those moments like a like a piccolo, like a playful little piccolo. And then On the Waterfront is a movie that we were super cool on in season #1 coupled with like, it's always had the reputation of the Elia Kazan. I named names. I'm a traitor, I'm a rat. And now I'm making a movie about how being a rat is OK. And there's a certain segment of like, very liberal film Twitter that will just never get on board with that movie, no matter how good it is.

54:55 But we watched it this time and I was like, dude, I this is a near perfect movie. Yep. So I really struggled with this one. Brad, I'd like to hear where you came out on this one because I'll be honest with you, I'm looking at my bracket right now and there are two matchups in the whole bracket that I just left blank. Wow. Because I don't know what to do. I think this is not a. Part of that one because it's facing, it's facing Pulp Fiction in the next round. And I kind of think that whatever comes out of this might fall victim to Pulp Fiction totally. But like this is a hard 1 for me. It really is. I think that you are looking at the the prestige level of On the Waterfront. To me, it lives in that Citizen Kane world of like really old black and white film that film critics talk about but the average person hasn't seen at this point in history. And Amadeus is in the this came out of the 80s and who knows what was going on back then.

55:58 It's wild and fun and about an hour too long. And they were just doing a lot of drugs at the time. So that's what you get with Amadeus. I if I had to pick one just based on vibes and on what I would want to watch again someday. I think Amadeus barely nudges out on the waterfront. I would agree with you. This is one of the hardest decisions of the the first round. I think we need to leave it to fate then. I honestly think that at this moment, I would probably nudge On the Waterfront over it a little bit. You know, especially you get the I should have been a contender.

56:39 And then the scene where he finds his brother in the alleyway is just, it's so crushing. The moments that work in that movie I think work even better than any moments in On the Waterfront. So, right, I think we're going to do a coin flip. That means that it's going to be the 13 seed Amadeus will be Heads and the 20 seed on the Waterfront tails. Brad, flip that coin. Man, I we need to see if this thing's weighted because we are looking at another heads. Wow. All right, so Amadeus squeaks by in the round of 32 we have to say goodbye to On the Waterfront, and that takes us to another pretty fun match up here, Brad. It's the number 12 overall seed, the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, up against the 21 seed, $1,000,000 baby. I think this kind of also falls in that same realm for me where Treasure of the Sierra Madre was like one of my favorite movies when I first started watching classic old Hollywood movies. And now I've come to the point where I'm like, this is probably a nine and a half.

57:54 It's no longer A10 for me. I still love it. Whereas $1,000,000 Baby is a movie that I kind of had dipped on. And then on this watch through I was like, it's a flawed movie, but damn, it's it's pretty good. It's close to a nine for me. So I'd love to hear where you fell on this one. I think that $1,000,000 Baby is a great movie. I think it falls prey to what we've often talked about with with Clint that like he just has no nuance and he has like a little bit here in $1,000,000 Baby in the relationship between the two main characters, but man, oh man, he struggles with any sense of nuance.

58:36 It also, this movie reminds me so much of Gran Torino that I sometimes like get portions where I'm like, wait a second, what about the scene where Clint like brings the chairs up from the basement and I'm like, oh, wait, no, that was Gran Torino. And, and they kind of get mixed up, right? Which means for me, I, I feel like we should, I don't know, man. I feel like we should put $1,000,000 baby out of its misery. We should pull the plug. I think so, yeah. Take a take a pillow too. Well, Maggie Fitzgerald, where we are, we're going to we're going to, what's the word, ethically euthanize you here and we're.

59:17 Going to ship her, ship her up to Canada. It's going to be the, what is it called, the MAID program. It's going to be great. Fly there, drive back as she said. All right, Treasure of the Sierra Madre is moving on into the round of 32, and that takes us to our last match up here on the left side of the bracket, the number 5 seed Rear Window up against the 28 seed Fight Club. I'm a Fight Club hater. I don't know what to tell you guys. I just don't think it's a good movie, and I think that it is. I don't think it's as dangerous as I tried to make it out to be. Yeah, I think it's misinterpreted and I think that it does exactly what it sets out to do. I just don't think that it is like a very successful movie. And so I'm in a very different place than you are on it. Brad, I don't quite remember where this landed on your vibes list, but you like Fight Club quite a bit more than me. But I also don't think you're like, going to bat for Fight Club as one of the best movies of this season. No, I'm not.

