Hanksgiving VI: Catch Me If You Can (2002) / Johnnie Walker Black Label

0:01 In 2002, director Steven Spielberg and star Leonardo DiCaprio gave the world a cat and mouse drama that never stops making you cry. In 2025, we try a whiskey that begs the question, do you know why the Scottish people always win? It's because you can't keep your eyes off the kilts, Brad. That is the truth man. That is a very eye-catching. The film is Catch Me If You Can. The whiskey is Johnnie Walker Black Label. 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 Gee and Bob. I just have to ask you how the Hank are ya? How the Brad, I fear that America doesn't understand what time of year it is right now. It's it's. Important that we enlighten them. It's the most wonderful time of year, Brad. I say that about multiple things per year on this show, but I mean at this time because it is Hanks giving Brad Jean. Yeah, what? I guess that that really brings up an important question, Bob, what are you hankful for right now? What's going on in your life that you're just? What are what are we the most hankful for? All right, so let's think about this. We've done big. We've done a beautiful day in the neighborhood. We've done Captain Phillips.

1:47 Is this the 4th one or is this? Am I missing 1 somewhere? Talk about a sharp left turn. It's like I'm the captain now. Big is like a fun 80s let's have a 10 year old sleep with an adult, but it's OK because he's an adult. Supposedly. Day in the neighborhood is like, hey, let's like silently stare into each other's soul and feel better about the world. Captain Phillips, man, literally I had like a trauma response to. Yeah, man, very, very intense film, Brad. And Speaking of trauma, here we are once again on Hanks Giving talking about Trauma Baby because we are looking at Steven Spielberg 2002 film Catch Me If You Can. Now folks, this is part of our season 10 lineup where we're revisiting films from season #1 that we haven't watched in, you know, like 6 years.

2:41 And we're pumping out, I think, better episodes because of it. Let's be honest, I haven't watched them in six years. There's a good chance Bob has watched them one to five times since Sure so. I actually don't know if I've seen this one since season 1, so I was really excited to return to it for this season. We've shuffled things around a little bit so that we could get to catch me if you can and line it up with Hanks giving here, but we're going to give you a a full episode's worth of hankful content here today, Brad and Hankiest. Where do I want to start today? Even before we dive into Brad Explains, I want to talk a little bit about Catch Me If You Can in the post Fableman's era of Steven Spielberg. Now, Spielberg released his movie The Fableman's a few years ago, which is a very autobiographical film. It's essentially him telling his own story with just the thinnest veneer of fiction, slapping someone else's name on it. Yeah.

3:38 And I know that you, you finally got around to watching The Fableman's, Brad. And it really is a skeleton key to understanding. Wow, these themes that we found all through Spielberg are real close to the bone for this guy. And watching Catch Me If You Can now in light of the Fablemen's, I'm like, oh, OK, so there's a reason that he took this project on 'cause he's, he's exorcising some demons here, Brad, for sure. Yeah, and it, it seems like he has this desire as a filmmaker to be a person who can be anything. And like as a filmmaker, you can create movies that capture all these different stories and ideas and, and you can kind of shapeshift and be a lot of different things. And you can make something like War of the Worlds and Jurassic Park and close Encounters of the Third Kind and, and, and The Schindler's List.

4:32 And you can, you can morph into all these different areas. And yet there is always something core that keeps you on the run, that keeps you making up these new stories, creating these new identities for yourselves. And it turns out that divorced parents bad. Bad for the human psyche. Divorced parents bad is is the core theme of this movie Brad and of Spielberg. It's funny because it coincided with I actually convinced my 8 year old to finally sit down and watch ET with me and he really really. Liked it? Catch me if you can. They watched scenes from Catch Me if You Can. They didn't watch scenes involving flight attendants. Or High Point Jennifer.

5:13 Jennifer Garner. Jennifer Garner, Yeah. So but they watched some of the scenes and so this coincided with like 2 days before we watched this. My 8 year old watched ET with me and so I got the full like panoply of of Steven Spielberg. How did how did he feel about ET He? Liked it a lot. He really liked it. He was asking good questions. At one point he was like, how old is Elliot and how old is Gertie? And I was like basically the same ages as you and your brother. And he was like, so Elliot's the same age as me. And then I was like, yes, I got him. I got him at the perfect time. Dude, it was so good. I say all that to say, you know, there is an element in Spielberg that, you know, he obviously tugs at your heartstrings.

