Cinderella Man (2005) / Bulleit 95 Rye

0:00 In 2005, director Ron Howard and star Russell Crowe gave the world a feel good biopic about a Depression era boxer. In 2025, we try a whiskey that wants to be your number one with a bullet. That's a good one, dude. I. Like it? Thank you so much. That probably came out around 2005, right? I mean, we'll, we'll find out I guess, huh? Yeah, the film is Cinderella, man. The whiskey is Bullet Rye. 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. I'm Bob Book.

1:03 I'm Brad G, the bulldog of Parma. Brad, today we are looking at the film Cinderella Man and can I just say as we set the stage here, I love this movie so much. Brad. I just freaking love this movie. What a great film. I feel like this is one of those movies that got like, lots of people have seen this movie, no one goes to bat for this movie. Like there is just no cultural footprint for this film. And I don't understand why, 'cause it's just like to me it's just one of the best sports movies of this century or of any century. Brad Yeah. And it's weird because I, I'm 100% with you, but it does have like a 8.1 on IMDb.

1:51 That's like, that's a really good score. Maybe not quite top 150, but very close, like top 200 for sure. And yet I don't hear anybody ever talk about it. It it just doesn't do anything. And honestly, it's a minute ago I said what a great film. I'm like, I don't know if it's a great film. It's a great flick. Like this is a great flick, Bob. It is so entertaining. It is so much fun. It's got a little bit of overacting from everybody in the kind of way that makes you go like, yeah, they really liked pretending like they were in the Great Depression. That Bruce Mcgillis is just. Yeah, it's it's the best man.

2:32 It's freaking fantastic dude. Now, OK, I think as we get into talking about Cinderella Man, first of all folks, welcome into film and whiskey. If this is your first time joining us, we talk about movies, we talk about whiskey. This season we've been going back and re watching all the movies from season #1 to try to get some better quality episodes out there into the world. We're a little over halfway through the season. I am highly enjoying it so far. Brad, this has been a lot of fun. I will say, like, I don't know that our opinion has changed about a ton of these movies. A couple of them we've come up a few points or down a few points, but I think what this proves is that we have had impeccable taste from the very beginning on film at whiskey. Absolutely, man, that that taste once given it, it's cemented in for all time.

3:21 And honestly, dude, just going back to these movies, we had a heck of a season one, man. What like what a great line up of films. Yeah, I remember trying to like, I, I put these into like some sort of a randomizer 'cause I had a list of like what, what did we start with, like 150 movies? Because when we started this podcast, ChatGPT was not a thing, 'cause now, 'cause tell me that if you had that exact same 250 movie list now, you wouldn't throw that in and be like, all right, ChatGPT, we're starting a podcast. What would be the most engaging first 32 movies to pick? No dude, we've been at this from the beginning. I put my blood We used Bob GPT to generate this list man and I. Tried though you just said like you use the randomizer. I did.

4:13 Well, I mean, yes, but I I made the list and then I said put these in random order Internet. Yeah. So I tried to find like a good varied group of movies for our first season just in case. Like we didn't go any farther past that. And I'm really glad that I did stick a movie like Cinderella Man in here because again, this is not like it didn't win best picture. I think it was only nominated for one or two Oscars. But it's a crowd pleasing movie. And you have to have movies like that to break up sometimes the monotony of us watching like these high Oscari movies. Now, I will say, Brad, you've already mentioned that there's definitely some overacting in this movie. And I think that this movie is kind of the victim of that mid 2000s Oscar bait type movie.

4:56 I also kind of wonder, I'm gonna talk about a movie that I don't think you've ever seen before, but The Walk Hard, the Dewey Cox story starring John C Reilly. Still have not seen it yet I I know that it. It's like it used to be more and more relevant as time goes on, you know? It was spoofing movies like Walk the Line, which also came out in O 5. And I think that now music biopics try so hard not to fall into like we're just remaking Dewey Cox, that they're trying to do different things. I kind of feel like this is the same like sports movies have, like they we haven't gotten like a Dewey Cox spoof movie, but I feel like now they don't want to follow this like paint by numbers kind of wrote thing. And I will say like it doesn't hit every beat you expect it to hit.

5:44 It absolutely does. But sometimes I don't mind a formulaic movie. Like sometimes it's just nice to have a story where you can tell exactly where it's going to go and it still makes you feel incredible and you walk out of the theater like floating on air. And this is one of those movies. And it's also one of those movies where you can go to Wikipedia afterwards read about the life of the actual now what's what's Russell Crowe's name? James J Braddock, the Bulldog of Bergen. You can read about the actual James J Braddock. They pretty much nail it like story beat by story beat. They hit his life pretty well. And so to have an inspiring story that's not just created, that is an actual human being who live like it's nice, it feels good, it's inspiring, it's interesting.

6:33 You, you get to see things that you don't really think about on a normal day-to-day basis. So I, I'm, I'm with you, man. I I really enjoyed coming back to Cinderella Man. Well, I think that's a great time for us to segue into 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 show where Brad breaks down the plot of the movie that he has just seen for at least the second time this season. Brad, have you revisited Cinderella Man in the interim between season 1 and now?

7:13 No, like, like you said, I love this movie. I don't think about this movie. It's not something that comes up in my head. Unless for some reason, we're thinking about Renee Zellweger. And then, naturally. Sure. This movie pops into my. Head this This movie exists in one of those sub genres though which is like I should watch this movie more. Every time I see this movie I'm like I should this should be like a a holiday movie or something like I need to put this on once a year and enjoy the bulldog of Bergen once more. I'm trying to think, I don't know man. The for Boxing Day every year. The Bulldog of Bergen for boxing. Day there. There you go. That's perfect.