1:00:18 It actually fell down my vibes list a little ways it. I think it came in at like 20 or 21. At the end of the day, Fight Club's a great movie. I know that you're just jealous that you don't look like Brad Pitt, that that's the real, that's the real reason that you're upset about Fight Club. I think Fight Club, when you really dive into it, has a very fascinating message about society. I think it gets misinterpreted a lot of times. I think at the end of the day, though, Rear Window is an absolute all time classic where you have Hitchcock basically challenging himself to be like, all right, instead of like doing all the these wild chase scenes or, you know, like a North by Northwest.

1:01:03 We're travelling all over the country. He's like, let's see what I can do if I keep the camera in the same room for an entire movie. Yep. And it it's, it's just a great, great film. You know, he did that with rope as well. But even rope has more movements around the room then you get in rear windows. So I just rear windows. Such a freaking classic dude. Yeah, the suspense in that movie, I don't know if there's a Hitchcock movie that is more suspenseful than when Grace Kelly tries to sneak into the guy's house or apartment. And at the end of the movie, when Raymond Burr comes to find Jimmy Stewart. Yeah. It's just it's a perfect movie. Yep. And I honestly, even putting it at #5 on our seating list here felt like a crime in a way.

1:01:47 So, I mean, Rear Window moves on easily for me here. Yeah. Dude, just to comment on the whole season, I think my top 18 now probably my top 20 movies that like anything from 10 to 20 could have been the 10th overall movie for me. Does that make sense? Like my top, my top five felt certain. My top 6 through 9 felt like any of them could be in that range. 10 through 20 was just every single one of them was an absolute hit and I had a really hard time with a lot of great films in the season. What's really funny about it too, is like your kind of middle tier on the vibes list is not the same as mine. And so it ended up making some matchups in the bracket that are like easier than if I had to pick between that number on my vibes list.

1:02:38 And you know what I'm saying? Like my 5 and and 13 or whatever are very different than what yours would be. And so again, that it makes the bracket this agent of chaos that we're not expecting, and it puts us out with four more entries into the round of 16 Here, Brad, we're talking about Pulp Fiction, Amadeus, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Rear Window. Once again, we have not had one lower seated movie advance into the round of 16 yet, but that might change. Brad, I think we should take a quick break here and then we'll get into the second-half of the bracket. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, we are back the round of 32 in the season 10 bracket challenge and we're moving over to the right side of our bracket where we've got the number two overall seed, 12 Angry Men, one of the great Oscar snubs of all time, not getting nominated for Best picture, up against the number 31 overall seed, an American in Paris.

1:03:42 Now an American in Paris is one of the more controversial Oscar winners of all time. That movie won the 1951 Best Picture Academy Award. I think it's a little bit of an unfair victim here because this season also includes singing in the rain. Brad and I look at it at #31 and I'm like, that seems a little. It's a good movie. I, I, I don't know if I would call it like an all time great movie. I do think it deserves its place in cinema history. The scene of Gene Kelly dancing with the kids is just like, that's magic, dude. Absolutely. Now, I think you're lower on it than I am. So I guess the question we're all asking is, what the hell, Brad? Why did this movie come out so low on our list here?

1:04:23 It's a great movie, but like you said, when you have a list of 32 films and you have two musicals with the same actor in the same era that look very similar. For me it just kind of felt on the rankings based on that. I also think. Is 12 Angry Men the most efficient movie of all time? So here's the thing about 12 Angry Men. It it's weird for me seeing it at #2 and I think part of it is because when we reveal our number three seed, you'll understand why I feel that way because I like the number three seed more than that. No, it is a perfect movie mechanically. It is a movie that moves and stirs the emotions. So it's not just a movie I respect. It is also a movie that like, you look at the machinery and you're like, I respect that too.

