Black Panther / Jim Beam Black Bourbon Whiskey

0:00 In 2018, director Ryan Coogler and star Chadwick Boseman gave the world a dynamic entry into the world's most marvelous franchise. In 2024, we take inspiration from that killer suit with a Black Label bourbon. The film is Black Panther. The whiskey is Jim Beam Black Label Bourbon. And we'll review them both. This is. The film and. Whiskey. Podcast Welcome to the Film and Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey.

0:50 I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And Brad, I don't know if you can tell, but my voice is a little raspy, a little bit of hoarse today. I. You're sounding a little quinty. Get off my lawn. I'm just going to keep saying that all day. This is this is the episode to do that. Yes, 100%. We're going to tie Gran Torino back into this. Beast as widely as possible. So I am coming off of a week long vacation. We got home on Saturday and on Sunday I took my seven-year old son to Cedar Point. And folks, if you're not familiar with Cedar Point, it is perhaps the most famous roller coaster amusement park in the world. Was it his first?

1:33 Time. It was his first time. What? An experience, man. We got one-on-one time the whole day. We, we got there at 11:00 in the morning and we stayed till 10:00. And Brad, I'm not a big roller coaster guy. Like I, I get real scared on the big ones. Yeah, but he's seven years old, so I was like. Dude, I feel like you'd be a really sweaty guy on roller coasters. I just tense up. It's same thing exactly. I'm just, yeah, it's not fun. But because he's seven, I'm like, I'll, I'll take you on all your first coasters and look like a hero, like, oh, buddy, you'll be fine. Because he doesn't know that I, you know, anything over 100 feet. I'm like, absolutely not. Little 7 year old Bob is still inside there just like oh God no. So yeah, man, I think we rode 30 different things at Cedar Point yesterday.

2:21 Jeez Louise. I mean. That includes all the little carnival rides and stuff, but it was we were averaging a ride every 15 minutes. It was great. I. Was going to say that like 12 hours, 30 rides. That is a heck of an average. Man, we killed it, man. So anyway, I, I screamed myself hoarse and I'm hoping that the bourbon helps kind of coat my throat a little bit here as we go into the podcast. But we survived last week, Brad. We made it through The Last Jedi. And I see light at the end of the tunnel. We are in the last two episodes of season eight of this podcast, wherein we are looking at the highest grossing film of each year from 1988 to 2019. So Brad, we've done 30 full years of Hollywood here. And I know that I've checked in with you at certain points about like, hey, let's let's try to put this in context. Let's put this in perspective.

3:12 But I think we've done a poor job from week to week of asking about each film. Why was this the highest grossing movie? And now if we try to do that with these last two episodes, it's kind of a moot point because the reason is because it was the Marvel movie that. Year cause 'cause Marvel. Because Marvel. Now here, clue me in on this. Did Infinity War come out in 2018 or like really early in 2019? No, it came out in 2018 and Black Panther just made more money than Infinity War. And I I think especially since we're looking at the domestic box office and not worldwide, like Black Panther did not do as well outside of America as Avengers did. And for obvious reasons, which we'll talk about like this is like a very culturally important. Movie.

3:59 Yes. Like it was just, it was an event movie, especially for a specific demographic of people. And like, you know, I don't know if that just doesn't play as well in China, but apparently Avengers did. That's what's kind of cool about this season is we're looking at the domestic box office, not necessarily just worldwide. And there's been some outliers because of that. You'd expect it to be Infinity War for this year, but it's not. Yeah, I, I'm, it makes sense to me why this would be a a domestic huge hit. But I will say, Bob, the African American population in the US, last I checked is around like 12 to 13%. Yep.

4:41 So I, I, if I had to venture a guess, this movie was way more popular than than just the black population of America seeing it multiple times. Oh, for sure, like like this. Like I guess what I'm trying to say is this movie had had appeal far beyond what you would think it would. Absolutely. And I think what it did really well was it captured everybody that was going to see Marvel anyway. But then like, I specifically remember going to the movie theater to watch this movie and there was a sign on the door outside that was like this one theater has been completely rented out by like, you know, an African American church in the area.

5:25 And like everybody went and I haven't seen that done since like the Passion of the Christ when all the Catholics were like, we're going, we're going to rent the theater out for Jesus. Like this was that big of an event. So. Are you saying that Chadwick Boseman was Black Jesus? Listen, man, I I'm not saying anything, but the comparison certainly seems to be implied. So Brad, let's jump into talking about the movie itself. And in order to do that, we need to get to our first segment of the day, which we call, Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds taken on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call, Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen, often for the first time.

6:14 Brad, what is your history with Black Panther? Is this your first time? This is my second time I, I think I've said before in the podcast that I, I lost interest with Marvel following The Winter Soldier. Didn't watch anything for like 6 years, five years. You know, that probably came out in 2013 and right around end game time a month or two beforehand, a a few of my good friends who loved Marvel were like, Brad, we got to catch you up. So we watched a few of the newer films, the the James Spader, whichever Avengers film that was. We watched Civil War, we watched Black Panther, we watched Infinity War and I, I think maybe Spider Man Homecoming. That was like my catch up literature before I watched End game.

7:03 And so yeah, I watched it then and I didn't really like it that much. I thought it was pretty boring and I watched it again and spoiler alert still. Boring. Oh wow, OK dude, I feel like the end of this podcast season is just a hell on earth for you, man. The Last Jedi. And then apparently two more movies that you probably don't like that much. So strap in folks, for Brad to be miserable. Brad, you have 60 seconds on the clock to break down the plot of this movie and go. Black Panther is a Marvel film following the plight of the country of Wakanda following the death of its king. The son of the king, Prince D'challa, steps in, fights a ritual combat and becomes the new king of Wakanda.

7:52 In one of his first acts as king, he goes to track down a notorious arms dealer who has stolen from the Wakandans. In that process, he stumbles upon an old Wakandan, a person who was from Wakanda but turns out to be his cousin. And that cousin comes in, tries to wrest control of the Kingdom from Chadwick Boseman, and upon seemingly defeating him, he takes over the country and declares that he's going to murder everybody everywhere. But then Chadwick Boseman, fun fact, is not dead. Oh man, we should have seen it coming in end game. He comes back, kicks some butt, takes some names. Now he's the king and he kills Michael B Jordan. He sure does.

8:44 The end. The End Man That was truly a synopsis made by a man who did not care for this film too much. I I think I gave a pretty pretty accurate rendition. So this is going to be kind of hard because Brad, sometimes I catch you in that like that happy middle zone of I don't like this movie, but I don't hate this movie. And that's where the real good audio comes into play 'cause you have next to nothing to say about the movie. So first of. All, you have no voice today, so it's gonna be a heck of an episode. It's gonna be a a really silent meditation kind of episode today. So let me ask this because I actually really like this movie and I think it's one of my favorite Marvel films. And I'll, I'll tell you where I sit with it. And it's definitely a flawed movie and I liked it less this time than I have in the past.