7:54 All right, Brad, so you get one minute to break down the plot of the film Cinderella Man with full spoilers. Now, folks, this is a movie based on a true story which happened nearly 100 years ago. The movie is 20 years old. So if you don't want the movie spoiled for you, I mean, go watch it and then come back and listen to the rest of the episode. But we're going full spoilers here, Brad, so one minute on the clock and go. Cinderella Man is a film that follows the story of real life boxer James J Braddock, the Bulldog of Bergen as as we mentioned before, as he hits near the pinnacle of his career in the late 20s, has his entire career derailed by an injury on one hand, the Great Depression on the other, and he finds himself trying to scrape together a living for his family. Working as a longshoreman in the docks of New York. He eventually is given a chance at redemption by taking a crap fight where they just need a a warm body to fight a person who's on his way to the top.

8:56 He ends up beating him, being reinstated into the the boxing ring, fights his way to the top, defeats Max Baer for the world champion and becomes champion of the world. I, I know that it would be anachronistic, but I kind of wish, I kind of wish that they played We Are the Champions at the end, because I, I just think that would have been incredible. If Tarantino made this movie, he would have done that. All right, Brad, I I have a lot of thoughts on the movie. Full disclosure Film and Whiskey Nation. Brad and I watched this movie almost two weeks ago thinking that we would get this episode recorded. And so now it just kind of lives in the memory in like in waves, you know what I mean? Like I'm just getting like vibes off this movie. It's kind of an abstract, like our avant-garde reality at this point.

9:45 Which is kind of nice because sometimes like your immediate reactions could be a little like overstated. And now it's like I've been living with this movie in my head for two weeks. So whatever's still there must really have left an impression. And I, I think one of the things that I did through all the chaff, yes. And, and one of the things I want to talk about is Ron Howard comma filmmaker, which we do every time we have a Ron Howard movie on the podcast. And I think that it has been a career of ups and downs for sure. He's not regarded as like an auteur. And yet I do feel like he he typically tends to make movies about the same types of subjects. Like he very much lives in the Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg realm, where they are constantly making movies about competent men doing their job well.

10:34 And I think Spielberg and Eastwood definitely have different intentions for what they're trying to say about America with those types of people. Ron Howard's definitely more on the Spielberg side of things. But I would say even more than Spielberg, Ron Howard tends to focus more on normal, everyday people accomplishing big things. Whereas Spielberg will make a movie about, like, Abraham Lincoln. Right? Like, typically Ron Howard's not that guy. Yeah. And I think that when I went back and watched it this time, a couple things. AI think Ron Howard is still a better film maker than he gets credit for. And BI was really impressed at how well they filmically captured the era.

11:19 Like it didn't feel fake. And I don't know if it's just because we were still shooting on film in 2005 and not digital, but like when a Netflix movie comes out that's set in the 1930s now it just looks and feels like everyone's playing dress up. And this movie felt. It looks like an episode of Bridgerton or something. Yeah, dude, everything's just. Fake and overproduced, it felt realistically lived in and grimy and gritty, and I just really appreciated a movie that I didn't. I wasn't thinking about the set design or anything like that, but it was definitely an achievement in that area. Yeah, I mean, for me, I think about the the courtyard that they live in in New Jersey that like has a West Side Story, rear window kind of vibe, but it feels lived in and real.

12:13 And like the scene where Zellweger is getting back home and the dude is there shutting off the electricity to her house and the little like spat that they get in where both of them are like incredibly desperate. They're she's trying to keep her kids alive. He's trying to make enough money to keep his kids alive. And they're at direct. I, I don't know, there's something about that scene that like the snow and the grime on the walls and the interaction that they have of like both of these people are in the same position and on the same team, and yet they're opposed to each other because of how desperate times are. And there's something about all that put together, the the visuals and the the way they interact with one another that makes it feel you feel the desperation of the era and it's just incredibly well done. Yeah, for sure.

13:08 Now, I think part of that is the Thomas Newman score to this movie. And we just talked about Thomas Newman again two weeks ago in American Beauty. And I say all the time, every one of his soundtracks sounds the same, but there's like just slight little degrees of difference. And this, this definitely has more of like a Celtic 'cause he's Irish, you know. Yep. And, and I remember a couple years before this movie came out, he also did the score for a movie called Road to Perdition, which was Sam Mendes follow up to American Beauty. And that's a movie that's also set in the 1920s. I think that was set in Chicago, but following the Irish mob. And so there's a lot of similarities in those two soundtracks. But I think what the reason I wanted to talk about Ron Howard is that all of the pieces he's using, the cinematography, the set design, the way he's using the composer creates such an effective tone and mood for this movie.

14:04 Where like we will talk about some of the things in the script that are a little hokey or things they could have tightened up. But he's creating such an environment filmically. I guess that like I, I can forgive a lot of what's going on in the script because the performances are really good and there's just this pervasive tone of, you said the best desperation. It's like people are desperate to survive in this movie. Then I found myself so often, like, on the verge of tears. Like, there's so many scenes that, like, I wasn't a full out cry, but it was like getting me choked up. Because it's just like parents trying to protect their kids, a guy trying to protect his family, people trying to protect their legacy and their reputation and their scrapping.

14:47 And they're fighting and they don't know where the answers are gonna come from. And I just think that Ron Howard, for his part, does such a good job at capturing all of that. And I, I think part of it is like stage of life, like he was probably in his 30s when he, when this movie's going on, late 20s, early 30s, which happens to be where we're at in our life. And so I'm watching this movie going like, man, what would I do to keep my kids in the house and from having to go stay with, you know, an aunt or an uncle, Like how, how many shifts would I work? The, the scenes where she's taking off his boots because he's already asleep in the bed when he gets home. You're like, it just, it just reeks of that.