1:05:16 And I think that I'm struggling with the fact that, like, I gave it a 10 and I love it, but I would put it maybe one step behind the number three seed that I'm like, man, is this the second best movie we watched this season? Now where did you have it on your vibes list, Brad? My vibes list I had 12 angry men in the four slots. So OK, up there it is very, very close, but not, you know, not #1 number, not number 2, not even number 31 might say but. I think high enough that we could move it on here because I don't really think an American in Paris has much of an argument to make against 12 angry men. No, it really doesn't.

1:06:01 Now our next match up, I think it's going to be fascinating. We have the number 15 seed Catch Me If You Can versus the number 18 seed Cinderella Man, the Bulldog of Boygan. Bulldog of Boygan James J Braddock. We are, and I mean this in the best possible way, the only two people on earth that love Cinderella Man as much as we do 100% Then you go on IMDb and it has like an 8.1 or something. Like people like this movie, it's just been forgotten about. Completely and we are here to fix. That If You can, I think over the last 20 years, Catch Me If You Can has taken on this kind of like this Is Spielberg truly at the height of his directorial powers and making a light, frothy comedy. And we didn't know how good we had it. And I think watching Catch Me If You Can, like as you watch it, it's like an 8 1/2 out of 10 movie. And then you start realizing, like, oh, Spielberg is really at work behind the scenes here.

1:07:05 And then it kind of takes on this additional layer of like, oh, maybe this is like a nine and a half. It's kind of like watching Billy Wilder do something like it hot where you're like, you get caught up in the movie of it and then you don't realize that there's actually a master behind the camera. And I don't say that to disparage Ron Howard, but like, you know, he's just not Steven Spielberg. And yet, at the end of the day, there's a part of me that wants to move Cinderella Man on past Catch Me If You Can't. I cry like a baby at Cinderella Man. I'm not going to lie. Absolutely. And there there's something about the messaging of a father looking to do anything he can to care for his children that, you know, may or may not be calling to us. And I, I also think like the messaging of Catch Me If You can is beautiful and like this abandoned boy, not of children, not children of men.

1:08:04 There will be blood. Not, not not a. But boy, if abandoned my child. But like this, this orphaned child essentially who runs off into the world trying to make his way, finding family. Like, where is he going to find family? There's something about I'm going to find my family in the government that doesn't appeal to me as much as I'm going to give money back to the government that it gave me because I don't want to feel like I, you know, owe it like I took money. It really does appeal to both the capitalist and the right winger in you Brad A. 100% pretty hardcore. I'll love, I'll love me some Cinderella, Man. It's a heck of a. Movie OK I know you know what I think we're in agreement here in what is perhaps the biggest upset I mean the only upset by number yet we're going to move Cinderella man on over catch me if you can here.

1:08:56 Let's go. And I'm OK with it. Yeah, I'm. Close. I am too. But I'm OK with it. Yeah, and I think this is another example of, I think in general, people would have Catch Me if You Can ranked higher. Like it would be like the 8th to 10th for a lot of people. For us, we're just a little bit cooler on it, especially this time around. I didn't find it quite as triumphant as I have in the past. So Cinderella man. We'll say I hate to see one of Leo's very best performances get thrown into the fiery chasm. It's so good. He he really does work wonders in that movie. I think you could hold that up as a contender for his best performance. Yeah, so sorry, dude, You're not the Bulldog of Bergen we're about to tell you. We're also losing.

1:09:37 Chasm there, but. We're also losing one of the best knock knock jokes of all time. Knock, knock. All right, man. Next match up is the number 10 overall seed, The Great Escape up against the number 23 seed, Anchorman. I hate, I hate this match. I hate it 'cause they're 2 movies that I love. They are like great dad movies. I remember you texting me when you were putting your list together and you said The Great Escape feels like the best baseline movie. Like it. It's the perfect #16 seed. And I'm curious about that because The Great Escape is one of those movies that just works for me and I couldn't even fathom having it halfway down my list, Brad. So I'm, I'm curious about like, does it just not work for you as well as it does for me?