5:56 But when you know more of his own personal story, the sort of wish fulfillment aspect I think hits even harder. That that almost all of his protagonists are him. Or who he wished he could be. Or how he wished he could rescue himself from this traumatic event in his childhood, which essentially involved his mom maybe, maybe not cheating on his dad, but definitely falling in love with his dad's best friend, leaving his dad and him having this immense sympathy for his dad who never stopped loving his mom and and him feeling lost in the middle of that. And you obviously get that. I think Catch Me If You Can is probably the most direct reference to that situation in Spielberg's entire catalog.

6:39 And I have no idea with with Abagnale's background if it played out exactly like that or if Spielberg manipulated it some more closely mirror his story. But I think it's important as we look at this movie not just as its own thing, but as a lens into Spielberg, how he wanted this story to play out and who how he sees himself in Frank Avenel. Yeah, it's interesting. In my research for Tupac's and a falsehood, I was just looking to make sure that this wasn't one of the facts that I used. One of the facts was that Abagnale's actual dad in real life was like a super straight laced military, like no nonsense.

7:23 And he was actually like the first victim of a lot of our protagonist schemes that he was like stealing his checkbook and as like a 13 year old. So it seems like the portrayal of Frank Senior is a little bit different and might fit Spielberg's vision a little more closely. Well, this movie comes out, what, 23 years ago now, Brad? I had to look at the year to confirm that we are still in 2025. And you know, we've learned a lot about Frank Abbeckmail in the year since. And a lot of this story is now contested and maybe made-up, which is like, wow, shocker. The guy who made his career on making stuff up maybe made this up too.

8:09 It's incredible to think that that could have happened. But I think with that established, Brad, it is time for us to get into our first segment of the day, which we call, Brad explains. Brad's going to give us the movie plot 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. This is at least the second time Brad's seen Catch Me If You Can probably. On the third or fourth, yeah, I've seen it maybe 2 times. Other than for the podcast, it's a good. Flick man, I'm gonna ask you this even before you we get into the plot devices here, Brad, is this kind of movie The perfect Thanksgiving movie?

9:04 And by that I mean like it's not all warm and fuzzy. There are warm fuzzy moments and it's fun. But I think there's also like just enough hints of sadness. We we kind of covered this last year when we talked about the holdovers. Like. The reason that movie hits you so hard is that you get the the good with the harsh realities of life. And I kind of like, I think these kind of movies are the ones that I want to come back to a lot around the holidays. It's why, you know, It's a Wonderful Life works so well. You see that his lowest in order to get him at his highest, right? Yeah. Dude, I as a young, I was probably like 17 or 18, almost out of high school when I read The Count of Monte Cristo for the first time. And the end of that book is a letter written from the count to like his protege.

9:52 And he basically says, look, only people who have experienced the depths of suffering can appreciate and actually experience the heights of joy. And I like I think that that's like one of those core truths about the human experience that a lot of movies tell us that, you know, people who are in the darkest of places can have those higher experiences. Now, I will say this time through this is kind of spoiling the end of the film is really dark. Like you get you get a really quick short view of his work at the office and how the work piles up.

10:37 And you're supposed to understand that it's like his first week on the job and all this work piles up and the music is really sad in the background. And the final scene is him and hand ratty connecting and being like, OK, well, maybe this is it. And the music, like, lifts a little bit and then it ends and you're like, so a crappy desk job where you occasionally get pumped about, like, catching a bad guy is the hope for his future. And I kind of left the film being like, I felt more uplifted by this film the last few times I watched it. I don't feel good about this. I think that's where the Spielberg E Nos of it comes into play and we'll talk about that ending. But we do need to get into explaining the plot of this movie.

11:24 If you have not seen Catch me if you can, the 23 year old Steven Spielberg comedy, it's one of his best. And I think that sometimes people look at a movie like this and that it's kind of light hearted and they they bury it under some of the more serious stuff. But just as a piece of filmmaking, comedy directing does not get much better than this man. It's a it's a pretty close to perfect movie. I would highly suggest you go watch Catch Me if you can and then rejoin us as Brad breaks it down with full spoilers. Brad, you have one minute on the clock and go. Catch Me If You Can is a film that follows the exploits and ne'er do wells the the ne'er do well of the ne'er do well. That's what I was looking for. Frank Abignale Junior.