15:30 I, I can't imagine the difficulties that they are facing. And, and Howard captures it all really, really well. And you're right, I, I think the performances do it. But even when you look at the boxing scenes, like the way the camera moves and follows Russell around the ring, I think does an excellent job of showcasing his determination and grit that has been purchased on the streets rather than like found in the ring. Yeah. And well, I spent a lot of this movie, I would, I would say I had to press pause around the halfway mark and I came back and and watch the rest of it later.

16:14 And when I press pause, I was like, I don't think there's enough boxing in this boxing movie. Like he's he's barely been in the rent. Dude, I remember. A few times the. First time I saw this movie, I, I remember being bored by it. I like, I, I liked it, but I was like 15 or 16 and was like, yeah, that was kind of boring. I don't know. There wasn't enough like boxing. Well, and I think, OK, so like watching it now, I actually do think that that's a feature and not a bug of the movie. Like it's not a movie about boxing. Like boxing is a core component of the movie and it's a sports movie. And I'll talk about why I think it's such a great sports movie. But like you need all that build up to make those final couple fights matter. And even when they're kind of like breezing through some of those fights, the whole last half hour of this movie is the Max Baer fight.

17:04 Like they put you in the ring literally for like 30 minutes at the end of the movie. It's incredible. It's so well edited, you don't even notice how much time that you spent there because they've done such a good job ramping up to it. And I think that that if they had front loaded it with the boxing stuff, it wouldn't have worked as well 'cause then it becomes like $1,000,000 baby, right? Like the reason $1,000,000 baby works is because it it like reverses this, it's all boxing. And then it's like, here's the rug pull. And now how do we grapple with the loss of that? Don't you mean this one? Don't you mean the plug pull Bob? The the the stool, the stool pull. Right.

17:47 Yikes, Big old Yikes on $1,000,000 baby here, Brad. But yeah, I I think that the structure of this movie is done pretty well. I do think before we get into the performances, we should probably talk about like the things that didn't work, because I think that there are some things in the film that that just don't work for me. It's mostly script stuff. But I want to ask you first, what was the biggest detractor for you in the movie? I. It's got to be Renee Zellweger's overacting. Like everybody overacts in this movie. Renee Zellweger has a few moments where I'm like, you're nailing it.

18:27 You're killing it. The conversation with the electrical guy, there's a few with between her and Russell Crowe. When they're at their darkest times, she nails it. It's when she's like happy and excited that I'm like, oh, like ROM com Renee Zellweger's coming through. And that just doesn't. I can't imagine ROM com Renee Zellweger in the 1930s Depression era. It's just doesn't vibe for me. Yeah, it's funny because I think the scenes where she's actually required to have, like, deep, real emotion, she she does nail. Yeah. Like the scene where she tells her kids, like, I've got to go outside for a minute and she just goes and like, weeps like, oh, it's so good. It's so heartbreaking. My wife has never been through what what she had been through in the Great Depression.

19:12 I've seen my wife take a minute to go outside and cry. Yeah, man. For real, dude. And it's the scene for me, it's like the very early scene after he wins the fight. And they're trying to establish like the husband and wife rapport in the script. And so they're like, let's go sit outside and, and I'm going to be seductive and tell you what a great man you are and how how proud I am of you. And it's like, I don't need her to say all this out loud, to know that she supports her husband and loves him 'cause it just makes her like a tool of the script and a tool of the plot. And to have her, like, cradling his face 18 times in this movie and being like, you're the most important thing, you're doing so much for our family. It's like, it's just a little overkill. Yeah.

19:58 And I don't really blame her for that. I blame the script for that. Yeah, and and this is like a perfect example of show don't tell. And and even there she could just look him dead in the eyes, give her a full 3 seconds of looking on him with like admiration and love. And then just a really quiet, I'm proud of you kiss him on the forehead. Done. It works like she, she still says the line. You're still telling some, but you get all of that without all this extra stuff that makes it. I think the big problem, Bob, is that it makes it feel unreal because I don't know any couple that interacts like that in private or in public. Like, it's just kind of a weird vibe, which makes it feel like she's just there to prop him up.

20:48 And I think the rest of the script does such a great job of setting her up as her own independent, like, strong married woman who's pulling wood off of signs with her children to keep them warm in the winter. Like, she's a strong character, but it's moments like that that make it feel like she's just there to prop him up, which, yeah, she's clearly not, but. But she also is. Based on how the script. Got written now The funny thing is like the most egregious example of that is the scene where she calls him the bulldog of Bergen at the end of the movie because like they build it up that she's like, I'm not coming. I'm never going to come watch you fight, you know, so you know she's going to come, right? But then she like literally begs him, don't take this fight. And then they cut to him being like, see you later. I'm going to go take the fight.

21:37 Like he's getting in a car and the script does not interrogate him at all for this decision. Like he's just like this stoic, like I'm a man, so I have to do it. And he goes and does it, which is a, a horrible thing to do 'cause his wife is like, please, I don't want you to die. And he's like, dad, what fellas got to do what a fella's got to do? So he goes off to fight. And then lo and behold, she shows up in the in the locker room right before the fight and she gives this speech. That is the most unrealistic speech I have ever heard anybody give. And yet because of the heavy lifting that they've done throughout this movie to establish the stakes for everyone involved.

22:18 When she looks at him and starts choking up and says, you're the bulldog of Bergen. And then she's like, and the champion of my heart. I'm like, I hate that line. And I'm still crying like I'm I'm 100% bought in on this. Do you? Do you want to know why, Bob? Because you want to be the champion of a woman's heart, that's why. Specifically, 1930s New Jersey Renee Zellweger. That's that's the ideal. Yo Bob Book. That bulldog of I love how every time we go dog gets more and more like mob boss Duh bulldog of burg. It's like it's almost turning into duh, bears. Like, duh, bears.

