Cruisemas, Vol. 3 - Mission: Impossible - Fallout / Penelope Valencia Bourbon

0:00 In 2018, director Christopher Mcquarrie and star Tom Cruise gave the world an explosive thriller that never left you in want of another chase scene. In 2024, we get in the spirit with a hint of orange. The film is Mission Impossible 6 Fall Out. The whiskey is Penelope Valencia. And we'll review them both. This is the. Film and Whiskey podcast.

0:46 Welcome to the Film and Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad. Gee. And welcome to cruise miss baby Christmas, Brad. I mean, gut reaction here. Thanksgiving or cruise miss? Ah dude, I love Tom Hanks but cruise miss is just the greatest thing we've ever done. I think you just like Tom Cruise more, which is I really do, totally fair, totally fair. I am partial to Thanksgiving 'cause it was the first, you know, cruise miss. Seems like we we we added that one later on and it has very quickly arisen to the heights of Thanksgiving.

1:30 Yeah, I, I absolutely love cruise miss, partially because Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. It's my favorite time of year there. There's just so much to love about this season and I just feel like we've added something to the Christmas season, which is saying a lot seeing as our Lord and Savior was born. So yeah, it's amazing how like, yeah, what you're essentially saying is like, Jesus needed us to give Christmas that last little bit of oomph that it was missing. Yeah. I mean, not just us, you know, a little bit of Tom Cruise as well. Sure, he did contribute some of the credit. So this is what our third cruise missed. Now, we did Top Gun Maverick, we did Jerry Maguire, and now we're looking at Mission Impossible Fallout.

2:16 The reason we chose Fallout is because have you seen it? It's a freaking banger. But also because this season on film and Whiskey, what we're doing in our regular episodes is we're looking at films from the last 20 years starting in 2005. And we're asking the question, does this film deserve to be considered a modern classic? We're trying to whittle down the Canon of 21st century films. And our list of nominees that we chose our films from this year, we're determined by 4 categories. It was or 4 criteria it was. Did this movie make $100 million at the box office? Was this movie nominated for Best Picture? Is this movie in the IMDb top 250?

2:57 Is this movie in the letterbox to top 250? And I am fairly certain, Brad, that Fallout only checks one of those boxes. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's just the one. Yeah, this made lots of money at the box office, just gobs and gobs of cash, I would assume. It sure did, and in a way that Mission Impossible has not always been known for doing. This was, I think by far the highest grossing one of the series. Yeah, and it's to me it's a little bit obvious. Like the series was built on 4 movies in the same universe but with stand alone plot lines, stories.

3:41 And the 5th movie introduced this rogue nation and it, I don't know if it was initially set up like we are going to make a sequel out of this, but Mission Impossible 6 directly follows from that film. People wanted to see thing where things were going with Elsa, Faust and the apostles. And I think that there is a reason why this has made so much money. And it's because they they've got their hooks in the American audience. The, the desire for like a continuing story with the world's greatest super spy. I There is nothing more than you can ask for than Tom Cruise here in Mission Impossible Fallout.

4:24 So Brad, I think as we start talking about this film today, we're going to obviously be comparing it to two other films that we've done on the podcast. We have looked at Mission Impossible 3 prior to now. Funny that we've only done three and six. We've we've truly gone out of order here on Film and Whiskey, but we've looked at Mission Impossible 3. So I think there's obviously points of comparison there. And we've also talked about Top Gun Maverick in the last couple years. And I think that if you're looking for late era Cruise, Top Gun Maverick might be his best movie. And going into Top Gun Maverick, I think I had Fallout on the brain and I was thinking, there's no way this will ever live up to Fallout. And I'm going to be real with you. The first couple times I saw a Top Gun Maverick, I was like, this is a really good movie.

5:14 I still don't know if it reaches the heights of Fallout. And by the 5th time I saw a Top Gun Maverick in the movie theater, I was like, this is a perfect action movie. And unfortunately for Fallout, it is just slightly below that. And so again, unfortunately, I went back and watched this movie for the podcast and I have to say, man, still holds up. Still maybe the best Mission Impossible movie. It might always be a little bit unfairly tainted in my mind now by how good Top Gun Maverick was right after it. I'm like just barely not with you on this take Bob. I like I I don't want to not be with you on this take because I freaking love Top Gun Maverick. Incredible film, great movie going experience. I still think Mission Impossible Fallout is the better. This will be good for our conversation. Actually, you know what?

6:08 It's Cruz, miss. We can do whatever we want. Let's have the conversation right now. The moment for me in this movie where I realized why I thought Top Gun Maverick was better is when they're flying those helicopters. And it's the first time that you see Cruz kind of dip his helicopter down into the valley, and then Henry Cavill's helicopter is chasing him. And they're they're like, very clearly spanning a whole lot of ground in a very short amount of time. And it's because if you watched the trailers to this movie right before the movie came out, there was like a whole extended sequence with these helicopters that they chopped down pretty drastically. And you can really see the seams of their chopping in that sequence there.