9:31 But I think what I noticed this time through is that Ryan Coogler, the director, Oscar nominated filmmaker, is just really good at making movies. And I don't just mean like his movies can't be boring. Like I, I'm, I understand that you found this boring, but Marvel movies don't have this much thought put into like the costuming and the world building and the cinematography. There were so many really great wonders in this movie where most Marvel movies are so chaotic and you can tell everything's shot on a green screen and then cut together in a way that makes the VFX make sense.

10:12 I think 1 area where this movie really sucks is that the when the the CGI takes over towards the end, it's like really bad video game cutscene CGI. And so my big hot take is that the Marvelly stuff about this movie is actually all the worst parts of this movie. And there's a really cool, I don't want to call it a political thriller, but kind of like castle intrigue story going on that makes for a really good movie. And then every time they have to be like use the magic beads or you know, press this button and your suit comes out of nowhere. I'm like OK, the superhero stuff actually detracts from the rest of the movie for me. But all that to say, I noticed how well done like the camera work was and how much care and thought went into the actual making of this movie. Especially since I've started watching Infinity War, a movie that I also like, but where it it, it just has to be plot, plot, plot, plot, plot for three hours because that's how that movie works.

11:11 But there's no inventiveness. There's no care or thought put into any of the shot setups in that movie. Whereas in this one, it really did feel like, you know, for better or for worse, everything was really planned out. Everything was storyboarded well. You could see the intense, I think, in the way the movie was shot. And so I kind of want to pick your brain on that front. As a guy who didn't care for the movie, what elements of the movie did you notice that still had merit to them? I think, oh man, you're, you're just I, I can already feel the animosity that's about to come, Bob. I think that this is overall just another generic bland Marvel movie.

11:54 Yeah, I I just like I I. I can't think of a single shot in the film that stands out to me. I can't think of any action scene that felt any different than the thousands of other Marvel action scenes that I've I've seen. The, the, the few moments where I felt like there was some real beauty going on was when you could tell that there was no green screen and they actually were filming on set somewhere, like on location somewhere. Like there's one or two shots at the start as they're going into Wakanda of just a, a huge wide shot of a mountain range in a beautiful grassy valley. And I'm like, oh, that doesn't feel like a Marvel movie because it's not bland concrete looking like just really crappy washed out visuals.

12:51 And so I, I, I do think you get a few moments like that where I'm like, oh, hey, yeah, beautiful African country. Like, let's have more of that. But by the end of the film, when you have rhinoceroses jumping out of the ground like it's, it returns to that flat washed out. Do they not focus? Is that not how rhinoceroses work? I'm I'm unfamiliar. Yeah, I, I mean, honestly, I'm not either. I'm not a zoologist but think about that scene when they come out like. Yeah, dude. No, you're right. 8080% of the screen is taken up by a burning wreckage that somehow, like, the fire isn't even red. It's like, Gray and bland and muted. And so it's like, yeah, there's moments of beauty masked by just so much Marvel.

13:42 Yeah, And honestly, I felt like the first. So I think this movie's like 2 hours and 10 minutes. But just for the sake of this argument, we'll call it two hours. Like for the first hour and a half, I thought this was like an 8 1/2 out of 10 movie. I was really like, OK, like, you've you've got all the elements here. You've got a really good villain with, like, some menace to him who is emotionally wounded but also super dangerous and unstable. You've built this world of tense, kind of fragile ecosystem between all of these tribes who have agreed to work together and now they're thrown into chaos like it's a good story going on. And then the last half hour is just like, let's do a Marvel battle. Let's do a battle for 1/2 hour where just nonsensical things happen.

14:25 And it really, I feel like it really loses the plot in the last half hour. And if I'm being frank, let's you know, right here, let's do this. I'm going to get most of my nitpicks out of the way on the front end, Brad, because diving into performances, I want to start towards kind of the more forgotten elements of the cast. Because there is a major character in this movie that every time I watch this movie, I forget this person is in the movie. Why is Martin Freeman in this movie? Why does his CIA agent need to even be part of this film? Because Marvel. No, I'm 100% with you, man. I I love Martin Freeman.

15:05 He serves. Zero purpose in this movie. No purpose. Like like they make fun of him a lot and that's that's about it. It is kind of funny that he's like the diversity higher of this movie. You know what? I. Mean, oh, I was, I was doing a research or two facts and a falsehood. And you know, some reporters somewhere on the media tour asked him like, what's it like being one of like 3 white people on set? And his answer was essentially, oh, this is what it feels like to be a black person on set all the time. Yeah. I'm, I mean, I imagine it would. Here's the problem though, is like his character sucks. I think he's miscast, honestly. I don't think they, they play to his strengths as an actor and and there's just no reason for him to be there. It really every time they cut away to him, it takes away from giving screen time to somebody that's more suited to this material, honestly, because I think top to bottom, this is one of the best casts that a Marvel film has ever assembled. I count 3 Oscar winners and three additional Oscar nominees in the top like eight people in this movie. It's it's pretty stacked, dude.

16:11 And even if I don't, I mean, I don't know if you find the material itself bad. I think that the script is really good for this movie. But I also just think that it's nice to have good actors to the point where Michael B Jordan's Killmonger, who has become one of the more famous villains of the last 15 years in movies. I think this is probably Michael B Jordan's worst performance ever. Like every line reading is pretty bad and he looks buff as hell. And he's got a really cool, like all the little scars, the notches he gives himself. It's a bad ass look. Oh yeah, And you remember the philosophy of Killmonger. But then when you hear Michael B Jordan saying his lines, it's like, wow, was that really the best take that you got? Dude, the delivery on almost every line, it's like he's oh man, I can see it.

17:06 He's like moving his head, almost like clenching his jaw every single time he delivers a line like it's, it's the exact same look where it's it's this kind of like bitter, angry, but I'm powerful head movement. Like can you see it in your? Can you see it like what I'm talking about 100%? But even. Every single lion is delivered the exact same way. And I wouldn't mind that sort of like clenched jaw, I'm angry performance if he it seems like he doesn't get the rhythm of the dialogue correct. Like. He's, he's always kind of not stumbling through it, but it's like he'll start rushing and then realize like, oh, that's not where that sentence is actually supposed to end. And then he'll go back into like, there needs to be some kind of rhythm and poetry to some of the things he's saying. I think about that first scene under the waterfall where he challenges T'challa and he's saying something like, and all this pain has led me here to you. And it's just the way that he says it where it's like he doesn't have the whole line in mind. He just has the first clause of the of the sentence in his mind. And he gets through that.

18:15 And then he's like, oh, shoot, I have to say the rest of the sentence now. And every single line, it just sounds like it's the first time he's reading it out loud as if they were recording it at like the table read when they first got the script. And I hate to dump on the guy 'cause I actually think Michael B Jordan's a good actor. Like if you've ever seen read, He's so good in that. Oh 100% man. If I'm being blunt, Bob, I think it's because the American accent stands out so severely against all of the African accents that they have throughout the movie. I truly just feel like he like the use of the American accent because listen to Martin Freeman in the movie as well.