23:02 Well, you're saying earlier that he gets in the cab. I'm like, I wish that instead of getting in the cab to go there, he gets in the cab. It fades and then it's like 20 years later and him and her sitting in a car and he's he's looking at, he goes, I could have been a contender. And seen. Yeah, maybe that's the SNL version, who knows. Let's talk performances real quick before we go to break, Brad. So I do think top to bottom, the performances are pretty good and like the the issues that I have with them are all script related, dialogue related, right? So, you know, Russell Crowe's doing his version of a New Jersey guy and Renee Zellweger's doing her version of a New Jersey gal. The only person that seems like they actually feel like lived in is Paul Giamatti.

23:52 Giamatti does get an Oscar nomination for this movie. I, I, it may have been the movie's only Oscar nomination. If not, it was like one of two. It's totally deserved. And he's coming off of Sideways, which was his big breakout starring role. He's kind of like riding high. We'll talk a bit about how this movie's Oscar chances got torpedoed by Russell Crowe. But Giamatti even revisiting this, it's like, This is why The Holdovers is such a perfect. Like, you can only get Paul Giamatti for that because I've already seen him do this tightrope walk of comedy, tragedy, outsized figure who is using his, you know, braggadocio as a way of covering for some real insecurity.

24:40 And I just think he absolutely ties the whole movie together. Dude, when When he invites Renee Zellweger into their apartment and it's just completely barren. Like it, it kind of reminds me of charade when when Audrey Hepburn gets into her apartment and it's all gone and she's like, what the heck happened here? And and Renee walks in and just his matter of factness about like, well, I was trying to hide it, but here we are. Would you like some tea? And you're just like, I freaking love Paul Giamatti in this when he when he freaks out over Russell Crowe eating on an empty stomach. Which, by the way, the sound effect, Russell Crowe's empty stomach is the most overproduced sound effect in Hollywood history, and I love it.

25:29 And his reaction is just like, what in the hell was that? Which, honestly, if I heard that sound coming out of a man's stomach, I would freak out, man. Just like, oh, this man has dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Like rough. But dude, I I'm going to go back to Russell Crowe for a second. I actually really liked Russell Crowe in this. I think he's like too. I think this is one of his better performances a because somehow he had to have like tape behind his ears to make them like more Irish looking and that had to be annoying and he still just nails it and. B That might have been the most racist thing you've said in the history of our podcast. I I don't know what to is that a fact or you just guessing that that's what Irish ears look like? I I'm Irish, it's OK.

26:18 Brad, please answer my question. The other element of Crow's performance is so we'll use the the word of the day is desperate and that like it's the moment that he is looking at the at the bowl of hash, like bouncing, like I got a freaking heat and he just shoves his face in and starts eating. It's incredible. Like I feel every ounce of desperation he has in his soul in that moment. I I think Crow is just really, really good in this movie. I don't I don't care if the accent is not like accurate to New Jersey, like he's he's trying something.

27:00 Whatever set that aside. I think he's better in this movie than he is in Gladiator, which won him an Oscar. And he's he's doing the like stoic man fighting in the ring for people's enjoyment thing again here. But Gladiator that is not a real person. Like, that's a man who is consumed by revenge and shows no emotion. And here he's a man who is like overcome with emotion all the time and has to be made low and reduced to nothing repeatedly. Like when he has when he goes to the boxing Commission with his hat in his hand to like get changed from them. It's it might be my favorite moment of both him and Giamatti in the movie because he's he's like crying. He's like choking back a SOB.

27:44 And Giamatti does that voice crack when he's like, what in the hell do you have to be sorry about? And it's just like it. It's to watch a person get embarrassed like that and to understand that, like, this is not a unique situation to him. This is what it was like in the Great Depression for everybody. And that's why everybody liked this guy, because he had to go through exactly what we've all been through. I think Crow captures that perfectly, dude. It might be my favorite performance of his, honestly. And it's what makes it's moments like that that take him paying back his money to the government not feel cheesy like the to to know the depths of embarrassment that he goes through to do the things that he has to do to take care of his family. Also like talk about schmucks that Paul Giamatti has to cover the rest like this room full of millionaires and he goes up and GMI is like how much you missing? And he's like, I still I'm still missing like $19.00. What?

28:49 You know what, though, I do think that him getting his license revoked is a really important plot point. And it's not just like piling on like, oh, this poor guy. Like they don't like him because they think that he was throwing fights and that he's like a washed up schmuck to your point. And so like, they're not incentivized even when he's down on his luck, they're like, I'm pissed off at you because you have like sullied the name of our sport. And I think that like having that extra bit of I not only have to financially get my family back, but I have to fight my way back into the good graces of the sport that I love it. I think it adds A component to the movie and it doesn't make it so like cheesy Oscar Beatty. It actually has a driving kind of like mechanism to the plot. Yeah, Now I know that we talked about our gripes earlier, Bob, but I was just curious how you feel about his friend on the docks that that helps him out from time to time. They they go to church together.

29:49 How how you feeling about him? Sure. I think the character of Mike, first of all, I, I, I am assuming Mike was not a real person. And then this is like a composite character that they put, you know, he's a plot device character. It's, it's very much like there's multiple things I hate about Mike. And like, I think the first part that I hate about him is they make him like the Forrest Gump character in that, like, Mike being in Jim Braddock's life means that Jim Braddock will encounter all these famous historical things that we learned about in high school shanty. Towns, OH. They call it the Hooverville, the Hooverville.

30:31 I guess I have to go to the Hooverville now and we're all. The Hoover it's. Like the Leonardo DiCaprio, like wow, the Hooverville. Beyond that, I think that like if you look historically, pre World War 2, like the idea of socialism and communism in America was it, it had more of a hold on people than I think sometimes we give credit to. It was a small minority of people, but it was like a growing political party in America, especially during the Depression when people were super desperate. And so they give Mike this like he's kind of like hinting at communism, but they won't go all the way.