12:07 Is it Nale? They just say Abagnale through the whole yeah. I don't know his mom's French so I feel like it needs a. Little I like Abagnale though. That's. Very. That's a little more Italian. It follows him as he is a young man who comes from a home that is soon broken. Near the start of the movie, his parents get divorced after his mom cheats on his dad and he becomes a con man. He becomes a fake airline pilot. He becomes a fake doctor, supposedly a real lawyer, but essentially a fake lawyer as well. And it follows his FBI counterpart, Carl Hanrady, who is chasing him across the country over it seems like a three to five year period.

12:51 And how he catches him overseas, brings him back to the US, gets him in prison, and eventually turns him into an FBI agent, helping to catch other common like him. Boom, catch me if you can. That's like maybe the boring. Most boring explanation of, and really it's so much more fun than that. In light of the fact that this is a Hanks giving episode, we kind of have two paths we can explore. I think let's get all of our regular episode stuff out of the way in the first half here, and then let's go ahead and return to the Hanks of it all in the second-half. Yeah. Because this is one of the first times that you really see Hanks embrace A supporting role as a leading man type actor, like A League of Their Own is probably the first real time you see it.

13:40 But he only really dabbles in this kind of work. And so to have DiCaprio be far and away the lead and the star of this movie and him supporting DiCaprio at this stage of his career was a really big deal. And so I, I do think that it's worth us talking about the Hanks of it all on its own. But that also means that we have a ton of other stuff to cover here. And we've touched a little bit on the Spielberg back story. I think maybe to kind of, you know, Segway back into that a little bit. I want to talk about Frank's story in the movie, especially tracing the arc of his relationship with his dad, played by Christopher Walken. Now, I'm pretty sure Walken gets nominated for an Academy Award for this movie, and as he should. Oh my gosh.

14:27 Dude. There's. A great story about how in the scene in the restaurant after Frank has become a successful pilot and he's first taking his dad out to a nice dinner and walk in breaks down crying thinking about the wife who's left him. They did like 15 takes of this and then walk in. Just let loose with it once. It wasn't supposed to cry. And after they shot that scene, Spielberg's like, we're done. Like, let's move on. Like, that's it. That's the one right there. Spielberg's like, I made somebody cry. So that's my goal in life. I did it somebody else. Somebody else feels how I felt.

15:07 And continue to feel crucially right. Yeah. One of the things that I love about what they do and don't do with the dad character is that they give you a little bit of insight into what's going on in their lives, but not really enough. It's kind of confusing. And I think that that makes sense because it's it's told through the eyes of like a 15 year old Leonardo DiCaprio who doesn't know a lot about his parents or his dad's business dealings. And he's a respected member of the small business community. And I think Rochester is where they're from. And, and yet the IRS is chasing him for some reason. We don't understand why if he's been doing some shady dealings.

15:51 And we know on the side that like, as he's getting more desperate to try to get the IRS off of him, you know, he's going to the bank, he's asking for a loan. And he's using these kind of like snaky tendencies of he pulls out the, the necklace on his hand for the, the bank teller. And so you know that he has a little bit of like the greasy palms, like he, he's slick with it. But as the movie goes on, it seems like he's trying to get back on the right track. And there's this recurring theme of like, the government won't leave me alone. I don't know what to do. And I think that leaving it at that is kind of the best way that they could approach this character because you don't know if Frank comes by it naturally or if it's just his kind of like, trauma response to the chaos of his life.

16:39 I mean it, it feels like as a written character, it feels like the both and like he has watched his dad be, if you want to put it nicely, charismatic little bits, little bit sleazy, but mostly just kind of charismatic. He's been watching that. And then he sees his mom betray his dad. And so he finds himself in this place of, like, the best way to honor my dad is to be like him in the real world. And he. And it feels like that natural tendency of teenagers to take things further than what an adult would do, that they don't have a sense of their own mortality and of, like, caution. So like, yeah, no, if I'm going to be a con man, like, I'm going to go all out.

17:30 And if I'm going to forge checks, I'm going to buy a tub of 1000 Delta airline planes so that I can pull the sticker off and and make these things. Even as he was doing that, I was like, man, if he had a, if he had one kid, he just, he wouldn't have time to do any of that. Like when you're a teenager, you have so much time to like hone in on one thing and get like obsessive about it. Like, man, once you have kids, like no wonder if people don't get in trouble once they start a family, right? Maybe that came out just. This thing we've ever said on this podcast, man, like. Maybe maybe that thought popped in my head like because I just had a third kid, but like I was literally sitting there going like, man, I ain't got time to fake money the way this guy does.