18:58 Like, obviously he doesn't do a perfect American accent, but it's pretty good. But he sounds the exact same way throughout the movie. There's no rhythm to the way he speaks it. And who knows, maybe, maybe this was intentional. Maybe I'm like reading something into Ryan Coogler's intent here. But anybody in this movie who speaks American English has almost zero rhythm or authenticity to it 'cause I mean, even think about Gollum and Andy Serkis, like even his voice feels like it fits in the movie way more than any of the two.

19:39 I think it's just Martin Freeman and and Michael B Jordan, but any of the American accents in the film? No, that's a good point. I didn't. I hadn't thought about that. So I you. Thought I wouldn't have anything to say today. So we've gotten through a couple people in the cast. I, I mean, I guess we should just kind of jump up to Chadwick Boseman at this point, who has become like a really interesting person to talk about because of his untimely death. You know, he had just kind of catapulted into super stardom with Black Panther and that this is a role that like, especially for young Black people, has become. Iconic, you know what I mean? And Chadwick Boseman had become a figure who went from being relatively unknown to beloved overnight and dies before they make this the second Black Panther film. And so now it's like this interesting time capsule of a guy who had so much promise and so much potential, and it seemed like so many years ahead of him, but he's a. Hell of a good actor.

20:39 He's such a good actor, you know, Oscar nominated and man, it sucks. Like it's just really, really sad to watch this movie now because not only is he such a good actor, but the character of T'challa is one of the more interesting characters in Marvel. Like he is he, it's like what everything we talk about when we talk about Chris Evans as Captain America, like he's just decent and good and noble and everything that makes us laugh at the, you know, cockiness of Tony Stark is balanced out by the thoughtfulness of somebody like T'challa And I, dude, I just can't say enough good things about him in this movie, especially because he is not like he's the lead character, but he's not bombastic. In fact, like every time he's on screen with Killmonger, Killmonger dominates the scene.

21:33 And I think Chadwick Boseman is a good enough actor to know that, like, it's OK for me to recede into the background sometimes. I'm still the lead of the movie. I don't have to dominate every scene. And I think that's honestly one of the more refreshing things because sometimes those Avengers films can just seem like 15 people who are all clamoring for the spotlight in any given scene. I've never felt that way watching Chadwick Boseman. No, not at all. The, the reality is, I, I think that T'challa is the only character as written that I like in this movie. Everybody else in this film is so one sided and there's like no depth to them. There's no nuance to who they are except for T'challa. And I, I think that as he's written and as he's portrayed, there's a level of intrigue and interest and you can feel T'challa developing like it feels like a Lion King Ask reality, where he's truly seeking his ancestors support and wisdom and guidance and yet trying to forge his own way and trying to make his own path.

22:47 And I, I love the movement from where he starts to where he ends. And I think the performance by Boseman ties it all together. It it, it gives it a substance that, like you said, there's a lot of Marvel movies that lack the amount of acting chops that you have in Chadwick Boseman. Well, and again. I think that's one of the things I love about this cast. And if you're if you could say anything negative about the movie, it's that they found a way to get like six or seven Oscar nominees on screen together, but they don't all have Oscari roles. And I think at the end of the day, I'd I'd still rather have it that way. Like I'd rather be wondering like, huh, I wonder why Forest Whitaker agreed to do this movie then then to just find have some dude that's like AC plus actor, you know what I mean? Like it's just it's nice to have a plus actors doing small roles and wondering like, huh, how'd they get that person here? Because like Lupita Nyong'o as the love interest in the movie Nokia, she's good but underdeveloped character, right? And Daniel Kaluya as his name in the movie is Wakabi. He's the leader of the tribe that wears blue and kind of revolts against T'challa.

24:03 He's an Oscar winner now. He's been in so many movies and like, what's he doing here? I don't know. Daniel Kalua, what did he win an Oscar for? So he won best supporting actor a couple years ago for the movie Judas and the Black Messiah. That was a super good movie, but he's probably best known for he's been in two or three of Jordan Peele's movies. He was in Get Out and then he was the star of the movie. Nope. All those, all those movies I didn't watch because. Not a not a horror movie guy, Yeah. I was going to say horrors, not not much him. But even as you go down the cast list like Angela Bassett as Ramonda, she's really good. And I think the one that stands out for me is Sterling K Brown who has like 3 minutes at the beginning of the movie as in Jobu the the brother of the king who gets killed. Sterling K Brown is an actor that like, I was completely unfamiliar with until This Is Us. And then I freaking loved the first couple seasons of This Is Us.

24:59 And I've been following his career ever since. He was just nominated for an Oscar this year. He is such a good actor. It's like mind blowing. And he has this moment in this movie when Michael B Jordan wants to go to the ancestral plane. And when he gets there, it's completely different than the ancestral plane that T'challa went to. And it's just Sterling K Brown. And he's like, this is where I'm this is where I'm condemned to be forever. And he has this conversation with Michael B Jordan where he basically realizes like, what have I done? What have I created? And watching when they cut to Sterling K Brown in the afterlife, having the realization of how badly he screwed up.

25:44 And not only that, but like how his own lineage is going to be cut off, watching him fight back tears, watching him grapple with his emotions. That's why you get that type of actor for a role this small. Because otherwise like this scene would work on paper, but he brings so many things between the lines that you need a good actor to do. Yeah, he is exactly the small role actor you needed for that scene in the exact way that they misused Martin Freeman, but you know what I mean? Like, like they played perfectly to what Sterling K Brown does best, which if you're going to hire an actor for a 2 minute roll, like you might as well just give him everything that he is good at.

26:32 And they don't do that with Martin Freeman, but they do it incredibly well with Sterling K Brown. I also liked a lot of the actors that are lesser known like the the head woman of like the guard. Her name is Okoye. In the movie she's played by an actress named Deny Gurira. She is fantastic dude. And then my favorite of all of these kind of smaller parts is. Don't say it. What? Don't say it. Who do you think I'm going? To say, are you? Are you going to say Leticia? Right. No, I was not. Although I think that she's good. I think she adds like some spice to the cast list. She's a funny role. But I think she's terrible. Well, we'll get to her. I want to talk about Winston Duke for two seconds as Mbaku. He's the head of the Jabari tribe. Dude, He's great.

27:17 He's so good. He was in Jordan Peele's movie Us, and he's really good in that movie too. I freaking love him here. And I spent so much time wondering, like, who does he remind me of, both physically and like his comedic timing and things like that. He reminds me so much of Tom Hardy. Like when I'm watching a Tom Hardy performance, I just watched him in the movie The Bike Riders, and he's really good in that. Winston Duke is like that. But what if Tom Hardy didn't do so much weird stuff and had a little bit more charisma and like that? I really I. I thought that like, I probably actually liked Winston Duke better in his role than I liked Michael B Jordan as Killmonger. Oh, 100% like they don't give Winston Duke a ton to do on screen, but the movement from like challenger for the throne to I'm just back in my Kingdom ruling over my people and I don't actually have a life ending grudge against the main people of Wakanda.

28:20 Like I actually think that the world building is really poorly done in this film. I think there's so many things that just make zero sense, but one of the one of the few small pieces that I think is better than almost any other movie I've ever seen that has this theory of like, I don't know, there's a bit of a trope of like one nation ruled by, you know, multiple tribes and the tribes represent different elements of all of those. There's always one tribe that gets outcast, and that tribe is always the bad tribe. Like, you know, it's just they're the ones who try to overthrow the rest of them. And the fact that they kind of like subvert that a little bit and show that like, hey, like we might have our differences, but we're still Wakandans.