6:54 And as I'm watching it, I'm like, oh, yeah. Like I can, I can see exactly where I think they cut stuff out here and it still works pretty well. And if you're not aware of any of that, it probably goes over your head. But I started thinking about that final assault sequence in or in Top Gun Maverick, and I'm like, that is the most seamless, like spectacularly filmed mounting cameras to aerial things I've ever seen. And once you introduce things that fly into the comparison, I think that's where Top Gun Maverick finally, like, takes the cake. Yeah, there, there's no, there's no comparison. I don't think there is a film out there that does aerial maneuvers on film better than Top Gun Maverick. I think for me the reason Mission Impossible Fallout is a better film is because it's built upon something greater than just the original Top Gun from the 1980s like the the Mission Impossible Fallout has.

7:57 It's the perfect Mission Impossible concoction that you couldn't have made in the first 3 or 4 films because you didn't have the history to draw upon yet. But now that they are here in the 6th movie, they're continuing the storyline from the 5th and they're drawing elements from earlier films, like rock climbing from the second movie and his wife from the third movie. And you, you get rewarded for having watched all the previous films. And on top of all that, it's the perfect mixture of Mission Impossible elements. There's heists going on and there's chase scenes that are impeccable and there's just enough story to keep you interested. And there's just enough witty banter and, and dialogue with Simon Pegg and and Ving Rhames.

8:46 And there's like just a perfect balance of all the things that make the Mission Impossible movies great, and it's all contained in this one film. And then the one thing that Mission Impossible films normally don't have is nostalgia. Like the callbacks in this film add just a little bit of spice to it that make this the perfect Mission Impossible movie. Well, Brad, we're getting way ahead of ourselves because we have to tell people what this movie's about. And I'm going to be honest with you here on this cruise, Miss, I do not envy your tasks today at our first segment, which we call Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plots.

9:27 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 film that he has just seen, often for the first time. Brad, how many times have you seen Fallout? This is probably my third, maybe fourth time, OK. I think I saw it twice in the theater and I've watched it in its entirety at least once since it came out, like on, you know, streaming or whatever. So this is probably my 4th as well. The thing about this movie is that it really throws back to classic Hollywood, especially film noir detective stories where there are double, triple, quadruple crosses. And if you try to keep up with it, it is purposely designed to hurt your brain.

10:18 Like they're at, at some point in this movie, you kind of just have to go with whatever is going on and hope that someone either catches you up after the fact or just completely abandoned the fact that like everyone's working for everybody else. Everyone has their own self interests. And regardless of the machinations of those self-interest, they're going to come into conflict with each other and then people are going to fight. And that's so like, you know, so as you get into explaining this movie in 60 seconds, Brad, there's clearly no way you're going to actually be able to explain everything that happens in the film in 60 seconds. But again, the ball is in your court, man. One minute on the clock. Spoil this movie and go.

10:59 Mission Impossible #6 Fallout is a film about Ethan Hunt, played by the illustrious Tom Cruise, as he chases down the Apostles, which is a group of terrorists formerly led by Solomon Lane, who was captured at the end of the last movie. They are causing havoc around the world and they've stolen some plutonium whores and they are desiring to blow them up to use them as a nuclear weapon. Follow Ethan as he goes on the chase. He double crosses people, triple crosses people and eventually finds himself in Pakistan I believe, where his former wife is a doctor at AWHO inoculation camp and they try to disarm 2 nuclear devices that will kill up to 1/3 of the world's population.

11:58 Very good, very good. And Vanessa Kirby's in it, yes. OK, let's start talking about I guess here. Here's what I've been thinking as I watch this film. Of all of the Mission Impossible films and and of all the Tom Cruise action movies, this is the closest to what we have been saying for the last couple years about James Cameron. Where Cameron is so good at making action movies that he consistently puts too much movie in the movie. And not in a bad way, but just in a way where it's like they could have ended this movie an hour into the movie and it still would have been a competently made, fulfilling film that just ended on a cliffhanger. And there are so many action set pieces. Like there's at least six or seven different action set pieces in this movie that would be the best action set piece in any other movie.

12:53 And they are all so integral to the plot that you need them all to advance the plot of the movie. They're not throw away, but every single one of them is like, holy crap, that's the best thing I've seen on screen all year. And they do it so many times that I think that it honestly set the next movie up for failure in a lot of ways because it was like, if they had held any of that back in the chamber, they could have given us an even better film with the 7th 1. I know I'm rambling now, but I keep thinking about like the Halo jump out of the plane and then the the fight in the bathroom and then like the chase sequence through Rome. And then you're talking about the helicopter sequence. Tom Cruise running across the roofs and shattering his ankle. Like, it's just, it's an insane amount of great action in this movie, Brad.

13:44 Yeah, the, the action never stops and man, I, I don't want to get started on 7 because I thought it was an atrocious film. And I like, I say that as somebody who is like desperately rooting for it to be great. I like, I don't want Mission Impossible to have another bad movie like it had in #2 but man, oh man, I really did not, did not like 7. And I'll focus back in on 6 here. I think one of the reasons I didn't like 7 is because Six literally wraps up the universe perfectly. Like the end of the film is almost like a buddy cop movie, but it's Ethan and Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg and Elsa Faust and they're off on another adventure. And like the whole, the whole little subplot of his wife knowing that things are safe in the world because Ethan Hunt is out there.