18:22 Well, there's a couple things with that sort of father son dynamic in this movie that are right there on the surface and that for some reason I just never, I never noticed or I didn't give them enough credit to how they really drive the plot forward because they are, it is kind of like it's both the inciting incident and the driving element of many of these characters. And so you've got DiCaprio to your point, he wants to be like his dad 'cause he respects him and he, he hates that his dad's getting screwed over by both the government and his mom. And so this is his response. It's to be a bigger, better version of what he sees his dad as in order to try to recapture what they've lost. He he tells them that multiple points like, I'm going to get it all back, dad. And you know, you can call mom.

19:04 We'll have this family again. And me doing this illegal stuff is just a way for me to get back to having my family together. At the same time, you've got walk in who doesn't really care that his son's a con man at this. He's just like, get back at the government for me. Like, I want you to keep running because if you keep running, they can't catch you. And I got caught and I hate this for myself and I never want to see that for my kid. And it's this weird, slightly twisted and perverted, but like, genuine care, that's how he cares for his child is like, I don't want to see happen to you what happened to me.

19:44 And the disconnect between the two is that Frank wants somebody to chase him and to catch him and to tell him to stop. And that's where the Hanks character comes in. And I think that that dynamic, it's again, it's not hidden. And there's like lines of dialogue that say this explicitly. And yet you get so caught up in the fun mechanics of the movie that I think it's easy to forget, like where the heart of the movie lies. Yeah, and I think I think that's why I love this movie so much. There's a great neuro neurobiologist named Doctor Kurt Thompson, and he has this line in one of his books where he talks about every single human being is born into the world looking for someone who is looking for them.

20:33 And I'm like that is this movie like Frank is looking for someone to look at him like in a in a powerful, meaningful knowledge. I know you, you're my son kind of way. And his dad is looking at his mom and looking at his job and looking at the government and look and he's on the run. And Frank imitates that to get his dad to look at him. And yet at a certain point, I think the key point of the movie is that lunch you were talking about, when Frank is trying to say, dad, I'm doing all these things so that you'll look at me, and his dad is looking at the things he's doing, not looking at him.

21:15 He's he's even saying like, and he's even pretty going to him and saying like, well, that too. But he's like, look at all these people around us staring at you. And he's like, dad, No one's like, you know, his dad is so focused on like, I have to build up this this invented narrative of success instead of seeing the person that's right in front of me, 100. Percent and that's and that's the moment that everything switches and he starts moving towards Carl Handratti as his father figure. And I think that's like the one thing that makes me feel a little icky is like Spielberg has this view and you see it in other film. Some films he feels a little more negative towards the government. Others, he's more positive, but it's like, it almost feels like the government becomes his father in the form of Carl Handratti.

21:59 And I'm like, oh, man, I'm too conservative to like. That the libertarian in you is like never. I'm like, no, I'm not a big fan of that. But in terms of the that's, that's an aside. I'm not actually contributing the movie for that in terms of like an effective storytelling mechanic. I think it is beautiful to recognize that our parents aren't always what we need them to be. And there can be mentors in our life that take on the role of a father figure or a mother figure that meet us where we're at and don't expect anything from us. And like, Hanratty goes from a I'm laughing at this kid because he doesn't have anyone to talk to on Christmas to like, I want to protect this kid from prison in France. And I want to protect him from, you know, however many years he has in the US penitentiary system. And I'm going to try to get him a job and care for him and help him grow.

22:57 And, and he gives him freedom at the end to say, hey, like, we, like we've done the work. We, we, we figured it all out. I'm not going to chase you anymore, man. I just want you to be with me. I want to do this work with you. If you don't want to. It's your choice. And it's such an empowering end to the film to say, Yep, look, Frank, you have power over your life. You can do what you will with it. And that's what makes the ending so impactful, is to see him choose, even despite the drudgery that we've seen build up, he chooses the proper path of life, the moral path of life. And you're like, yeah, that's I oh man, it's so good, especially because you've spent the whole movie looking at the I guess it, it feels like a trope in certain like cat and mouse movies.