29:07 I'd like that there. There's something about that that was very charming. And you're right, it's charming because Winston Duke is a turns in a great performance. 100% All right, tell me what you don't like about Leticia Wright, because I want to give you the chance to be spicy here. I I mean, I don't know if it's spicy, I just think she's really annoying. Like they write her like she's a 13 year old child genius who knows that she's better than everyone. And then Letitia Wright takes it up to 11 and like over acts everything the whole time. And I I just, it's, it's not like a major flaw in the movie. She's a minor role. She just kind of got under my skin every time she was on screen.

29:52 Yeah, And, and I think that's intentional, but also like, I can see how that role could get super annoying for you. Yeah, I, I mean, the, the only thing that redeems it is that Chadwick Boseman is an incredible actor. And like, he delivers that level of like, oh, this is my annoying little sister in a really loving way that like, makes me want to like her. But then she starts talking again and I, I just. I'm over it, man. So I just recently got my kids to watch The Lion King for the first time. They've always been like my older son has always been too scared to watch it and I'll try to turn it on and he'll run out of the room.

30:35 This time around, we just turned it on. Is that how you like it? Alone time with Carrie. Like, I guess, oh, I guess King o'clock King. So his younger brother is actually like more willing to try things that he's kind of scared to do. So we just turned the movie on when his little brother was in the room and let the older one wander back in and watch it. And so we finally got through the whole movie. They really liked it. But I mean, this movie has so much Lion King in it. Like, it follows the same beats. And I know that Lion King is basically Hamlet as well. So like, I get it. But it was really cool to see like, The Lion King elements of it.

31:16 And I think that's part of why Letitia Wright's character didn't bother me so much because like, the dynamic between T'challa and Shuri reminded me so much of young, cocky Simba and Nala always being like, shut up, dude. And I think that that made it work a little better. Not to your point. These are both grown people who are behaving like children a little bit. So yes, I I get it. But once again, The Lion King saves the day. Yeah, no, The Lion King always saves the day. I think the only, the only thing that would have been better is if you get to the afterlife and all of a sudden it's just weirdly James Earl Jones, who's the dad. But it it just, it just makes sense. You just once you go to the ancestral play and you become James Earl Jones.

32:03 Yeah, I get it. One thing I do want to touch on before we go to Break, Brad, is this idea of like an afterlife happening in a Marvel movie, which I found really interesting. And you know, as I'm watching the movie, I'm not thinking about it because I think the movie pulls me in on its own terms. Like this, in this world, there is an afterlife, but this is not something that we are accustomed to seeing in like a Marvel movie. And that's what gets so messy about The Avengers films to me. You kind of have references to things like this in the first Avengers where they're calling Thor a demigod. And then Captain America's like, there's only one God. So you understand that these people all have not, not just. That's a.

32:44 That's a great line, man. Oh it's great, but you start to understand like they all have different world views, but not just world views like actual cosmic differences like. Like metaphysical reality. Ontological, yes, yes. So I guess I just want to hear real quick, not just like what you thought of the ancestral plane scenes, but I think it adds a lot to a Marvel movie to even dabble in those areas because it's like we're willing to go to space with these guys. We're willing to think about aliens and different races on different planets. But the metaphysical is not usually something that these movies dabble in. And I think I just appreciate this movie for even attempting it. Yeah, I mean, I, I think that there you could read it very cynically in like, yeah, there's an afterlife, but you only have access to it if you're the freaking king of Wakanda, you know what I mean?

33:45 I, I think just purely on a world building standpoint, I think that it is helpful to say that there are deeply spiritual superheroes that live in a world where this world is not the only reality they care about. And if anything, that's kind of the reality of the war between Chadwick Boseman and Michael B Jordan, that like T'challa is fighting for a world that will continue on beyond the one we currently live in. And Michael B Jordan is like, yeah, all like plunder that, for what it's worth to me, to give me power.

34:25 And then I'm going to burn down the world that we live in. And I think that's kind of the core conflict between the two of them is to say that like, hey, no, I, I believe in something beyond myself and I'm going to go to that thing for wisdom and guidance and for a picture of what is best in this world. Well said man. And on that note, I think it's time to. Drink whiskey. I have my moments. I have nothing like I know when it's best to not undermine what you say just to let it hang out there in the ether. What's You're Welcome Film and Whiskey Nation? Let's drink some bourbon. What do you say? I'm ready, man.

35:06 All right, so today we are checking out Jim Beam Black Label Bourbon. Now, Brad, before we even get into the review, I have to say this worked out kind of fortuitously. Sometimes we try to theme up our whiskeys with our movies, and it's pretty cool that we got Black Panther and Black Label Bourbon on the same week. But this was completely an accident. We were supposed to review this weeks and weeks ago and I had assumed that because you can pick this up in the small little 50ML bottles that you and I would just have time to go out and grab it. And then we both totally forgot to do that and we had to completely reshuffle our order around. But it brought us to this moment. So it's it's nice to have what looks like a well thought out pairing here.

35:48 That was complete accident. Truly serendipitous I I'm just blown away by how life works out in our favor. Now the second. Caveat that I'll give before we dive in is that. Within the last month, Jim Beam has introduced a new product and it's called Jim Beam Black Label bourbon seven-year. And I thought, oh, how cool that they're doing another higher end version of their black label bourbon. Literally this is this just happened in the last month. I see reviews online from June, so I know that it's it's not been very long. However, what I did not realize is that it's actually replacing the regular Jim Beam Black Label. From everything I can see on their website, they have scrubbed Black Label from existence and replaced it with Black Label seven-year. So yeah, I think what we're drinking today, Brad, is actually going to be obsolete by the time this thing posts and. Very yes.

36:43 If not, then very soon. If we like it, we'll recommend it to you because you can probably go out and buy it at a discount because it seems like this is the last of its kind. Or maybe the price will go just skyrocketing. Who knows, this will become a collector's item for sure. All right. So somewhat doubt that, Bob. Here's the thing with Black Label bourbon. Literally, they just say this about it. It's aged years longer than the original Jim Beam. I don't know what that means. How many years? Like how much more well aged is this? I think that's why I appreciate that they're putting A7 year age statement on it now. But I have to imagine this is a blend of something like AI don't know a five to seven-year whiskey. Because if the regular Jim Beam is 4, then maybe this is a little bit more well aged.

37:31 At minimum, if I were to be pedantic, I would say it's six years old because years wouldn't indicate there you go. More than one, more than one. All right, So we're going to probably 6, probably not more than three because three would be 7 and and they're coming out with seven. So. This is 6 year bourbon. You know, just just just taking a wild guess. All right, so let's go ahead and dive in. Brad, we have been really hit or miss on these Jim Beam lower shelf products. This ones clocking in at 43 percent ABV, 86 proof. Let's go ahead and get to our nosing notes and I'm going to kick us off here, Brad, 'cause I'm drinking this live. I will say straight up, this is the most pleasant smelling of all the Jim Beam products we've had so far. Really nice kind of simplistic sweetness, almost like a simple syrup, but there's some really good caramel character I get a pop of almost like like sponge sugar. Smells like cotton candy a little bit to me. I like that a lot.