14:48 Like that's me. I'm like, I'm the audience member. I'm in the seat thinking, man, my world is safer because Tom Cruise is out there making the world a safe place. And I, I think that at the end of the day, I think they should have been done with the Mission Impossible series because this was. This was it, man. The This was it. It was perfect. Yeah, I mean, it's it's very similar to like the Daniel Craig bonds that that last one they made that was just a send off for Daniel Craig. Not good. And, you know, it has the Toy Story three thing that we've talked about for years where like when you have a completed character arc, there is no need to resurrect that character or his arc for the sake of making more money. And I know that they were never intending to stop with this one. Like, they wanted to write a concluding chapter even before this one was released, but they made too good of a movie, to be quite honest with you.

15:42 It's just it's a perfect bow on this entire series. So yeah, Brad, let's let's get into talking about the performances here. And I guess we can start at the top with Tom Cruise. Because of the complicated nature of the plot, I don't really have many notes on anyone's performance in this movie. And that's not to say anyone's bad. Everyone is competent or better and Tom Cruise is just in full Tom Cruise mode in this movie. I do think he's significantly better than this in Top Gun Maverick, but that's because he has much more time to sit and reflect and have regrets. And this movie, even though they're trying to get his character to to have those moments, he's constantly being thrust back into the plot and being propelled forward to go jump off a building. So I I don't know.

16:30 What are your thoughts on Cruise in this movie? And not just from like, how good is Tom Cruise, but like legitimately as a performance. I think it's stellar. I think that once again, he has played this character for so long and he understands the reality that the only reason the IMF, the only reason he is successful at defeating bad guys is because he's willing to work harder than everyone else. Like they, they set him up so well with like the bathroom scene where it's like he's not as athletic as the man that they're fighting. And he's clearly not as big and strong as Henry Cavill is, who reloads his arms like they're guns, like they set him up, like Ethan knows who he is.

17:22 He's just never going to give up. And you get those moments of honesty in Tom Cruise's eyes where they ask him, like, what are we doing here? What's like, what's the plan? And he just gives them that desperate. I don't know what the plan is, but we're going to get it done. And because of Tom Cruise's eyes, I believe him that we're going to get it done. Yeah, I mean, I agree with everything you're saying except that I guess my push back on Cruise here is like, is, is Ethan Hunt really a character or is he just Tom Cruise? Like it's the same thing with Pete Mitchell in Top Gun Maverick. I don't think there's any substantive difference between either of those guys aside from just that we've watched 7 movies of Mission Impossible with the the background of Ethan Hunt projected onto it now, but I don't really think he plays those characters any different from each other, do you? I I think that there's more, there's a more comfortable aura for him in this and I think it fits his personality more than his character in Top Gun.

18:33 Maverick. I mean, yeah, in the original Top Gun, Pete Mitchell is just a Dick for like half the movie. He's really cocky. And Ethan Hunt's not really known for being cocky. Like reckless sometimes, sure, but much more amiable. There's always a laugh, you know, that. This is the point where I felt like they truly crossed over into like, not only are we competing against James Bond films now, but we're going to do the James Bond thing now. Like there's just so many more one liners. The 4th, 5th, 6th Mission Impossible movies were just all like, we are coming for James Bond's turf. Everything is going to have a cool little punchline. There's going to be wacky things where I can't believe we made it out of that.

19:14 And they all just work. And Cruz is so good at playing the not quite befuddled, but just like the look of surprise when something happens when he's in a situation that he's never going to get out of. And then a sandbag falls on a bad guy and he just kind of looks around like and then walks off. It's just it always works because he's so good at it. And like the he delivers one liners so well, like when Henry Cavill asks him, you know, so we're going to like get his face now and he just goes. We'd need a face to do that. Like the way the way he delivers that line is just spot. On Yep Yep. Where are you at on Rebecca Ferguson?

19:55 Because if you say anything other than perfection, I might drive up to Akron and just murder you. Love Rebecca Ferguson first of all, I mean just a just a beautiful woman. I mean strikingly beautiful in that old classic Hollywood Ingrid Bergman style of. Looks. Complete badass in these movies and chemistry with cruises off the charts and the Thing. Far and away the. Thing about cruises, like he's been made fun of for so many years and I don't know if it's because of his Scientology background, but like he never gets into romantic relationships it seems like any more on screen. Certainly no sex right with his characters, but his ability to just be the flirty dude with both Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby in this movie?

20:44 Sexual tension everywhere. And I think that's another place where Cruz really stands out in this performance is that you can tell that his flirtations with Vanessa Kirby are a front, that it's almost impossible to tell that it's a front because he's so freaking smooth. But the way he looks at Rebecca Ferguson is honest. Yeah. And raw. And it like, there's a difference in the way he does it with both of those women and. And it's just incredible. I don't know if we've had a Rebecca Ferguson film on the podcast yet, Brad. This might be a first because I don't think we've reviewed The Greatest Showman despite our threats to do so over the years.