23:50 Like you see it in the Wolf of Wall Street when the detective is riding the train home. And then they cut to DiCaprio and you're like, I love those scenes in cat and mouse movies where they highlight the robber, the, the con man's like luxury. And you see it in this one. Like Carl Hanratty is at a laundromat getting his laundry ruined while like 1617 year old Leo is having sex with a hooker. Yeah, you know, it's. The yin and the Yang of life, Brad, am I right? But But I think you're hit. You're really hitting on something here. And that's why the ending of the film works for me so well. Is that final line where, you know, Leo's been basically bailed out of prison by the government, and he hates his job and he hates that he's been tucked away in a corner and no one's paying attention to him anymore. And he's like, I'm going to run one more time. And Hanks chases him down.

24:49 And the reason Hanks is even able to chase him down is because of two things. One, if you believe his story about his family, he's lost his family. He's already failed as well. Like he has no one to call on Christmas either. And two, he cares about DiCaprio and they've established through really subtle camera movements and looks from Hanks. He doesn't come out and say it, but there's a couple times where like DiCaprio is like looking through the little thing at a check and they just hold on on Hanks's chase. And it's not curiosity. It's genuine, like, I'm proud of this kid. And it's it's the feeling that he's never had. And so when Hanks chases him down in that airport terminal and just says, like, you know, I'll, I'm not going to run after you this time. And he says, how do you know I'll come back? And he's like, look around, man, Nobody's chasing you. And it it finally clicks for Leo. The entire reason that I've been doing this the whole movie is that I just want a grown up to chase after me. And I finally have it in this guy. And if I stay, I'll have a good thing. And I think that like him finding that father figure even after his dad, his real dad has died at the end of the movie is what makes, yes, it's a drudgery kind of, you know, 9 to 5 office job.

26:06 But like from a, you know, completing the metaphor kind of standpoint, it's a perfect ending to this movie. I also, I don't know if I'm right about this, I'm guessing, but you can tell me if I'm wrong. I love the blocking of that scene. I don't even know if it's the blocking I want to call the stage set up. But it's not that. It's the fact that I think that that is like the only scene in the movie where they are in a public place and there's nobody else, right? Like there's a few scenes where he's alone in his apartment or whatever, but like it is the only time that Leo is in a public place and there is not another human being. Insight it's just him and just Hanks at which which it's that choice as a director to say no, this isn't a busy airport anymore.

26:56 It's empty and that like gives weight to Hanks line of look around. There's nobody chasing you and it means well that there's nobody to hide among right behind. Yeah, there's. That's a whole point of a con man is like, I can turn into anybody and it's like there's nobody around you to turn into anymore. You are alone here and I see you and I'm not chasing you anymore. I just want to. Be with you. Yeah, well, and, and Spielberg couches these metaphors in such fun scenes. Like there's the, I'm going to the college to recruit stewardesses and I'm going to have eight of them around me, which is never a thing you need on a flight, but they can, they can form rank around me and flank me as I go through the airport and just kind of keep my head down like this.

27:47 And there's it's the literal act of him being able to elude people because he's hiding behind others. But he's also like, it's, it's his step into maturity in adulthood because he's been hiding behind the fact that a horrible thing happened to him in his childhood and his his parents, you know, let him down. And he has to accept the fact that, like, you hit a point in life where you can no longer hide behind what happened to you. And you have to be like, naked in front of somebody with them seeing you to make the choice of who you're going to be after that. Yeah. I just think it's it's great visual storytelling, Brad. Yeah. And there's also just that great moment when he's talking to Hanratty and he goes, you told me that your daughter's 4. You lied to me.

28:36 And Hanks is like, yeah, I lied to you. It's the story. It's the lie that I tell myself. Like, that's who I still see in my daughter's, that she's 4. She's not, I don't know, 14 or 15, whatever he says she is. And it's that moment of, like, connection to be like, yeah, I I tell myself lies. I hide behind false narratives that I build up, and yet I still continue to live my life in a meaningful way. Versus how his dad can only see the false narrative, can only see the story that he's built up. And he doesn't have a touch point that he doesn't connect with reality. And the whole story is like, how is Frank going to connect with reality? And he tries to do with Amy Adams. He tries to build a life and he calls Carl and he's like, Carl, can we just give this up?