31:12 And they just kind of say like, we need to organize, we need to unionize and they make Jim Braddock be like, no, like FD Rs got us and, and Mike's like screw FDR organize, you know, like take the means of production and all this kind of stuff. And, and I what I hate about it is like, I don't even care if the movie wants to say communism is not the way and we believe in traditional American values. It's that like, they never actually give the time to like, meeting Mike at what he's trying to say and telling us why it's bad. And if you're not going to do that, then you're just setting up this weird straw man of like, communism bad, America good. And like, it just becomes Rocky 4 at that point. And it's not as fun as Rocky 4, you know, No. Dude, Rocky 4, if nothing else, is a very fun movie. Which which engages with communism at a deeper level than Cinderella Man does.

32:14 It does. And honestly, I I feel like a lot of movies from the mid 2000s struggled with this, where the movie itself has nothing to do with the political worlds of 2005, let's say, and yet it feels the need to comment on it. So it brings in these politics and you're like Batman. The Dark Knight doesn't need a surveillance subplot in it. This does not need a anti communist subplot in it. It just feels like a lot of movies around this time are great and then they have 1 little squeaky wheel that was like maybe just should have been cut in pre production and yet it made it in and they filmed a few scenes and they're like well we're not going to cut this this guy out completely.

33:01 So we're just giving me a few things. Part of me is like, if you only had the scene with Mike, the only scene with him was the one at the church, and you don't even know who he is. He's just a random guy that Russell Crowe tries to, like, keep from hitting his wife in public. That's all you need to know 'cause it's telling you about Russell Crowe's character. You don't need to know anything about him. So I'm like, I, I think they could have used him well, but as it is, he's in the movie too much. And in one scene he's, you know, maybe going to hit his wife and you get to learn more about Russell. In another scene, he's Communist Mike. And then in the other scene, he's his buddy at the bar who's like, hey, everybody, shut up. This is my boy.

33:44 He's on the radio. Well, that's the thing too is like they give him way too much screen time to not engage with any of his ideas. And so the way that they say ideas bad are like, we're going to also make him a wife beater. And so you know that communism is bad because the communist in the movie beats his wife and and. He and he dies and. Dies. It's it's like the the scene in Mean Girls. If you have sex, you will get chlamydia and you will die. If you support the Communist Party, you will get. B, You will get trampled by a horse in Central Park and you will die. And on that note, Brad, it's time to drink some rye whiskey. Let's go.

34:24 Try this Bullet Rye, man. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, so today we are checking out Bullet 95 Rye, perhaps the most confusingly named of all whiskey names. Brad. It's not like a super complicated finished in this age double twice in this thing. It's just Bullet 95 Rye, but it's called 95 rye because it's the 95.5 mash bill that MGP popularized. But it's not 95 proof, it's only 90 proof. It's a 90 proof whiskey that's called 95 rye and that really pisses me off.

35:06 Why can't you just do it at 95 proof and then it makes way more sense? Yeah, yeah. Do it at 95 proof or like if any whiskey ever has a number in the name, it's the proof across the board. This is the only one I've ever seen that doesn't do that, so that. Would be like having like Rebel 100, but the 100 refers to the fact that it's 100% corn and it's only 80 proof. You know what I mean like it just doesn't make any sense Yep aside from that, listen, I do we care that this is an MGP product or originated as an MGP product. We do not. And Brad, you know, I don't want to immediately jump into the the nosing on this, but Bullet has become a major player in American whiskey.

35:54 I'm sure most people here have tried either Bullet Bourbon or Bullet Rye at some point. So we're not going to give a ton of background on the company itself. But I just took my first nosing of this Brad, and it felt so familiar to me. And I think it's because in the early days of the podcast, when we hadn't tried much rye, most of the brands that we were trying, unbeknownst to us at the time, we're sourcing MGP rye. And so I smell this now and I'm like, oh man, this is what rye smells like, 'cause this is how I got trained on drinking rye. So like, I'm gonna give some very familiar nosing and tasting notes probably on this rye.

36:35 But it's because like, this is how I learned what rye smelled and tasted like. Yeah, absolutely there. There is a lot going on here that feels like everything we had growing up in our in our journey with whiskey. And I will say I'm going to spoil a little bit where I'm going with this. I don't know if I enjoy it anymore, Bob. Oh, interesting. All right. Well, Brad, on that note, let's just go ahead and dive right in. I'll let you. You've already come in with a hot take, so I'll let you keep going with your nosing notes here. Yeah, I mean, this is a mint bomb. Like it. This is maybe the mintiest thing I have ever smelt in tasting whiskey there.

37:19 There is so much just like overpowering toothpasty vibe going on here that I don't have any other notes on the nose I like. This is mint toothpaste through and through. Yeah, I think for me it's, it smells a little bit young, like I almost get a yeastiness to it that I wasn't expecting. It's definitely covered up by all that dill and mint for me. I do get almost a little bit of like a like pine needles on this it, it tips a little bit more, even more herbaceous than just saying mints. Like it's it's almost like woodsy. I like it a lot, but I do think that like some of those stronger notes we associate with a potent rye are kind of covering up for the fact that this might be a younger whiskey.

38:07 I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 just because I like the scent here. Yeah, I, I give it a 6 1/2 out of 10. It's not like horrific or anything. It's just very overpoweringly minty for me. On the palate, it is. This is where the youth comes through. Bob This tastes like a very, very young rye. It's very effervescent. It kind of disappears somewhat quickly. The a lot of the dill and mint toothpaste kind of stick around. I don't really get a lot of other notes on this. Bob It's very minty. The rye spice kind of comes through, but not enough for me to get excited about it. Man, I, I turned on this pretty quickly. This is a non age stated product. So I mean, we're supposedly we know what the age of the youngest in the blend here is.