1:10:28 Or is it just like, I really do hold that up as the baseline for like a great movie? And that's where I'm going to start my ranking. I think I was, I would say specifically for this season, like I got almost halfway through my list. I think I was on like the 14th and I was looking at it. I was like, I feel like Great Escape could be 1415, but the more I thought about it, the more I was like, I feel like The Great Escape is the perfect middling point for this group of 32 movies. Like I can think of 15 movies that are better than it. I could probably even put 17 or 18 above it.

1:11:08 But it for me, it felt like it set the standard of like, if you're going to be in the top of this bracket, you got to get past The Great Escape because it's such a great film. We just have a we just have a lot of good movies this season. Now, Anchorman is one of those movies that's like, I don't know how to explain it, man. It's kind of like hindered by its own ceiling. Like it is, it is so funny and it is also like a kind of purposely shitty movie. Do you know what I mean? Like it is it is the the platonic ideal of a type of dumb comedy. And I, I never want to be the guy. That's like comedies are less than because I don't think that's the case. I also just think The Great Escape is a better movie than Anchorman and I I don't really know how much more of a defense I need to give for The Great Escape on that front. Yeah, it's weird.

1:11:56 I so I ranked Anchorman in my top 10 on my vibes list. Like I, I really think that Anchorman is a top two or three comedy of all time. Like it just checks all the boxes for me. It's like I remember watching it as an eighth grader and a sleepover with some friends. Like it is such it has a left an indelible mark on my soul. Maybe that explains a lot about me. Bob I, I think I'm still going to move the Great escape on, even though my vibe was greater on Anchorman. I think that the great escape is the bigger cultural impact. I think it's the better movie overall. And you you just get such an interesting picture of World War 2 from it that I I will move the great escape on.

1:12:42 All right. We're we are in agreement there. So the Great escape is moving on and I think we're coming up to another match up that doesn't require a lot of conversation here. So we're looking at because obviously the overall seed. It's going to just drive on into the future. The number seven seed Inglourious Basterds up against the 26 seed Green Book. I never imagined myself being the type of guy to go to bat for Green Book as much as I have. Yeah, I just think the Green Book is way unfairly maligned and especially like if you go on IMDb, I'm pretty sure it has like a 8.1 or like it's a very well liked movie by the general population.

1:13:23 Now, they also gave Fight Club like an 8.8 or something. So, you know, take that with a grain of salt, but you know, we're leading. We've been leading up to the Oscars the last few weeks. And I've seen so many lists of people that are like the worst best picture winners of all time. And they'll have Green Book in there. And I'm like, OK, maybe if your argument is like, it's the worst win in that it didn't deserve to win best picture, that's fine. Because what was the other option that year? There were a couple. Alfonso Cuaron's movie Roma was kind of like the runaway favorite to win. I just think that like there are a lot worse movies that have actually won Best Picture than than Green Book. And like Crash.

1:14:04 Do I think that the racial politics of Green Book are kind of Pollyannish? Sure. I also think it's like a really well made movie. I think it's gorgeous to look at. The performances are good. It's a really good time at the movies. I don't I don't know what to say, man. It is going into the fiery abyss here. Yeah, obviously Inglorious Basterds, which I. Dude, this season around, I'm like holding Inglorious and Pulp Fiction side by side and I'm like, man, I, I don't know which one's better for me at this point. It's a that's a tough decision. It's an easy decision when I have Green Book next to it, which does make me a little sad. I at the end of the day, Bob Green Book is a really fun movie and I like I can't describe it any other way. It is an ultimate popcorn munching like crowd pleasing type of movie that goes into the fiery inferno with all of my well regards.