29:23 Like I'm I'm ready to be done. I'm not childish anymore. I just want to start a real life. And Carl's like, no man like you, you broke the law. Like you've stolen a million. Dollars, bro, Yeah. Oh man, I anytime they talk about movie money in old movies or movies set in old times, my brain always goes to the inflation calculator. And I didn't do this time, but I'm like, you know, 4 million in 1968, whatever it was like, you know, that's probably like 8, nine, $10 million in today's money at. Least yeah, at least dude. So it's like, yeah, no, you stole all this money, man. You can't just have a normal life now. Yep, Brad, this episode has been very inverted.

30:05 We did our our back half of the episode, Philosophy Corner with Brad and Bob in the first half. I do think, I mean, obviously the second-half we got to talk about our boy Hanks, but we've got the whole cast to talk about still. I do think this is the best place, though. Let's hit pause here. Let's go try some Johnnie Walker. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right. Today we are checking out Johnnie Walker Black Label. Now, Brown, you and I have been scrambling to figure things out today, and it's because I was under the assumption that we had reviewed both Johnnie Walker's Black Label, which is true, and the Red Label, which is their cheapest, most entry level product. Turning up and down that we've done both and that we, you know, we always said we preferred Black Label, but it turns out the reason we like Black Label so much is we've never, ever reviewed Johnny Walker Red, which is just nuts, dude. Yeah, it's kind of like our straw man. We just, you know, always bash it, put it down. We don't have, we don't actually know what it is. It's our Scotch view.

31:12 Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I've already. Kind of given away this, but you know, Johnny Walker has different colored labels. The main ones you will see at the liquor store are the red label, the black label, the green label and then the blue. Johnnie Walker Blue has long been touted as like, you know, what most people think of as a fancy Scotch. It's very funny because Johnnie Walker has significantly higher price points than the blue label. And the secret that we've discovered over the years, Brad, is that we actually prefer the 50 to 60 ish Johnnie Walker Green label to the $200 Johnnie Walker Blue. I think it's by far the best value in the lineup. But I have to say, upon returning to Johnnie Walker Black, this bad boy might get a pretty good value score from Old Bob as well.

32:00 Yeah. Not to not to totally dilute what we're about to say, but this is a $35 bottle whiskey Bob. That's the. Best price for whiskey? It is a very good price. I, I feel like when we started there was like a just 30 to $40 was like the price range for so much whiskey. And now it feels like it's like 45 to $60.00. And so I I still, man oh man, I love me some 30 something dollar whiskey. Now the primary difference. Between Johnnie Walker Red and Black, they're both bottled at 40% ABV. They're both blended Scotch whiskies, meaning that they come from a variety of distilleries and I believe that they're not even labeled as blended malt whiskey, so they could be from a variety of grains as well.

32:51 Primarily the difference is Johnnie Walker Red is not age stated and so it's definitely a little bit younger. It's intended for mixing. Johnnie Walker Black actually carries a 12 year age statement. So we're drinking a 12 year whiskey here today, Brad, I'm very excited to dive in. I think our baseline for good blended Scotch has always been Monkey Shoulder. Now we've also tried this season Shivas Regal, which I think is still a damn good blended Scotch as well. So, you know, we have a couple bars that we're measuring against here as we dive in to Johnnie Walker Black. Brad, I will let you take it away. What are you picking up on the nose of this whiskey? Yeah, the the Johnnie Walker.

33:32 Black has a really beautiful classic. What you would expect from a blended Scotch nose. There is honey, it gets a little bit on the fruity side. There's some Peach, some like darker plum type of notes going on. It gets a little bit nutty for me the longer I sit with it, almost like an almond. It's a really nice, pleasant nose Bob. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. Yeah, man, I think I'm in the same spot as you. I think I'm going to give this a 7.5. It's kind of exactly what you're looking for. Nothing's really blowing me away about it, but it's like, this is the baseline when I'm drinking blended Scotch, you know, from Cutty Sark up to Monkey Shoulder.

34:18 These are the notes I expect to get. Now, this is a a much more mellow, not harsh kind of rendering of that, which I, I will give some credit to. But you know, nothing's knocking my socks off here. So I'm in a 7.5. Yeah, I think the palate. Runs the same gambit the the honey is there. It has such a pleasant barley taste. Like there's definitely some scotches that like it's like that young barley that this is just a really nice cereal, grainy kind of flavor. The plum sticks around for me. The nuttiness almost turns into like a caramelized toffee kind of vibe. I really like this a lot. I'm going to come down a tiny bit from the nose.