21:30 She's just one of our better working actresses right now, you know? And she's so good in Dune too. I hope she gets a nomination out of it. I thought for sure she was going too early in the year, but it seems like that's kind of gotten swallowed up in the awards race. I just everything she does has this sense of like not just ease, but what's the word like effortlessness like it. She just really slides into whatever she's doing. She has a comfort to her. She never seems even in in scenes in this film where it's like super tense, like you can tell that she's just fully locked in. And it's it's really refreshing to watch somebody in roles like this where it doesn't seem like they're trying.

22:10 And I'm just constantly, whatever character she's playing, I believe it. I think that Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames have great chemistry and like they're just themselves and it's perfect. They're in this movie a lot more than I remembered them being, but they they don't really have anything impactful to do this time around. Like, if there is one knock, it's just, you know, they're there to be Tom Cruise's sidekicks, and they do a very good job at that. Which gets me to the main person. I'm curious to hear where you're at on how do you feel about Henry Cavill in this movie? I don't, I don't think he's very good. I mean, I think that I think they should have just let him have his normal voice. Sure.

22:54 Like I I know he's ACIA agent. I know he's supposed to be American. But you don't have to be at the CIA, you know? Exactly. There. There's a large part of me that's like, I heard him talk and was like, oh, that's not good. Like it's a really rough impression of an American accent. I think outside of that though, I actually really like Henry Cavill in this movie. I think that it's one of the first films, including the Superman films, frankly, that allow him to be physically imposing and like, yes, throw small dudes around. Because with Superman, because of the superpowers, he doesn't actually have to be the biggest guy in the room. He just has a suit that makes him look big and he has super strength.

23:41 But this is one of the first times where I felt like the visceral nature of this very large man with huge arms and a very broad chest punching A5 foot 9 or 5 foot 7 Tom Cruise, you know what I mean? And, and to Cruise's got it at the end of the film when when Cavill has him in a bear hug on the edge of that Cliff, you see the height difference, you see the weight difference. Like it's, Yep, it's great when Tom Cruise is not trying to be bigger than he is and really leaning into, you know, it kind of reminds me of like when Bruce Lee and then later Jackie Chan became fixtures in Hollywood and they were OK with how slight their frames were because what they did on screen was going to take down the bigger guy anyway.

24:26 And I feel like Cruz has really leaned into that with his own frame. And it works to great effect against Cavill in this movie. 100% And, and I think that's what I really love about Cavill's performance, is that the the director just gave him free rein to be this large, menacing, lumbering, yet intelligent persona. And I I think he's incredible and I think he really adds to the movie because of it. So I think part of what makes Cavill's performance a little rough for me is that there are a few places where the writing of this movie is just like exposition, exposition, exposition.

25:07 But it it doesn't always even register as good exposition. It's just like, let's do an imitation of every movie about the CIA you've ever heard and every scene where he is interacting, particularly with Angela Bassett as the CIA director. I think they're both really bad. And I mean, we know Angela Bassett's a good actor. I think Henry Cavill is a good, you know, he's at least good as a movie star. And I think that when they have scenes where they're like, what do you mean about the dossier? Well, that's the job. They're going back and forth at each other. None of that works for me. And I think Cavill's kind of the unfortunate recipient of that. I just want you to explain what you mean by he might not be a good actor, but he's good for a movie star.

25:51 Well, I think that at the very least. Like, I don't know if I would watch him doing Shakespeare and think that he was great, but like. Like he has Is there a difference between an actor and a movie star? Yeah, and I think you and I have discussed this at length multiple times over the the course of this podcast. I think you can have a screen presence without necessarily being a super gifted actor. And I think that there are people that try to be movie stars that don't have a presence and that's why they don't work as movie stars. So like, it's not an insult to him. It'd be like if Paul Giamatti was trying to reload his arms like they were guns. Yeah, I mean, you know, we've we've had this discussion even with DiCaprio, where there are movies where DiCaprio is really like really leaning into his own persona to leverage the movie starness. Brad Pitt does this a little bit too. But then there's other movies where they completely shed that I am a movie star.

26:43 I have 1000 Watt smile kind of thing. And they're just like, you know, I always use they use gamble with DiCaprio of like now I am going to go eat a bison liver and and ride around on the ground for two hours and they both work. But like with Cavill, I just don't know if he could pull off some of that other stuff, but he could definitely pull off leading an action movie. Yeah, IA 100%. And I think that's why I like him so much. And this is like, he's not really asked to be much more than an imposing action star. And I, I think that's a really good place for him. OK, can we talk about the other greatest person in this movie right now? Vanessa. Vanessa freaking Kirby is so good.

27:23 Once again, unbelievably sexy in this film. But the thing with her is like, she is given nothing to work with on the page other than just like, hey, Vanessa, I want you to understand that these super bland lines that we're asking you to read are meant to be read from the mouth of the sexiest, like perhaps double agent, definitely dangerous broker that Tom Cruise is expecting to get murdered by. And she's like, I got it. I got the whole character. Now every single line reading is just like dripping with sex appeal, but then also danger and a little bit of playfulness.