1:15:00 Yep. And that's that's kind of where I'm leaving it as well. So that that means we have our next 4 entries into the round of 16, which actually features an upset this time Brad. So we've got 12 Angry Men, Cinderella Man, a true Cinderella story here, The Great Escape and Inglorious Basterds talk about a bunch of guy movies getting into our our Sweet 16 here. And I think we're going to continue that trend in the bottom half of the bracket here. Brad. I'm really excited about this match up 'cause I know how easy it will be for us. It's the number three overall seed Casablanca, up against the number 30 seed, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

1:15:41 That's right. Now, Bob, I have to say I've watched The Assassination of the Jesse of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford at least nine times since we recorded and I've changed my tune. I think it's the greatest movie ever made. It's better than Casablanca. That's right, dude. I can't. I went back into the rewatch for that thinking, man, I hated this movie, but at least I get the train scene. Like the train scene was incredible. And then I saw it and was like, that was not that great. I did not remember that accurately. It's not as much fun as I thought it was. And then the rest of the movie happened so. Funny thing is, you were a little higher on the rest of the movie than you were the first time around.

1:16:24 I was like, not much, yeah, but slightly more it. Kind of evened out, you know? Listen, Casablanca, if nothing else, is one of the most perfect scripts ever written. And I think just based on that, it's moving on into the round of 16. I need we say more, Brad. I weird, you know how like you see, you think about buying like a Subaru and then you see Subarus everywhere. I feel like after this time we watched it, I saw the joke about I I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling in this establishment. I've seen that joke everywhere since we watched it again. So I, yeah, I don't know what's going on, but. It's like a Rosetta Stone for understanding references.

1:17:07 Like he's just, if you haven't seen it, you're like, I can tell that this Looney Tunes cartoon is referencing something, but I don't know what. And then you see it and you're like, Oh my gosh, I I understand everything now. Yeah, Casablanca. Very easy to move on. This might be one of the easiest choices I've ever made in 10 seasons worth of brackets. I mean, in fairness, I think anything versus Assassination of Jesse James was going to be moving on for you. Yeah. I mean, I will say Bob Casablanca, Great movie. Now we have 2 great movies in our next matchup. Brad, why don't you intro this one? Because this is a tough one. Kenya #14 is Lion King Shahana.

1:17:48 The Lion King. Versus the number 19 seed 500 days of summer. Is that the intro you were looking for? I love it, dude. No. All right, so here's the thing, man. I think on paper, The Lion King seems like the easy champion here because every time I watch 500 Days of Summer before I watch it, I'm like, man, I can't believe that I love this movie that much. Like this seems like the kind of movie that's not going to hold up. And then I make it like halfway through and I'm like, I don't know if this is going to hold up. And then they land the plane every single time. It's just, I've watched it enough times that I have to just stamp it and say it's a great movie. 500 Days of Summer is a great movie.

1:18:29 Absolutely. The Lion King, on the other hand, is a movie that I have always been like 9 1/2 to 10. There's like maybe 1 moment that I don't love. I don't, I don't love Timon and Pumba that they take away from the overall structure of the movie. You've always been like a step cooler on it than I have. And I think it's just because it's not Beauty and the Beast, which I know is like your favorite, the classic Disney movies. But I'm curious here, Brad, because I think you also gave The Lion King A9 or a nine and a half. So where are you falling on this one because it's a tough match up. It is a tough match up. I think Lion King is like classic Disney cinema. I think it probably is the general consensus of 90s Disney movies as like the greatest.

1:19:14 Like I can't think of another 90s Disney film that's held in higher regard. I think at the end of the day, I'm just, it's a great movie. It's a great animated film. It has a good message about like taking responsibility for your life and the emotional moments of the film are really impactful. I think it gets way worse when you introduce Matthew Broderick and like, as soon as you do the time jump, the movie dips in quality. For me. I I think that 500 Days of Summer is stunningly good. I think that the music video scene is incredibly well choreographed and it's bright and and vivacious and there's just full of life.