38:27 And that's exactly what I want in my cheap whiskey. So I'm going to give this a 7 out of 10 on the nose. Yeah, I, I'm just a little below you, but I, I think it has the beam nuttiness. There's caramel, there's vanilla. For me, it wasn't quite a cotton candy. It was a little more of like a bubble gum, but basically the same thing. You know, if it was cotton candy, I'd be at a 7 out of 10, but you know, bubble gum. We'll we'll give it a 6 1/2 here. I wanted the cotton candy. When I get to the taste, it kind of just becomes exactly what we've had these last few weeks. Brad, there's quite a bit of just wateriness to this. It tastes really, really diluted. Dude, my first note is watery.

39:08 Yeah, it's. Just. Super watery now I'm going. To take the devil's cut out of this, but so far we've tried besides that the double oaked and the single barrel and the single barrel was pretty good. This has kind of those double oaked notes again it. Tastes really oaky. It's a little bit bitter. And then it has that bubble gum sweetness to try to cover up for it. It's not a terrible whiskey, but like if you put this in front of me and told me nothing about it, I would try this and I would note it's really diluted and it tastes just. I don't know. What's the word not incoherent? Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't cohere. It doesn't have a cohesiveness to it. So it's kind of all over the place. I would be able to immediately peg this as a bottom shelf whiskey, so take of that what you will. But it's not.

39:56 It's just not that good. Brad. I'm going to give it just a 5 1/2 on the taste. Yeah, I I'm with you, man. It's watery. There's like hints of things. There's there's caramel, there's vanilla, there's some peanuts. To me, it, it almost turned into a bit of a saltine cracker that that's a little bit stale. I'm, I'm a once again, I'm barely above you on this. I'm sitting at a six out of 10 on the on the palette. All right, So when it comes to finish, I think that's where this kind of shines. It has a little bit of spice to it. That bitterness is there, but it's more just like a toasted oak kind of flavor. I do think that this would be really good as like a Coke mixer probably wouldn't stand up in a cocktail because of the wateriness, but it has enough spice and oakiness to it that it would at least pop with carbonated beverage.

40:46 I think that, again, I'm not really going to give it any higher than a six here, but it's definitely a step up for me from the pallet. Yeah, I I think you stole my notes on this, Bob. The the finish was easily the best part for me. I give it a 7 out of 10 here. I think the oakiness is really pleasant. There's some black pepper and the, the sweetness finally transforms into like a really nice brown sugar for me. So I, I, I like the finish here 7 out of 10. I think balance wise the it's OK. There's, there's a consistency of what they're trying to go for. It's just all kind of at AC minus level. So I'll give it a 6 1/2 on balance. I think that's a fair score.

41:34 Like I think they're shooting for AC minus type whiskey here and they're achieving it really well. And like that sounds like an insult, but when you're talking about a $20 bottle of whiskey, like they're not putting maximum effort into this thing. And I think that like it's a passable product where none of the the components of it are any are drastically worse than the other parts. So 6 1/2 is great. Now, like I said, for value, this is a $19.99 bottle of whiskey, or at least it was until recently. This is still currently being sold in the state of Ohio. The SKU looks like it's still active. So you can go buy this at 20 bucks. The seven-year version that's just premiered, Brad, is 90 proof and $27.00.

42:18 So they're intending it to be a little bit of a step up, but not drastically so. Now again, we haven't tried that one. I hope we get to it in the future. But at $20, I want you to consider this, Brad, is this product by itself worth $20 slash when you know that you can get a seven-year version of this for $7.00 more, does that impact your score any? Oh man, without having drank the seven-year, I think I'd say yes. I would still say for $20, if you are interested in getting into the world of whiskey, I think I would recommend this over something like Jim Beam White Label.

43:00 Because in my mind, like white Label is what, 16 bucks? 17 bucks. Yeah, somewhere in there. And at that point, you might as well spend three or four more dollars and get this black label that I, I think had it offers a decent experience for what you're paying for. So I, I'm at a 6 1/2 on the Valley Baba. I don't think it's perfect. I think there are other better options around this price range. But I I'm always going to give any company who's willing to make a $20 product and, and put some effort into it, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt for sure. I'm giving it a 6 1/2 as well. And when I think about things you can get at this price point, you could get regular 4 roses for around this price.

43:45 You can get Evan Williams. You can't get the white label anymore, but you can get the 1783 for around this price point, which a lot of people like, but we've never really drive with that one. So at that price point, like this is about the best you can do. It's a 6 1/2 for me because it's not Rebel 100, but like it's definitely comparable to other things that are gunning for this C minus kind of level. And that brings me out to a 31 1/2 out of 50. Brad, where are you at on this one? I'm a point higher 32 point. Five, all right. So that takes us to a 32 out of 50 on average or a 64 out of 100. Now this is well below where we typically start recommending trying or buying a product, but I am going to give this a thumbs up. I think if you're looking for a $20 bottle of bourbon and you're not specifically looking for weeded bourbon, I would say go try Jim Beam Black Label.

44:40 You could do a hell of a lot worse than this. Yeah, 100%. This is a great whiskey to get started on your journey, even if you've been drinking whiskey for a while. If you want to check out what's going on in the world of budget bourbon and have a good mixer on your shelf, you could do a lot worse than this nearly obsolete Jim Beam Black Label. I think maybe what we should do is try to get a bottle of the seven-year to try for our bracket Challenge episodes. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah. And I I will say, if you want a cool looking bottle as your mixer, the seven-year labeling is pretty dope. Yeah, it looks pretty great. So we'll, we'll drop $27.00 for the patrons, for the, for the listeners of this show. Totally worth it.

45:24 All right, man, let's get back into talking about Black Panther. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, everybody, That was Jim Beam Black Label. Now, Bob, we're about four Jim Beams in four deep this night. We've been just drinking Jim Beam like crazy. How you feeling so far? I'm feeling it doesn't help that we started with like the more expensive ones and are working our way down into the cheaper ones. But yeah, what I'm hoping for is like that alchemy of, hey, this is a very good, but at least it only costs $18.00 now. Yeah, you know what I mean?

46:05 Yeah, I will say I'm with you. You know, we've, we've mentioned this many times, we really like Jim Beam products. We like Knob Creek, we like bookers, we like bakers. We are big fans of the Jim Beam Corporation. I would like to try that. Jim Beam, Black Label, seven-year just wasn't in the cards this week, you know? Yeah, I know. I'm, I'm very interested about that one. Yeah, we'll see where we go from here. But so far I think it's been an average drive from Jim Beam. But you know what hasn't been an average drive for you, Bob? Oh boy, 2 facts and a falsehood. Two facts and a falsehood, Brad. Is going to try to stump your ball. 2 are right and what is wrong?