34:59 This is just like standard baseline, really good Scotch. I'll give it a 7 1/2 out of 10. I don't know if I've ever asked you to do this. Before, but go ahead and give your finish score too, because I think I need a second sip before I can say what I think of it. I'm not I'm I'm confused about this one right now. OK for me the the. Finish the the toffee sticks around and the plum sticks around. Those are like the main notes that sit in this really nice effervescent, sweet kind of category. There's not really any sourness that sits on my palate. The the barley just kind of dissipates nicely there. There's not too much graininess.

35:41 I'm going to come back up from that 7 1/2 on the palate and give it an 8 out of 10 on the finish. I think I'm a little bit lower on this. Whiskey. Than you are Brad, Bob. Yeah. Any fruit that is there. On the palate is just kind of hinted at. It's like the lacroix of of whiskeys, like you said, plum and I kept looking for it and I'm just not finding it either like a really bright kind of tart fresh plum or like a stewed kind of pruney thing. I'm just not finding it there. I could maybe get down with like some some kind of like fruit skins. It's got a little bit of earthiness to it, sure, but primarily for me, it's like buttery. There's definitely butterscotch on here. You got toffee.

36:23 I'm in that same category, but it tips a little more like saline heavy for me. So it's like salted caramel, salted butterscotch kind of a thing. And then quite a bit of smoke, quite a bit of earthiness on it. I like it. I I wish I had a little more fruit character to go with it. Kind of like that melon note that we like to get on blended scotches sometimes. Yeah, I'm going to be at a 6.5 on the pallet and I think I'll be around this. Well, I'll give it a 7 on the finish because it's a really long lasting super buttery finish. I just wish it was a little more complex than what I'm actually getting here. Yeah, I dude, I makes. Me a little sad love. I love when we agree on Scotch Bob we're we're not terribly far off from each other. I think balance wise this is like a really well balanced whiskey.

37:11 There's nothing that puts it above over the top. I'll give it a 7 1/2 out of 10 on balance. Yeah, I think I'll give it a. 7, This is like a pretty standard above average blended Scotch whiskey. It's not approaching Monkey Shoulder for me. And as I recall from that Shivis a few weeks ago, I don't think I would put this above Shivis personally for myself either. So not bad, but definitely not like in the category of best value out there. And I think that takes us to our our value category where we're at $35.00. So it's just a touch below where Monkey Shoulder, I think is currently sitting in the state of Ohio and right around where Shivis is. And I think given my preference for both of those other two, it's priced definitely fairly.

37:58 And it's just comes down to like what your preferred flavor is on a blended Scotch. If you like a little bit more of those fruity notes to come through, I would say go to Monkey Shoulder, go to Shivas before you come to Johnny Walker. I don't think it's a bad value. I would not personally pick it over those other two. So I'm going to be at a 7.5 out of 10, Brad Yeah, I I'm actually. With you on value, I think this is a standard value for a blended Scotch in this range. 7 1/2 out of 10 is my score. I think I would lean towards Monkey Shoulder over this. I think I'd take this over the show this. It's not like crazy better. It just kind of like sits in my wheelhouse a little more closely. Yeah, it does.

38:39 All right, I'm coming. Out to a 30. 5.5 out of 50 on this one Brad, where you sitting? 38.5. Oh, OK, so that brings. Us to an average of a 37 out of 50 or a 74 out of 100. So we're definitely above the mark where we would start recommending. That's typically at a 35 out of 50 average, but it's kind of a soft recommend for me. There's nothing bad here. I don't feel like anyone is overcharging for what you're getting. I do think there are better options within the world of blended Scotch. And even at this particular price point, you can find a couple better options. Yeah, I, I think that's. Fair. I I think the most important question, Bob, that you need to ask yourself is, is this, are you feeling hankful?

39:28 Oh baby, am I. Feeling hankful, Brad. All day I have just been wanting to jump on here and do the French accent of the guys at the beginning of the movie where they're trying to pronounce Hanratty al Alratty Alratty. Hanratty. All right, man. Let's get back into Catch me. If you can, what do you say? Let's get to it, man. All right, everybody, that was Johnnie. Walker Black Label A a whiskey that was a little bit divisive for us, but overall we're, we're in a good spot. I, I think we're going to come out a little bit higher on catch me if you can than we did with Johnnie Walker Black Label. Brad, can I make a?