38:55 This doesn't even drink like that, Brad. This drinks like 2 year, one year whiskey like it is very, very youthful, super grainy. I'm not I'm not enjoying this man. I'm just going to give it a 5 out of 10 on the pallet here. Yeah, I I gave it a 5 1/2 on the pallet. I am not enjoying this. The finish is like the same. It gets a little bit ashy near the end. I think the youth starts to overpower everything else. I'm going to drop down to a 5 out of 10 on the finish. I think the finish comes back up a bit, the youthfulness dissipates a bit. I am left with a nice sweet note here which I would expect from like a $20 rye like the finish on this if I could just remove it from the rest of the drinking experience.

39:41 It's right in line with like this is a $2025 rye. So I'm I'm not going to Ding it based on the what I disliked before. I'll come back up to A7 out of 10 on the finisher. I think balance wise I'll I'll give it a six out of 10. I like they know what they're doing. This is a consistent flavour experience throughout. I don't enjoy it enough to give it a good balance score, but you know, it is what it is. Yeah, I'll give it a six as well here, Brad and I will say we were just at Bullet a a few months ago and they did something really cool for us. They drilled into a barrel and they let us drink out of the barrel. I believe that was a rye that they've been aging on premise and we came home with little samples of that.

40:23 It's, you know, obviously it's not being sold yet so we're not reviewing it, but I like a lot of what Bullet produces. I like Bullet bourbon. I think that they're well aged rye. They've got a 10 year rye. Yep, really good stuff. Yes, this particular product is not doing it for me, Brad. And when I look at MSRPI, think now this is from back in like 21 or 22, I'm I'm seeing a $40 MSRPI. Don't think it's quite that expensive anymore. It is 20. $8 State of Ohio 28. OK, that's way better. Yeah, I still think you can get better Ryze than this. You know, you could get an old Overholt, the 86 or the 100 proof. You could get the Sazerac rye or the 100 proof rye of Sazerac for around the same price. So when you look at it against it's competitors, it Dings the value for me.

41:13 I don't think it's overpriced like it's a fairly priced product. It's just not the best in it's class. So I'm just gonna give it a six out of 10 on value. Yeah, I everything you said is accurate. You can get. Other really good rise for right at or a lower price, so I'm going to give it a 5 out of 10 on value. Oof. Yeah, that's taking me to just a 31 out of 50. Brad, where are you falling on this one? I'm sitting at a 28 out of 50. Yikes, that's your lowest score in a while, man. Yeah, I've, we've drank a lot of good whiskey, man. Even considering like, you know, season 1, we're going back and doing a bunch of old whiskies. I've overall enjoyed a lot of the whiskeys we've drank this season.

41:56 Bullet 95 isn't quite doing it for me. Yeah, we're coming out to just a 59 out of 100 on this one or a 29.5 out of 50 for reference. A 35 is where we typically start giving our like soft or or Hardy even recommendation. A-40 is a no brainer. So this is not approaching that for me. I would not recommend this one. I think if you really want to try a pour of it at the bar for 5 bucks, 6 bucks you can. But even at this price point, I just don't think there's really anything here to write home about Brad. No, no, go buy. Go buy yourself some of the Sazerac 100 and I think you'll have a good time. All right, man.

42:37 Well, let's get back to talking about a movie that fared a lot better in our minds than this whiskey did in Cinderella. Man, what do you say the. Bulldog of Birkin. Let's get to it. All right, everybody, That was Bullet 95 Rye, A not good whiskey. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We like Bullet. We just don't like that particular expression. Yeah, I know Bullet puts out a lot of great product. I I've I think I've realized Bob, I love rye so much that I I am more picky when it comes to rye. Like there there's even some like nicer and Ryze that I'm like I've I I feel like I'm a little more sensitive to what I really enjoy.

43:24 And so something on this end, I'm kind of. Yeah. And we kind of said this in our review, too, but it's like, I don't know if it's just that like, I had rye mapped out for me by the early ryes we drank. And so my, my, like, wheelhouse of what I consider good is much narrower than it is with bourbon. Yeah. So maybe it's me 100%. It probably is you, Bob. I'm just. Slow. On that note, Brad, I'm going to see if I can redeem myself when it comes to our game for the day. 2 facts and a falsehood, Brad. Is going to try to stump you Bob. And what is wrong? 2 facts and a falsehood. 2 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. Brad, I am doing just incredibly poorly. This I like I've it's got to be like a 2 to one loss to win ratio for me right now.

44:25 Yeah, it's hard. The the reason we don't know peek behind the curtain. We've filmed this season over quite a stretch of time, out of order, and so we don't actually know what the record is. We will tally it up by the end of the year. I would probably vibe with you, Bob, just as we are vibing on this movie. I think I would vibe with you and say I think I might be winning. Yeah, you have really hit your stride this season, man, with your lying. You've gotten so much better at lying, Brad. I'm clear for your family. That's all I'm saying. I'm. Bob, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a terrible liar. Not good at it at all. Hit me with your two facts and a falsehood, my friend. All right fact #1 The prop money that is used when Braddock is counting out their last few dollars is not actually from the early 1930's.

45:13 The design of the dollar bill used in the film is from a later period as it was changed in 1938. Under Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau. June fact #2 Max Baer, whose paternal grandfather was Jewish, boxed with a Star of David David embroidered on his trunks, which is visible on Baer's red trunks throughout his fight with Jimmy Braddock in the final fight scene. Faction #3 Art Binkowski The Box, a boxer in real life who played the role of Corn Griffin, didn't want to be knocked down during the Corn Griffin versus Jimmy Braddock fight scene. He'd never fallen in a real fight, and he didn't want his opponents to think it was either even remotely a possibility.