46:50 Two facts and a falsehood. Two Facts and a falsehood is the part of the show where Brad presents me with three items as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete lie and fabrication and I have to figure out which one that is Brad. I am sitting pretty at 18 and 12 on the season and so I'm thinking about just going in in the blind this time around. Do you just want to guess right now? I'm going to say #2 is the falsehood. So let's just stick with that. Brad, read your two facts on a falsehood. All right, fact #1 Chadwick Boseman was asked by director Ryan Coogler to help him set up numerous shots throughout the movie, as Boseman's original degree was in directing from Harvard University. Fact #2 Black Panther joins 1978's Superman as the only two superhero films to be nominated in the category of Best Music for Original Score, with the latter being the only one to win it.

47:47 Fact #3 Director Ryan Coogler insisted on bringing in collaboration from his previous films to put his own stamp on the film in order to differentiate it from the other MCU movies that he felt were quote shot, composed and edited by the same house people. He was not wrong. He knew what was up with with Marvel. He's like, this looks like crap, I need to do something. Yeah, Yep. All right, so I don't know if #2 is actually the falsehood, but that sounds like. I'm pretty sure you already. Committed I I did, but I'm just trying to vamp a little bit to at least make this segment longer than two minutes. The only two superhero movies to get a score nomination sounds. Kind of crazy.

48:33 To me like did did none of the did Batman not get one in? 89. Or did The Dark Knight not get one? I'm, I'm just surprised to hear that. So it could be two. I also don't know if Chadwick Boseman's degree is in directing. I do remember hearing a fun story about how Chadwick Boseman wanted to go to this acting camp that I think was taking place in London and he had to apply for a scholarship to get accepted. And the person that covered his expenses to go was Denzel Washington. And so after after Chadwick Boseman made it, made it big, like he told Denzel Washington, like, you are the reason that I'm here today, man. So just.

49:16 Really cool. Can we just, can we just take a moment for Denzel? Like what a guy he he just seems to be outside of acting and inside of acting, one of the greatest people in Hollywood that we have. And he seems like he really stays above the fray in Hollywood too, Like he does not get mired in all of the things that we see happening in Hollywood. And I I really. Appreciate that about him. Yeah, although we thought the same thing about Will Smith for a long time. Yeah, and then he just straight up assaulted someone on stage. So, all right, since I've already made my guess, I will say I just happened to Google the 2008 Oscar nominees. I guess 2009 Oscars Dark Knight was not nominated for original score.

50:02 So who's to say I locked in #2 as the falsehood. Brad, what is the falsehood? The falsehood is fact number one. Yeah. Now I will say he does have a degree in directing from Harvard University, so that part is true. Oh, but he wasn't asked to help at all. No, I didn't help but. That's more, that's more insulting, like, hey, I know you have a degree, but but I'm good. I'm Ryan. Coogler. I'm Ryan Coogler. Dang it. I know that he also went on and received formal training at Oxford University, so in specifically in acting. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, Chadwick Boseman, Awesome guy. Educated man.

50:48 All right, dude, let's get back into talking about the movie. I'd like to hear a little bit more about specifically from your end. Like what makes this not rise above most Marvel movies for you? Because, you know, I didn't give like a long and passion defense about it. But for me, I feel like it's actually pretty plainly there on the surface that it just looks different. It it feels more it feels like more care was put into this movie. It doesn't feel as soulless to me until that last CGI fest kind of takes over at the end of the film. But I've just seen so many of these stupid Marvel movies at this point. Man, that like this one really felt like a movie to me. And most Marvel movies feel like Marvel movies to me. So I'm really curious, like, what is it for you that that keeps it from rising above?

51:37 I think that the the entire plot felt contrived in a in a way that many Marvel movies do. It's kind of like, hey, like chase the shiny object and then boom, action. The as much as I really liked Andy Serkis in this, I think that Andy Serkis is just a great actor all around. The the whole, what's his name Claw. Like the whole Claw subplot just felt kind of bland and like any other generic Marvel movie, The whole scene where they're like going to question him with Martin Freeman is just not written well. There's just a lot of this movie that feels slow paced and boring and kind of like a retread of so many other movies that we've seen.

52:29 Like like T'challa is like partially James Bond super spy that has his own private queue who's making him gadgets and he's part Simba who's a little bit wiser. And I don't know, like there's just so much of this film that felt like a retread of of so many other films that it, it didn't feel very original or like it had a lot to say that was really interesting. I think that's fair. I I would push back though, to say that that's kind of just how superhero movies are, you know, like, and that's not a defense for them, But I actually really loved kind of playing this mental game this time around with this movie, which is like, what parts of the movie do I like versus which parts do I not like? And it was all the Marvelly stuff that I didn't like, which made me start wondering why do I like this other stuff? And it's like, oh, because it's a really well done version of this, either a spy movie or a political intrigue movie, or you know, the the cool like tribes of a Kingdom type movie. The stuff that I love of like the Kingdom of Rohan from 2 towers.

53:38 That kind of stuff is really, really cool to me. And the scene that you're talking about, that interrogation scene, I thought it was going to be a rehash of the Joker interrogation from The Dark Knight. And what it turns out to be is a really fun Mission Impossible scene where somebody is broken out and then they have to do this merry chase through the streets. I really liked that. Like I just think that it was like watching an Ethan Hunt type thing. Yeah, but just hold on one second, Bob. Why didn't Chadwick Boseman pop out of the walls in a tank? I mean, tell me that that would not have been. We needed way better. We needed the Goldeneye approach. To your point though, the James Bondiness of it is like when they go to is it Seoul?

54:23 Where did it go to like an Asian country for a hot 2nd? Yeah, I believe it's Busan made. Oh, I. Want Busan? You're right, you're right. And it was like, hey, what if we did Skyfall in a Marvel movie? And I was like, you know what? This, this looks very clearly inspired by that one scene in Skyfall. But I don't care right now because there was also some really inventive camera movements when they all start fighting, there's this great shot of it like starts on the 2nd floor and pans down to the first floor and you kind of get each person fighting and they, it's an unbroken shot that they disguise with some cool wipes across the screen. But I once again, it's just like, you know what? I would rather see more superhero movies like this.

55:05 If he's going to have a guy that's like Q making him gadgets, awesome. Because you know who else does that? Freaking Bruce Wayne. And to be honest with you, Bruce Wayne is a downer and he seems like a terrible hang, especially like this new Robert Pattinson. Batman just sucks. I hate that and I'd rather have I'd rather hang out with T'challa. If you're going to have cool gadgets and be a superhero, like let's go to Wakanda. That sounds fun. I. I actually watched what's it called, The Batman, The Batman, The Batman. Yeah, not a great movie. They should call the sequel a Batman. And then this Batman. Bat Batman, that man. Some Batman.

55:51 Of Batman. So anyway, I guess what I'm saying is like, yeah, everything in a superhero movie is derivative of something else. I think where this one rises above is it's like, if you're going to rip something off as a film maker, you have to have the chops as a director to sell it. And this is something we've talked about with, like with Spielberg, with Scorsese, they're constantly paying homage to things. And I think a movie like this, it's like, I can see the homage and then I can see where it's a jumping off point to do something that we haven't seen before. And I think Coogler is a good enough filmmaker and I've seen enough of his movies that like, I know that this is intentional. It's not the same as it is with the Russo brothers when you get to The Avengers movies because I just don't think those guys are good film makers.