28:04 Like you can, you can't tell if she can see right through him, but you kind of think she can. And there's a there's a moment where they're like meeting on this, like right on the banks of the Sen. And you can kind of see Notre Dame in the background. And she's like, what the hell happened at this meeting that was supposed to happen. And he says, I improvised and she's walking away from him. And I think the line is just something like, go to London. Instructions will follow, but she turns around and kind of makes it a little playful and she's like, instructions will follow and then kind of saunters away and it's like only only she could do that line reading. I don't know where she pulled that from, but it makes this character go from completely forgettable to one of the best parts of the film.

28:47 And you also like see the evolution from 1996 to 2020, 2018, 19 when this came out. Like. Because she's essentially the same character as Max in the original Mission Impossible, but Max was played by like a 47 year old bland British woman. And in this one you have like Vanessa Kirby, which I wasn't I'd. Vanessa Redgrave in the first one. Very very famous, very well regarded British actress, but certainly incredible. Certainly not meant to be a serious love interest for Tom Cruise.

29:28 No, not at all. Also a serious love interest who stabs a man directly in the heart. I mean, is there any other kind? No, that's the only kind of love of interest I have in my life, Bob. All right, man, we're in a good spot on Fallout. Let's drink some whiskey and I'm super excited to dive into this. Penelope Valencia, what do you say? Let's get to it. All right, so today we are checking out Penelope Valencia. This is a whiskey from Penelope Bourbon, which we have not had on the show in quite some time. Brad, It's an annual release that they do. So it is kind of limited. I'm seeing here that it's not only is it a limited allocation, but they only produced 5000 cases of bottles. So you might be able to find some, you might not. We were lucky enough to get a sample of this. This year's batch was bottled at 95 proof. It is their 4 grain straight bourbon whiskey that is finished in Vimeo de Naranja Casks from Seville, Spain. Now they released this in August because it seems like a summer bourbon.

30:32 I held onto it for a while and I said, Brad, let's work it in later in the season because oranges are in season like now. Like this is when oranges are really in the supermarket, so it's a perfect whiskey to drink around Christmas time. I I imagine this would make a hell of an old fashioned Brad. Oh, Bob, this might be the ultimate old fashioned whiskey. Like I there's not many $75 bottles of whiskey I want to use as a mixer, but I mean, come on, right? Like it's it's made for that. It features a mash bill of 74% corn, 7% rye, 16% wheat and 3% malted barley. It was finished in those Vino de Naranja casks for 12 months.

31:16 I I think it's pronounced Vino de Naranja. Naranja. Yes. Denis Villeneuve. Denis Villeneuve The nose on this is I, I know that this is an orange, you know, bomb. There's orange peel. But for me, I got like a really intense Peaches and cream note on the nose that I really liked. It's a bit of a rose petal. There's a little bit of a cedar woodiness. It's a really pleasant nose. I was, I was. I think it's like a 7 1/2 out of 10 for me. It's there.

31:57 It's just not quite everything I want it to be. But really solid nose here. Yeah, I let this kind of just hang out in my glass through the first half of our conversation here today. And it went through a ton of different permutations in the glass on the nose. It was really decadent when I first poured it out. And then it kind of just became like a a standard bourbon with a lot of oak on the nose. About 15 minutes in I took another sniff and it was like all caramel and butterscotch and just super like syrupy on the nose. So my my notes went from decadent to definite old fashioned notes, baking spice and rye. I do think this is a really killer nose man. I'm going to give it an 8 1/2 out of 10.

32:39 The palette here is incredible, Bob. It's very floral. There's a lot of vanilla bean. There's like this really fresh orange zest, like you're actively zesting an orange and it's just like everywhere in the room. It gets a little bit of like a nice sour patch kid note going on. This is a really, really flavorful, tasty whiskey. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10 on the palette. Yeah, once again, I'm at an 8.5 here. I mean, it tastes like an old fashioned in a glass, plain and simple. On the back part of the palette, getting into the finish, I think it actually took on a little bit of an anus note for me, what would just be oak.

33:21 I think maybe the the interplay of that with these wine casks turn it into a little bit more of like a black licorice for me, which again, I really like because sometimes I have AI have a bottle of Anus bitters that I'll use in my old Fashioned. So I'm used to that note a little bit. So it's an 8.5 for me there. I do think that there's a drop off on the finish here. There's a pop of rye, there's a little bit of orange peel. I think it gets a little bit of that kind of pith of the orange on the back. For me. It's a little bit bit bitter and it turns it just a bit more potpourri than like Old Fashioned. So I gave it just a 7 out of 10 on the finish. Actually, I really like the finish here. I, I think it gets a bit of a pecan note. It gets kind of peppery.

34:04 The cedar comes back through, the orange sticks around. It's a unique and interesting finish that for me didn't hit that pithy ending. So 8 out of 10 for me on the finish, eight out of 10 for me on balance as well. I I think that they have a lot of interesting flavors here that they manage really well throughout the experience. I came down to a 7 1/2 on balance. You know, my first two notes were eight and a halfs. The the finish was a pretty drastic step down from that for me. Overall, still pretty well balanced. All of the notes from the nose are still present on the finish. It just got a little bit too bitter for me. And price is where I'm really interested in what you have to say, Brad, because I'm finding it for quite a few different price points.