45:56 I love that. Do you know, you know what's really funny is the Korn Griffin guy. I when I was watching the movie, I pulled up his IMDb because I was like, I couldn't tell if he looked familiar. He just looked like a boxer. I was like, that dude is perfect casting and I don't because it's been like 2 weeks now. He'd only made one other movie and he played a boxer in that movie too. So it was like the range on this guy, Art, Art Binkowski, Binkowski, Binkowski. He probably. Grew up just for. The sake of being able to talk about art, I'm going to say that number 3 is true. OK. And I think #2 is true too. If it's not true, then you did a darn good job of creating a a very innocuous sounding fact.

46:44 So I'm pretty quickly, I'm just going to circle #1 I don't have any reasoning for that. I think that they all sounded pretty plausible today, Brad. So my chances are, you know, 33% here. We're going to go number one. I'm going to lock it in. Who the hell cares? Final answer. Bob, 33% of the time you're right every time. Did I get a? Job, you got it all right. Oh. Man, all right. Are you ready for a second game, Bob? Sure. This is a surprise. This is a surprise second game, OK. All right, Bob, I want you to, I want you to get into your imagination. I want you to think you're a world class boxer and you're you've trained, you're getting ready, you are coming up and coming. You're ready for the big fight.

47:32 You're going to be the world champion of the world. What supporting actor do you want in your corner? Go, I mean, I've seen Paul Giamatti like you've, it's got to be Paul Giamatti. But if he's off the table, what supporting? What about? A A Meredith Burgess. Nah, I don't want him. Morgan Freeman. Clint Eastwood. You know, I wouldn't want Morgan Freeman. I might want Samuel L Jackson. Like I want a guy in my corner who's just cussing out the other guy. Like I need a hype man and a trainer. So hear me out. Samuel is a great choice. Joe Pesci, a tiny. A tiny man. We've seen that in Raging Bull. That did not end well for either of them. I, I, I personally would think I would pick Joe Pesci because like Samuel Jackson cussing you out is terrifying. Joe Pesci cussing you out, you think he will actually murder you?

48:29 Like I I would be terrified if he was cussing me out, which is why I want him in my corner as a boxer. Now this is at least the 5th boxing movie we've done on the podcast. So to your point, let me turn this back around on you. Yeah, of the of the five that I can think of, I guess I'm not going to count on the Waterfront because he doesn't actually box in that movie. Yeah, we've done this. We've done Creed, we've done Rocky 4, we've done Raging Bull. We've done $1,000,000, baby. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. Have we done the original Rocky? No, not yet, Bob, what have? We been doing, we got to do it soon. Is this a film podcast? What are we?

49:10 What's? Well, Rocky 4 is the most important of the bunch as we know Brad. That is a given. Of course he has a beard. Who is the best like sidekick trainer among the five? Oh man, there's something about Clint Eastwood, $1,000,000 baby. I'm a big fan of he he he's he's, he's gruff and does what it takes to get get her done, man. The thing is, we don't really see Giamatti train him at all. Like, you know, that's true. He seems more like a media guy. Honestly, I'm a promoter. Yeah, yeah. He's more of a promoter. I think I'd probably go with Barrett. Yeah, well, no, we didn't say Rocky. Who trains him in Rocky 4?

49:57 I think he I think he is trained by his own beard in that movie. Like he just trains himself and then and then Adrian shows up in the corner at one point, right? I would say it's either that or does his his brother-in-law who's like having sex with a robot. Is he? Oh yeah, train him. Polly's gotta be. Maybe it was the robot. I don't want to know what kind of working out they're doing. I think with those five options, I am locking in Clint Eastwood as my trainer. There you go all right, I'll take it man Brad real quick. You know, we don't have to say too much more about this movie aside from like, I I think it's a great oscari Oscar bait movie.

50:37 Like, sure, I wish that the Oscar bait movies made today felt like these ones did because these were just very much like a throwback to classic Hollywood by the numbers. But I felt awesome walking out of the theater. I wanna talk about this as a sports movie and why I think it's one of the best ones. And it's because watching this movie, you really get a sense of why sports are a metaphor for like, the struggle of life and why when a good sports story happens, we latch onto it. I think it's just like, it perfectly exemplifies why people feel the need to put their hopes and dreams on somebody else when they're going through a struggle. You know, when when Jim is in the back of that car pulling into the the Madison Square Garden bowl at the end of the movie and then recognize him and they're cheering for him. And then as he starts fighting Max Baer, how quickly the crowd turns in his favor and how badly everybody wants this for him. It's, you know, obviously they want Jim to succeed. And someone says it all.

51:50 I think the priest says it at one point, like they they see themselves in him. It's made very explicit. It's not a subtle movie. And yet it's it's so perfectly encapsulates why sports matter. And I couldn't help thinking about the 2016 NBA Finals. And I like, I tell people all the time, like it. It is the stupidest thing that I say, and it's the most sincere. It was maybe the happiest day of my entire life when we won that championship. And like, people, you know, people are like, oh, the birth of your children. And I'm like, listen, I love my children more than I love that championship. The instant gratification of winning a championship is probably the happiest I've ever felt in one moment of life, like. And it's because I spent that whole day before game seven of that finals where the city of Cleveland, which had a long standing history of getting super close and losing and being shat on by the country, was right back in that position again.

52:52 And it was still the closest we'd ever gotten. And I drove around the city of Akron, OH, where LeBron James is from, and there were signs out in front of churches that were like, we're all in this together, win or lose. I drove by Lebron's high School, and they had a viewing party there, and there was a liner on the block. And I just drove past and honked at people that I don't know. We were all cheering. And like, I got to go spend that game with my dad on Father's Day. And we won a championship for the first time since I've been alive. And he was a child and it was like it was so immediately like validating as a person who lived in Cleveland that like we matter again on the national stage.