1:20:03 It, it feels like a Ferris Bueller knock off, but like in a really unique and in its own way kind of scene. I think that the expectations versus reality, that's one of the best scenes I've ever seen. It's so good. From any movie ever. Yet. So here's where I'm at, though I think I'm going to pick The Lion King because. I think. Across the board, the Lion King's like half a point better for me. I think it has the highest high in The Lion King is slightly higher than 500 days for me and I think the lowest low in 500 days is a little bit lower than than Lion King. And so I think like, as much as I love them both, I don't know that I can pick 500 days of summer. So we might be doing a coin flip here, Brad. Yeah, I, I picked 500 Days of Summer to move on. I think it it, it's not like I don't like Lion King. I just think I like 500 Days of Summer a little bit more. So I'm ready if you are, man.

1:21:01 All right, The Lion King will be heads. 500 Days of Summer will be tails. Brad, flip that coin. Dude, I think this coin's waited. We've got another heads. We have to go We. Have to go back and listen to some old season because I don't feel like Heads has won all the time. Every time, yeah. No, no, something got messed up with that coin. Yeah. So I guess, you know, 500 days of summer, Yes, it does get thrown into the fiery abyss, but it also doesn't have to go up against Casablanca in the next round.

1:21:44 So, you know, that'd be tough to win. It's a moral victory. All right, We've got two more match ups for the day, folks. And we're talking next about the number 11 overall seed Singing in the Rain up against the 22 seed American Beauty. I don't know where to start with this, Brad. I guess I want to start with like, what the hell, my friend? Because the only reason that singing in the rain is the 11 seed is solely because of you. I don't. Know what you're talking about? What I mean, do you not experience joy in your life? Mean, do you not when the camera pushes in on Gene Kelly's face as he says, come on with the rain, I have a smile on my face.

1:22:28 Do you not feel anything in that cold, dark heart of yours? I mean, you know, I give it an 8.5. I'm like 8.5 singing in the rain I like. Singing in the rain. It's a good movie. Explain yourself. Are you not a musical guy? Is that what we're discovering? No, I like musicals. I The musicals, yeah. But like, we've got, I mean, we have three of the best musicals ever this season and every time you've been like, not for me. Yeah, I mean, I don't know man. I I am trying to remember musicals. I remember watching growing up. I watched 7 Brides for Seven Brothers. I remember watching Guys and Dolls. Yeah, Guys and Dolls is a good one. Lucky a lady tonight, Bob, a lucky 7, if you will. I, I really love an American in Paris. I think.

1:23:28 I think it might be what you talked about with comedies. I think musicals have a cap, have a ceiling for me that like, I love them, they're fun and they're bright and I enjoy them. I love Across the Universe like another example of a musical I saw when it came out. Really enjoy it. Lala Land. Lala land would be the one for me that like breaks through the musical ceiling and become something more than that. Overall, I I just think that these kind of have a ceiling and I'm like I said, I really like this movie. I think that Gene Kelly and who's his the sidekick, Donald O'Connor.

1:24:09 Donald O'Connor. Incredible, great performance. Man, I think Singing in the Rain is one of those movies that like, even when I was at my like most film Bro E and was like this Singing in the Rain, you watch it and you're like, OK, like I, I have no, I have no qualms with this. It's just like it transcends every limitation the musical genre could put on because it moves so quickly. Like everything either builds to a song or a punchline. Like the the plot flows logically from scene to scene. It doesn't ever feel the only thing in the movie that feels like and then is like the ballet sequence. And that's just because Gene Kelly was trying to top American in Paris. And even then I can kind of forgive it because I think it's a better ballet sequence than than American in Paris. So like, I don't know, man.

1:24:57 I do think that in this match up against American Beauty, which we have not talked about at all, this was a really easy one for me to move Singing in the Rain on. And I am incredibly nervous that you're going to go to bat here for Kevin Spacey of all people over Singing in the Rain. Don't. Throw me under the bus because of a legend. Noted Pervert defender Brad G continues to place Kevin Spacey Films in the second round. Listen man, American Beauty is an example of Kevin Spacey just nailing it. But he's great. It's still. It still is one of the greatest twists I've ever experienced watching a movie.