34:47 So I'm wondering where you kind of set your average price? I mean the MSRP is 75. I saw it as low as like 65 and as high as like 90. So I, I think that $7580 is a good price point for us to consider value and when you, when you have it there, I would give it a 7 out of 10 on value. Like this isn't the best 708090 dollar whiskey we've ever had, but I do think it's a good offering that most importantly offers something unique and interesting in the world of whiskey. Yeah, I'm going to give it a 6 1/2 on value. I think that it's certainly above average and worth carving out a spot in the market for.

35:33 I do wish it was just a little bit cheaper, but, you know, no complaints, honestly. So let's bring me out to a 38 out of 50. Brad, where are you sitting on this one? I am 1/2 point higher than you at a 38.5 out of 50. All right, so we're at a 76 1/2 out of 100 or a 38.25 out of 50. This is a definite recommend for me. I like that they do this every year. I think if you can buy it in August when it's released and then hold on to it for this time of year. You know, Brad, I'm sure that you could make some cool drinks in the summertime with this, but this screams winter whiskey to me. Yeah, this is a really fresh, fun, interesting whiskey that you don't come across very often.

36:18 I I don't often find so much like orange and cream on a whiskey. So yeah, this is an easy recommend for me. Penelope has put out a great product here. Well, Speaking of great products, man, let's get back to Mission Impossible Fallout. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, everybody. That was Penelope Valencia, a whiskey that I think is well matched with our movie for the day. Very much so in in that they are both very good. Yes. That's the connective tissue here. I would call Mission Impossible Fallout spectacular.

37:00 Would you call Penelope Valencia spectacular or or merely very good? On. On the edge on. The. Edge like like I I think that if I drank it on a good day like and it hit just right, I could give it like a 40 out of 50. Well Brad I have bad news for our audience today. We do not have a 2 facts and a falsehood due to the negligence of my Co host. By negligence you mean I wanted to wish you a a merry cruise miss and present it to you as a gift? Hey, thank you for the for the free win that it does not go towards my point total for the season. I think perhaps a fun thing to do in in its stead, in lieu of two facts and a falsehood, let's talk about the action set pieces in this movie and maybe like power rank them. Oh, OK.

37:52 So the movie starts out with the like there's a little small shootout at the beginning of the movie, but I think the first big set piece is the Halo jump out of the airplane down into Paris, which is just a mind boggling shot. I do hate that they added like ACGI Storm and then they have to have Henry Cavill get hit by lightning for some reason cause the shot is cool enough on its own. Like he really jumped out of a plane. The cameraman really jumped out of the plane strapped to the back of somebody else like it's it's just nuts to think about what they did to get that shot. So I'd love to hear your thoughts just on the Halo jump sequence as we get into this list of action set pieces. I would say 9 out of 10, almost no notes. I actually love when Henry Cavill lands. Like the way he wraps up his parachute is in such stark contrast to how Hunt landed and like fell fell to the the roof. I, I think it's a perfect funny little scene. And then like, it's a great character development moment for Cavill because you've already seen him like RIP off Hunt's oxygen to mess with him.

39:10 And so like, you're not quite sure if he's going to land and like, make a joke about it or just continue to be a Dick. And by pointing at Hunt and be like, you lost your oxygen canister, it's like, Oh yeah, this guy's just going to be a Dick. And like, you know who he is from that part on. Great, great scene. So after that, you know, you get down into Paris, you have the scene of him introducing himself as Lark to Vanessa Kirby and then murdering a bunch of guys on the way out. I wouldn't call that a set piece. But what you do have as a set piece in that sequence is the bathroom fistfight, which is the I think it's perfectly timed, Brad. Like, it really only takes up five to seven minutes of runtime, but you've got everything you need in a sequence like that.

39:57 You've got close quarters, you've got guys ripping pipes out of sinks, you've got people getting shot in the head and fist fighting inside of a stall. Like, it's just, it's beautiful, man. And it gives you maybe the most iconic moment of the movie, with Cavil double pumping his arms. Yes, also something we like to talk about perfect geography, establishing shots pre like leading up to the fight sequence. Like like you know where you're at in the bathroom at every single moment. When at the end of the scene when Ilsa Faust like turns Henry Cavill around and acts like they had a fight and she's helping him, it's just perfect. 10 out of 10.

40:42 Easily the best set piece in the movie. So then we get to Paris, or we're, I guess we're still in Paris. You get a sequence which is kind of actually a fake out. It's like Cruz imagining how he's going to break Solomon Lane out of this armored truck and how they're going to shoot everybody. And then they actually do it. And you get a great chase sequence of him getting pursued by the cops on a bike, getting hit on the bike, rolling off of the bike. And I don't know if I would consider it the same set piece or not, Brad. But then you also get the the chase sequence of him in the car with Solomon Lane after breaking him out where he's getting pursued by Elsa Faust on a bike shooting at them. So I I'm curious, are those two different chases to you or do you kind of lump that all in as one big action set piece? I think that's the problem with it is that it is one big set piece.