56:38 So maybe it's me just like giving giving Coogler the benefit of the doubt here, but more of that worked for me. I, I think for me it just, it gets lost in the shuffle, man. I, I, I mean, I, I've never seen, to my knowledge, I've not seen any other Ryan Coogler films. You haven't seen Creed one. I might have. I'm trying to remember if I've seen Creed. I think I saw the first one. I think. I think I did see the first one. I I did not see the 2nd or 3rd or 4th or 5th. I don't know how many of they made at this point. 3. Three yeah, no, I I've not seen any other creeds. So there you go.

57:23 I've seen Creed, I've seen this. I I just think it's way too marvely, man, there's so much in this film that's really boring and repetitive. And I think the, the thing for me, if, if we can get into talking about kind of the message of the movie, there's just so much of the film that I, I appreciate Chadwick Boseman taking a measured approach and saying, hey, like, let's examine our past and figure out maybe we weren't doing something right. And let's not overreact and swing the pendulum way to the other side like Killmonger.

58:03 Like I I really enjoy that level of the messaging in this film. I think my struggle is believing that Wakanda would have done what it did in the 1st place. Like, to me, it's so wildly unbelievable that this African nation that has been advanced beyond any technical, technological means known to man because of an asteroid that randomly landed in its in its territory, you know, thousands of years ago, that they would just watch everything in their country and be like, yeah, you know, it's fine. It's all good.

58:46 Slaves getting taken out over to America. Slaves getting taken up into Arabia. Totally fine. We're just going to leave it be. We're just going to chill behind this shield. And like, and it gets played out in Oakland where, you know, he kills his brother and then is like, yeah, his son. Nah, let's just leave him. But like, hold on a second. To me, that is the most wildly implausible set up for the rest of the movie. And so it kind of makes the rest of it feel just contrived and a little bit ridiculous to me.

59:27 I think it's a fair criticism. It's like, yes, it's hard to imagine a country doing that. It's also, I mean, I think we also have enough examples in the real world of countries with a lot of resources that shows isolationism as a practice. Like, this is not the most challenging metaphor to parse out like what Ryan Coogler and companies are trying to say here. But you know what, at the end of the day, man, like, I think they did a good enough job building out the world of the inner workings of the politics of Wakanda and establishing we have a really long history and we have a tradition and we do not deviate from that tradition that the metaphor part of it for me is like, yeah, I could see how that metaphor could be problematic.

1:00:12 I also like just didn't. I don't want to say I didn't pay attention to the metaphor. I think the movie works as well if you just leave the metaphor on the back burner. And I feel like even if we're talking about this movie in comparison to Last Jedi last week, you know, I like that movie a lot. That movie is much more in your face about what it's trying to say like this. I don't feel like this movie has a Kanto bite, you know what I mean? And so, yeah, I can see how you can have problems with some of the metaphors the movie's trying to make. But also like, it just, it wasn't as big of a part of the movie for me, and so it was easier to kind of move past. Yeah, I don't know if it's a problem with the metaphors, you know, transcending the movie into reality. I I like, like I said, I actually think the message of like, hey, let's take a moderate view of how to change the things that we've done.

1:01:03 I think that's a great message. That fun fact, all of America could benefit from learning right now, right, left and center. Like we could all learn how to say, you know, let's not swing the pendulum way to the other side when we see something that we perceive as not good. But yeah, you know, I'll, I'll step off my soapbox for a minute. I I think that the main problem is internal to the movie. Does that make sense? Like within the world of the movie, The setup is so ridiculous that it makes me just kind of check out on the the plot for the rest of the film. I think we've kind of said all that we need to say about the movie itself, Brad.

1:01:45 So maybe this would be a good time to throw over to our final segment of the day, which we call let's make it a double. We're near the end of the episode, so thanks listening to the film and Whiskey show. Let's pair another film with this one, even if it's struggling. It's the final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's Make It a Double is the part of the show where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. Brad, would you like to go first or would you like me to go first here? I'll go first. I am going to pair this with a movie that I think has a very similar vibe and feel and and kind of messaging. This one feels a little more in your face about how it feels about the world, unlike this one, but I think it has a similar level of quality given to it as well.

1:02:31 I'm going to pair this with James Cameron's Avatar. Boom, I thought you were going to say true lies. True lies, baby. I've been thinking about True Lies the last couple days. That thing is going thinking about. It's going to go far in the bracket is all I'm saying. What a fun movie. It was a hell of a good time, man. He shot a terrorist who was strapped to a bomb through a building and into a helicopter full of more terrorists. He sure did, America. Baby he he made out with with what's her face as a nuclear bomb exploded in the background. Wakanda may have vibranium, but we have Arnold Schwarzenegger.

1:03:15 You know, seems like a fair fight to me, Brad. I'm going to pair this movie with one that came out just a couple years ago. And, and thematically, it's kind of similar. It's based on a true story. It's set in an African nation. It's a movie called The Woman King. It stars Viola Davis. And it, I think I've talked about it on the show before. What I love so much about that movie is that I went into it expecting it to be the topic of like, you know, the lightning rod movie of the moment where everyone's talking about like, oh of course a movie about a woman king and it's an all black cast and blah blah blah. And what I was surprised to see was that it was just a straightforward good ass time at the movies where it was like a 90s Braveheart type movie, like just a well made Hollywood movie where people fight with swords.

1:04:08 And it's great. And I think that that's kind of what I love about Black Panther is that amidst all of these MCU soulless cash grabs, this one to me felt like it was made by a person who knows how to make movies. It was made by a person who likes movies and that they actually put the time and attention into it to make it something differentiated from all of the other slop that we've gotten from Marvel over the years. So whether that worked for you or not, different is a different endpoint we can talk about. But I'm pairing this with The Woman King and if you haven't seen that one, Brad, I would highly recommend it. Just a really fun time at the movies man. Yeah, no, I I would definitely watch that. I I think I mean is it time for final scores? Yeah, let's get into this.

1:04:55 Sure. Yeah, I mean, I I think that weirdly enough, IMDb shows how people feel about this movie more than you might expect because this this movie is pretty universally praised and I would have expected to seen it in the 7.7 to 8 point O range, right? What is it? Isn't that what you would kind of expect, Bob? Oh yeah. This is a 7.3 on IMDb. Yeah this is always hard with IMDb movies though because any movie like any movie with a woman lead, any movie with a black person is the lead. Like they get review bombed right off the right off the bat.

1:05:36 Like I remember when when Captain Marvel came out, a movie that for the record, absolutely sucks and deserves to have a low rating. It came out on like Thursday night, right? And by Friday morning it had like one million 0.0 votes. You know what I mean? Like there there's always going to be some skewing, but to your point I actually do think this one balanced out pretty well between people that over praised it and people that just tried to bomb and tank the reviews. I think that 7.3 is kind of a decent place for this. I'm a little bit lower. I I'm going to come out to a 6.5 here.