53:37 And it's so silly if you come from like, like if you're like a Yankees fan and you're used to winning, you don't understand this. Like, yeah, that too. When you're when you're like from a down and out hard working blue collar environment, sports matter because they are so validating to you as a person. And I don't know how else to explain it beyond that man. Dude I I sat on the couch of my best friend's house watching it with his family and when LeBron sinks that free throw they go down. Love is guarding staff and he misses the shot. As time runs out I watch my best friend's dad, who's I've known my entire life, fall to his knees weeping and I just hear him as he's crying going. I never thought I would see this day. He was literally born like 2 weeks after the Browns championship in 64.

54:34 And like he never thought that in his lifetime he would see a Cleveland championship. And we drove around town afterwards. People are just out walking the streets of Parma honking their horns, cheering and celebrating. Like it it is. It was such a unifying and beautiful moment for the city. I I still to this day, honestly, as you were talking about it, I was like, oh, I can't wait. I don't know who they're going to get to play LeBron like 30 years from now, but I can't wait for like the draft day. But like of an actual championship, not of like, oh wow, we had a pretty decent draft go Browns. Like no, like, like we actually won a championship.

55:17 This is incredible. Yeah, man. All right. I couldn't get us out of here without linking Jim Braddock to LeBron James somehow. But on that note, Brad, it is time for us to get into 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 I was going to just go ahead and pair this up with Seabiscuit. I think I've I've paired like 5 movies this season with Seabiscuit. It seems like that needs to be on the list for sometime soon.

55:58 But that's another movie where it's like set during the depression, everyone puts their hopes and dreams on this ragtag horse and all the people surrounding it and feel validated At the end of the movie. I I thought of maybe I could do something more clever, but I really can't see this gets my pairing for this movie. I'm. Going to do something a little more clever, Bob. I was, I was thinking about staying in the realm of sports and if I did that, I would go with Rudy. I'm not going to stay in the realm of sports. I'm going to go with 2006, The Pursuit of Happiness. Now, if I remember correctly, you said you hate that movie at one point.

56:39 Is that still true? I don't. Know if I don't know if hate, I did not enjoy it the one time that I watched it, but I do remember that feeling of desperation from Will Smith that he just nails it and so that was the. Keeping best performance. Yeah, I was like, oh, I remember Will Smith just oozing like, I have this son, I need to take care of him. I'm gonna do whatever it takes. And that's what really connected the pieces for me with Cinderella Man. Now 2005 is 1 of I think the best year movie years of this century. The Oscar list is pretty good but when you get down into the non oscari movies it's even better. But, you know, Russell Crowe famously had a huge temper and had a big temper tantrum when he was at a hotel in, I think, New York City.

57:28 He threw a phone at the face of the the bellman or the at the desk and charged for assault. It was a huge scandal. For for you young people, I think it was like an actual phone that like had a cord and everything they. Brought like a hefty phone. Yes, and he whipped it at them. Yeah. And it happened right before this movie came out. This movie was a pretty much a flop at the box office, and it tanked all of its Oscar chances because it was such a big scandal. That's when Russell Crowe gets parodied on South Park for fighting around the world like it was a big deal. And it bums me out because I would have liked to have seen what kind of damage this could have done in the Oscar race.

58:09 Remember, this is the year that Crash wins. Brokeback Mountain is another nominee. You've got Philip Seymour Hoffman wins the Oscar for Capote. You've got Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line hanging around in this year. It's good night and good luck. It's just it's a really, really good year for movies and it bums me out that that scandal cost this movie from competing in some of those categories. Do you know what happened, Bob? What's that? We didn't have thick Crow. If he was thick. If he was thick Crow, you think he would throw that phone? Thick Thick Crow doesn't care. He doesn't get angry.

58:50 I don't know man, I feel like Thick Crow probably has even more power behind his throat now, like, because there's just so much more mass. Yeah, but it's like, it's like Mike Tyson when he's high and like not in fighting shape, he's just a happy go lucky dude. You, you take him off marijuana, get him training and get all his testosterone going. He's the most terrifying human ever to live. So like, you know, thick Crow, just he, he doesn't care. What does he have to care about? He's fat and happy and you know. I remember when I when I first took a distillery tour, it was at Woodford Reserve, and they were talking about how Russell Crowe had picked a barrel of Woodford. And that was back in the days before you could just like anyone could get barrels. And they had like a plaque of everyone who'd ever done it. And it was like Russell Crowe was on there. And then I saw Thick Crow.

59:35 And I was like, that looks like a guy who would pay him a whole barrel of whiskey. Yeah, 100%, man. All right, dude, let's give this movie some final scores. I think objectively, this is somewhere between an 8 and a nine. It's like an 8.5 movie that I just really love and is more effective on me than its score would indicate. So I'm going to give this a nine out of 10. Brad, I love this movie. I I'm with you man. I love this movie. It is super fun. The the acting is overacted just enough to make you really like laugh at certain parts, cringe at certain parts. It it's such a fun feel good movie that has some rough edges. I'm going to just a little bit lower. I'm going to give it an 8.5.

1:00:18 All right, so we're coming out to an average of an 8.75 out of 10, but we'd like to hear from you. What do you think of Cinderella, Man? When was the last time you watched this movie? You can let us know on any of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube at Film Whiskey. Or if you want to join the conversation, we are on Discord talking all things whiskey and film, so if you want to jump into that, you can find a link to our discord at the end of every single one of our show notes. We'll be back again next week revisiting one of our Season 1 masterpieces, but until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.