41:36 And if there's one part of the movie that just drags on a little bit too much, it's that set piece. Yeah. And it's because they're just trying to pack too much in. But any individual piece of that set is, is wonderful and perfect and everything you want, like even just the little things of like driving the truck till there's no, till it like locks itself in place in the alley. It it's just incredible. Yeah, I I agree with you. And part of it, too, is like, there's only so many nondescript, labyrinthine streets of Paris. You can do hairpin turns around, you know what I mean? Like before, it just becomes a little bit repetitive.

42:17 So I for me, that is one of the weaker parts of the movie, not because it's poorly made, but just because it, I mean, it echoes every chase we've ever seen in a James Bond movie. Dude, you can only do so many car chase scenes. Like everybody's seen the Bourne movies, everybody's seen the other Mission Impossibles, everybody's seen the second Matrix. Like there's so many great car chase scenes, but there's only so many ways you can make them unique. So then you go to London and you get Tom Cruise running across a bunch of buildings and jumping and getting the shot where they left it in the movie where he actually shatters his ankle and then hobbles off screen.

42:59 And I for being probably the biggest piece of trivia about this movie, I think everybody was excited to watch him do that run And the shot where he actually does the jump and you know, the the camera is just like whipping right next to him and across this alleyway following him. It's a really cool shot. I don't really know if I would call that section an action set piece. Like it's certainly built around a stunt. So it seems like it is. But the stunt is essentially just like Tom Cruise runs and jumps a little bit. Am I like, am I being a little too harsh on that? Yes, because one of the core elements of any good Mission Impossible movie is what Bob. Well exactly.

43:40 It's Tom Cruise running, but you can't have that be a set piece if he does it in every movie. It it's a set piece in every single movie, and I will die on that hill. It's cool, I just don't know if it stands up against things like Tom Cruise flying a helicopter like that's. Just love. I would rather watch Tom Cruise run than fly a helicopter. OK, so let's talk about the helicopter chase at the end of the film, because better than I remember, if I'm being honest, I forgot about the whole sequence of, you know, him climbing up the the cord of the payload and then falling back down and rolling off the side of it. Him fighting the two guys and getting it out of a tailspin. Him getting shot at by Cavil as they go all the way down to like this riverbed. It's just a great sequence, dude. Stunning, like, wonderful sequence. It's putting him in unfamiliar territory, like he's sitting there trying to learn how to fly the helicopter as he's flying it, which is a great like illustration of his intelligence and adaptability.

44:42 Wonderful scene. I do think that the cutting back and forth between that and the people trying to disarm the bomb and find the second bomb, like it takes a little bit too long. I don't think that the scenes back in the village take too long. I think the helicopter chase goes on just like one or two scenes too long. They could have cut out one or two in the middle and gotten them onto the plateau quicker for Cavill and crews to fight each other. Right, which I think is an extension of that same action set piece, or at least I would call it that. Because then you get the great moment of them crashing the helicopters. The helicopters both kind of roll down into this crevice crevasse and are inching towards each other because gravity's pulling them down in a very like Jurassic Park, you know, get away from the Jeep as it falls through the tree kind of thing.

45:35 And then you get Cavil getting a giant hook to the face like it's just a. It's a. Perfect punctuation, yeah. What a great death in the world of action films. Like, I don't know if I've ever seen somebody get a winch hook to the face before. My friend, this is not my Let's make it a double pick, but you've got a great death coming up in Mad Max Fury Rd. for you as well. Oh, a movie I have not seen yet. It's a good one. All right, so let's kind of power rank these action set pieces, Brad. So just to reiterate, Halo jump, bathroom fights, giant car chase, we'll just lump that into one Tom Cruise running and jumping and then helicopter chase.

46:18 I think for me it's going to be bathroom fight, Tom Cruise running and jumping, Halo jump, helicopter and then the car chase. I'm going to go bathroom fights, Halo jump, helicopter running and jumping, car chase. Car chase is definitely last. Yeah. Especially since they kind of redid it again in the most recent Mission Impossible in the tiny car in Rome. Yep. You know, it's just, it's good, it's fine. Yep, I would be disappointed if it wasn't in the movie. I wouldn't be disappointed if it was a little shorter than they ever make it.

46:59 So yeah, this movie starts out with a a small skirmish, which is a good action sequence, and then you get 15 minutes maybe of exposition and setting up the stakes here. And then you get the Halo jump. The great thing about this movie is you get the Halo jump 25 minutes in, then immediately into like we're following this guy into the bathroom and then another 10 minute sequence of that and then immediately into the meeting John Lark and fighting our way out of that. And it's just like by the one hour mark of this movie, I mentioned this earlier, you, you have a full movie's worth of action moments packed into just that first hour to the point where I, I don't think it makes this movie boring.

47:39 I don't think it makes it too long. But I'm so fulfilled that I actually, I hit pause to go to the bathroom and I was like, Oh my gosh, I have an hour and 25 minutes left in this movie still. Like they've done so much already. Exact same thing happened. I'm watching it on Thanksgiving night with my family and we literally stopped like halfway through. There's like an hour and 15 minutes left and I was like, I think like the action adventure portion of my heart is full. Like I like they did it. They they nailed it. All right, man, I think that it is time for us to get into our last segment of the day, which we call Let's Make it a Double. We're near the end of the episodes of Things listening to the film and Whiskey Show.