1:06:17 Bob. I, I think for me, it just didn't hold my attention enough and the action scenes were just unimpressive to me. And I also think that I I wanted to mention this. I'm kind of getting weirded out by the Marvel violence. It like it genuinely is starting to become jarring for me with how unrealistic it feels. Like the lack of blood, the lack of like real impact from people murdering other people feels so fake.

1:06:58 Does that does that make sense? Yeah, and dude, I'm so sorry because I don't want to be the contrarian here, but like, we didn't talk about this, and it was actually a note that I took that this actually feels like a movie for grown-ups to me, and I really appreciate that. It feels more like The Dark Knight in that sense. Like the very first scene where they break into the museum and then Klaw comes and they kill everybody and he tells the one guy like, oh, you can go. Then he shoots him in the head. It's like, oh, Dang, we're doing that in a Marvel movie. OK. And I think to your point, the bloodlessness of it really does irk me. It always has because there are some brutal things that happened in these movies. I think this movie is is one of the few where they're not twee about it. Like Guardians of the Galaxy.

1:07:42 We talked about that in Volume to the scene where they kill everybody on that ship with the arrow that he controls with his whistle. And it's played for laughs. And it's like, this is pretty gnarly violence, dude. Like, I don't. And I think that this time around, the violence at least had more of an impact than usual. But I'm with you in general, I've always thought that Marvel movies have gotten away with way, way too much. And I, I, man, I feel like I'm going to get up on a soapbox in the middle of this dude. Yeah, no, it it feels gross, like I don't know, this time through I almost, I I just want them to be honest about the violence. Like, I think that's why people appreciate like a John Wick, to be frank, I, I watched the Joker a month or two ago and the violence in that movie is freaking brutal. And, and I think it's meant to be. And I think violence should feel that brutal. Like people shouldn't feel like violence is an OK reality. It's so much grosser than we think it is to take the life of another human.

1:08:50 So I don't know. That was just something I noticed this time through the Marvel. Marvel fication of violence felt really gross to me this time. Yeah, I was just talking to somebody about this the other day. They were like, I liked Oppenheimer, but I really thought that the sex scenes were unnecessary. And we talked about how, OK, well, like, it's a three hour movie. There's two sex scenes. They probably last a grand total of like 45 seconds. I would argue that one of them probably is a little unnecessary. But what we ultimately came down to on Oppenheimer's sex scenes in the presence of boobs in movies was like, this person in particular has an aversion to seeing boobs in movies. And like, make of that what you will.

1:09:34 This person had no issues with the multiple scenes of Oppenheimer imagining people's faces being melted off, you know? And again, it's different, you know? Like, I think that person understood the impact of those scenes. And so he viewed that violence as necessary. But it LED us down a path of talking about Marvel violence. It's like dude, Titanic is APG 13 movie wherein Kate Winslet's boobs are on screen for like a solid 5 minutes straight and in 1997 I was like 6 1/2 years old in that movie theater looking at Kate Winslet topless for 5 minutes and that was what APG 13 movie was back then. Now you can't even suggest sex in movies but you can have these Marvel characters brutally murdering people. And to me, I watch these movies and I'm like, this looks way more like a rated R movie than anything that I can remember growing up as a kid.

1:10:28 You and me watch the Independence Day, which is APG 13 movie. And like the Marvel, violence feels significantly more brutal than what we watched in a movie like that. Dude I'm I'm with you 100%. I just want to go back to the Oppenheimer sexy really quick solely for the fact that I I am an avid. Like I don't think you should portray sex so graphically in movies. I'm also apparently at a point where I don't think you should portray violence unless you truly honestly show how violent and brutal it is. The sex scene in Oppenheimer where he's sitting in the room in the in the inquiry room might be the single best usage of sex in a movie that I've ever seen in my life.

1:11:15 Like. Totally necessary to what was going on in that character's head. 100% and like to show what it would feel like for Emily Blunt's character to be sitting in that room, like what's going through her brain. Absolutely brilliant. Beyond recognition. How great Nolan did in creating that that scene. So for the record, what we're saying, fully endorsing as film and whiskey, is bring back boobs in movies. So many less. Violence. More boobs, more more titties. All right, Brad.

1:11:55 And on that friend, I'm going to give Black Panther an 8 out of 10. Not enough boobs. That's, that's my note in this movie. I, I really do love this movie. I had an 8 1/2 coming into the viewing and then I truly feel like that last half hour is just real messy. And I, I kind of think that there was probably some notes coming in from the studio and it's been well documented how rushed Marvel like put the best movie out that they didn't give the VFX team any time at the end of the day, which is kind of out of Ryan Coogler's hands too. And I think that they were trying to make a certain date so that they could get Infinity War out and on screens.

1:12:36 And, and this movie is just the victim of that, which sucks. But at the end of the day, you can't make excuses for why the ending of a movie is not good. Yeah, dude. Could you imagine though, like let's just say that Disney slash Marvel was like a well reasoned out movie studio and they were like, you know what? We're not going to sacrifice quality of movie. We'll push back Infinity War, we'll push back end game. Oh wait, now it's 2020 and and like could you imagine if end game got messed up by COVID? Well, I think my response is like, how many more people would have died in COVID because they insisted on going to see End Game in the theater? Yeah, I that like that's a wild thought experiment because like Tenet was supposed to save the theaters, but like now what if it's end game?

1:13:27 What if that's the movie that comes out in August ish September and they're like, this is going to save the theaters that man that would. Be crazy. The corollary to that, though, is the fact that this has bad CGI is directly responsible for saving millions of lives in COVID. Yeah, that's it. Man, thanks Marvel. All right, so Brad, it is an 8 from me. It's a 6 1/2 from you for an average of a 7.25. So we're right in line with that IMDb rating. But folks, we want to know what you think about Black Panther, about boobs and movies. You can let us know. Actually, don't let us know about boobs and movies. I don't. Let's keep the. Spam off.

1:14:07 We don't need. We don't need to. Hear hear your thoughts on that. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, even on LinkedIn at Film Whiskey Bro. What is LinkedIn like? LinkedIn is the worst. LinkedIn is the worst. Here's the thing, if you guys want to talk about boobs and not get kicked off of one of those servers, come join our discord. My my producers are giving me a holding up a sign saying we never talk about boobies through the discord server, but if you want to start it, now's the time. Join the conversation. There's a link to our discord at the end of every single one of our show notes.

1:14:51 Next week, a quick and painless death for us as we finally finish out this season. And by quick and painless I mean three hour movie. We are watching Avengers end game and winding things down. But guess what Brad? That means that in two weeks time it's time for our annual Asterisk event, which we do at the end of every season called the Bracket Challenge. We put all 32 movies into a seated tournament style bracket and eliminate them until we crown 1 champion. And even if I'm not looking forward to end game, it means we are only two weeks away from the most wonderful time of the year. Brad.

1:15:32 Dude, I this is going to be a really fascinating year 'cause I like I, I don't know if right now looking back I can think of any like clear cut winners other than maybe like Passion of the Christ, obviously. Yeah, that's, that's obviously the number one seed, right? Of course. Come on man. All right, so join us next week for End Game. Join us in two weeks for the bracket challenge. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.