1:25:37 I and I think the messaging about the world that they lived in in the 90s was just really well crafted and articulated. This was easy for me. I moved American Beauty on. You are an insane person, man. You are an insane person. And I swear to God, if this is the first time that the coin is not heads, I'm going to lose my mind. Dude, this is insane. What are we talking about here? Like, I, you know me, I defended American Beauty, like I defended Green Book, but I came out to like an 8 1/2 on that. We're talking about one of maybe the five most beloved films ever made since people started making movies in Singing in the Rain.

1:26:18 And I. I gave said give me more, Lester Burnham. I listen man. I gave both movies an 8.5. I think that they're both really well made. I think American Beauty's a better movie. I hate the coin of destiny and I'm going to be real mad if something does not go my way here. So singing in the rain is going to be heads. American Beauty is tails. Brad, you have put us in another impossible situation. You've got that coin. Yeah, we are talking about another heads. Thank God.

1:27:01 Listen, we will address the weighted coin in another episode, but I I will put up with it as long as it's flipping in my favor. I'm. Going to I'm going to do some testing once we're done with this episode and we, we might need, we might need a new coin. Like I flipped it 1000 times at 990. All right, one more match up here. This is an easy one for me, Brad, but I think both movies deserve just a little bit of conversation. It's the number six overall seed. Some like it hot up against the 27 seed. Aaron Man, Some like it Hot is one of those movies that it's like you respect it, you remember loving it, you think it's fun and great and it exists in that like fun, great category. And then you watch it again and you're like, Oh no, this is actually a perfect movie.

1:27:47 Like I wouldn't change one jot or title of this script. One drunken Marilyn Monroe delivery. It's perfect. It's perfect, dude. Yeah. It I I think it's the greatest comedy of all time like. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't argue with with that because the ones that I like better like the apartment it it's so dramatic, like it's it would tip into dramedy. Yes. And if we're talking about a movie that stays in that sort of like classic Shakespeare, everybody gets married at the end. You know, that's what makes it a comedy. Then like some Like it Hot is that movie dude? Yeah, including what's his something E Brown, What's his name?

1:28:30 Joey Brown. Yeah, including Joey Brown and Jack Levin get married at the end of this. What an absolutely great film. This this was a very nearly as easy as Casablanca over the assassination of Jesse James by the Coward robber for all. Right, so that is our last entry into the round of 16. I'll go ahead and read all of the movies that are moving into our second round here, which we'll be discussing in our next episode. So from the top we've got Vertigo versus Star Wars. West Side Story will be going up against The Tree of Life, Pulp Fiction versus Amadeus, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre versus Rear Window. And then on the other side of the bracket, 12 Angry Men versus Cinderella Man, The Great Escape versus Inglourious Basterds, Casablanca versus The Lion King and Singing in the Rain against Some Like It Hot.

1:29:27 Guess what, Brad? We watched a ton of great movies this season. What a. This is just. What a freaking blast. This is this has been incredible. I think that if you are ever stuck for like, what should we watch tonight? It's really easy to look at this list and be like, just put it in a randomizer and you're set man. You you will find a great movie to watch. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in to Part 1 of the Bracket Challenge. Thanks for listening to our Oscars recap as well. We will be back next week to breakdown the round of 16 and the round of eight in our Bracket Challenge, But we want to know what you think so far, both of our picks, and what you would pick to win your Season 10 bracket. Don't forget to download your bracket at filmwhiskey.com and then you can let us know what you think on any of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube at Film Whiskey.

1:30:21 Or if you want to join the conversation, we will be talking about this bracket on our Discord server, so if you want to talk about it there, you can find a link to our Discord at the end of every single one of our show notes. We'll be back next week talking about Bracket, but until then, I'm Bob Book. I like that you call it bracket like it's a person. Not the bracket, just bracket. We'll be talking about bracket. If you ever have another kid, you need to name him Bracket Bracket Book Bracket. I'm Brad. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.