48:24 Let's have 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 presented by Blackwood Distilling Company. It's the part of the show where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. Brad, I'll let you go first because I don't, I don't think mine's going to be very interesting. So I'd like to get something good out there. I'm curious if I'm going to steal yours. I think that this is a movie we watched recently, and I think it's a movie that also should have ended the franchise, at least as it was currently iterated. I'm going to pair this with Skyfall. Yeah. I mean like I. Like I think we mentioned this during the Skyfall episode. Like there's such clear parallels between that movie and Fallout.

49:11 Yes, yeah. Like I and I understand like Mission Impossible is Tom Cruise. The James Bond movies have had many different bonds. Like, I just think that the Daniel Craig iteration should have been finished with Skyfall. Like, he had done enough movies at that point where you could have nostalgia for some of his earlier films. Like in a lot of ways it feels like a similar experience as To Fall Out, just a lesser movie. Well, and, and and so many thematic things are similar like it's here all of the choices you've made in life protagonist and how they're all going to come back to haunt you. If you played the Skyfall trailer with Solomon Lane's little monologue about. Ethan.

49:55 All of your mistakes, Ethan, are going to come back and haunt you like it's it's the exact same movie. I totally get it. Man, yeah, so I I think Skyfall's a good pick here. I think I'm just going to pair it up with Top Gun Maverick. I really do think that Tom Cruise has given us perhaps the two best action movies of the last 10 years. I would take either of these movies above Mad Max Fury Rd. I would take either of these movies above any John Wick movie. Yeah, yeah. Like it's just a perfect night of non-stop action if you're watching these two. Yeah, I was thinking about, I've only ever seen the first John Wick, like, really fun film, well made. I like the twist on the plot of like, yeah, you know, they didn't kill his wife or something.

50:37 They killed his dog and and there you go. Like good movie, it's no Mission Impossible fallout. No way. Well, there you have it, folks. I'm picking Top Gun Maverick, Brad is picking Skyfall. We'd like to know what you pick for your Let's make it a double. But whatever you pick, you can always pair it up with Blackwood Distilling Company. If you go to bourbonoutfitter.com/film Whiskey, that's Bourbon outfitter.com/filmwhiskey and use our code Film WHISKEY at checkout, you'll get 5% off a bottle of Blackwood Distilling Company. Whether you pick their bourbon or their rye, I think you're in for a treat, Brad. Yeah dude, the other night I did a little mini blind of three high proof ryes and all of my friends, there's three other guys and myself. All of us rated their toasted rye significantly higher than the other two.

51:33 We're not exaggerating. It's it's really good stuff, man. Yeah, this is absolutely delicious whiskey. So if you can try a bottle, get your hands on some. You know what else is really highly rated, at least in my book, is Mission Impossible Fallout, because I'm going to give this movie for final scores Brad a nine out of 10. Oh man, I, I think I've kind of put myself in a corner here because I was looking back and I gave Mission Impossible 3 a nine and a half. And I think that that movie deserves a nine and a half. I think that this is a better movie. And so I'm like, I don't know if Fallout's a 10 out of 10, but it's close enough for me. I like, I think I would lean towards a 10 more than I would a nine and a half.

52:24 Oh man, this is tough. While you think about that, let me say this. I think that this is probably this is the difference between like a smaller film that clicks really well and has very little fat on it, which I think Mission Impossible 3 is, and a movie that is a sprawling and like a a genuine feast. The way this film is. I think this movie is a little bit shaggier. I think you probably could have cut 10 minutes out of it. I just don't want them to, you know what I mean? Like it's it's not as tight, it's not as quote UN quote perfect to me as some even some other Mission Impossible films are. So that's why I'm landing at a nine. I don't know, if you asked me like if Mission Impossible 3 is better than this, I probably wouldn't say yes, but I understand why I would give that a nine and a half and only give this A9.

53:17 I, I think that's fair. I think for me, I have so much love for the Mission Impossible series as a franchise that even with two and seven being subpar in my opinion, like I just think that this movie franchise has done so much for the world of film. I, I think I'm going to give this a 10 out of 10. Bob. I I love this movie and I will watch it many many more times. It's, it's not as good as Top Gun Maverick, but it's a damn good movie, Brad. So we're coming out to an average of a 9.5 out of 10 on Mission Impossible Fallout. What a great cruise miss we have had, Brad.

53:58 Oh man, Merry cruise, Miss Bob. Merry Cruise Miss to you and to film and Whiskey Nation. Let us know what you're doing this holiday season. You can find us on any of our social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube at Film Whiskey. Or you can join the conversation on Discord. We will be on there this very cruise miss in just a few days celebrating you guys because you guys are great and wonderful and we would love to spend some time with you on our Discord server. You can find a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes. We will be back next Tuesday with a regularly scheduled episode, but until then, I'm Bob Book.

54:41 I'm Brad G. And merry Cruz. Miss everyone. Merry Cruz. Miss.