40:12 Shameless pitch to anyone listening out there we need to get. Wild Turkey. To sponsor the Hanks giving. Episodes. So that we can drink Wild Turkey on Hanks give. What are we doing, dude? Yeah. Rare breed every year. Listen. We freaking love rare. Breed, we want to try your stuff. You don't even have to sponsor us. I would like for you to sponsor us, but send us product and then we will drink Turkey on Hanks giving. Yeah, it's it is a match. Made in Turkey heaven. All right, Brad, it's time for us to get. Into our game for the day, which we call 2 facts and a falsehood. Brad is going to try.

40:53 To stump you, Ball 2 All right 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. Now Brad, I I absolutely love it when you begin a sentence with in my research for two facts and a falsehood. Because it sounds like you are like Gandalf, like with your pipe, like pouring over old books in the Library of Ministerith. Like it came to me. Yeah, you, you. Just go to the IMDb trivia page and take everything internal.

41:35 Yeah, my. Internal monologue voice turns into Ian McKellen. It's great. All right man. So you have pulled 3. Pieces of information off of the IMDb trivia page. We cannot vouch for their actual truthfulness, No, but one of them is made-up by Brad and two of them are from IMDb. So with that said, let's get into two facts and a falsehood. We should change it from 2 facts. And a falsehood to two facts. Asterisk and a falsehood. 2 facts and a falsehood. The only thing for certain? In that statement is that the falsehood is false for sure we we don't know about. The facts. I just thought it was an important.

42:15 Clarification in a movie about a con man like, you know, this might all be made-up. Who knows? It's like Whose line is it anyways? Where the points are made-up and all right fact #1 Composer John Williams created the main theme to Catch Me If You Can before seeing a single frame of footage. Basing it entirely on Spielberg's description of the film as a quote jazz riff about deception, Williams later said it was one of the rare times that one of his first drafts survived unchanged fact number. 2 Steven Spielberg was. Initially reluctant to approach Tom Hanks about taking the part of Carl Hanratty, Hanratty assuming that he wouldn't be if it had been directed by Danny, that that's how it would have been pronounced the whole movie. Assuming that he wouldn't be interested in playing a supporting part at this stage of his career, Hanks put him straight by saying that a good part was a good part, no matter the size.

43:27 Accurate. What an episode, Bob. Fact #3 The blackboard that Carl Hanrady is writing on toward the end of the movie contains a small note at the bottom that says Steven and Spiel, Steven and Tom's fourth project. This refers to Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks having previously collaborated 3 times on Band of Brothers in 2001, Saving Private Ryan in 98, and Joe Versus the Volcano in 1990, our birth year. Interesting. OK, I don't know if number one is true or false, but I do think that I wanted to talk about John Williams anyway. And this this small kind of mini period of John Williams is one of my favorites because, you know, I love John Williams as much as the next guy.

44:19 There are times where you hear a piece of film music and you're like, oh, that's, that's John Williams. Like when you hear the Olympic theme song every, every time the Olympics are on, it's like, that's John Williams, you know? Oh, dude, it's it's good. But it's John Williams. And and when he did this movie and then The Terminal for Spielberg in 2004, they're so different than what you typically get. There's like a lot more clarinet, a lot more like Eastern European influence, and then you've got the jazz influence. I just freaking love what he did in this movie, man. Yeah. Oh, The Terminal was our other Thanksgiving movie. There you go. Yeah, we did The Terminal. Which is a great that that feels like a that's a Thanksgiving movie through and through.

45:00 I was very. Hankful that we did that one number. 2 is an interesting one. I know that this part was originally kind of cast with James Gandolfini and that Gandolfini had to drop out because he had conflicts with The Sopranos filming. It's next season and that's when Hank stepped in. I don't know if Hank said that to Spielberg or not. It it doesn't contradict the the fact that Gandolfini was there doesn't matter the size bond it leaves me with. Number it leaves me. With #3 I don't really know Spielberg to do that sort of Easter eggy thing. And if he does, it's really obvious, like in ET when he sees Yoda on the street and, like, says, home, home, like it's, yeah, a clear merchandising opportunity for Spielberg. So I'm going to say #3 is the falsehood. And I have nothing else to base that on. Brad, I think that this might be 1. Of my best collection, not just of what I wrote, but like of the two, what you called from the Internet. That I called from IMDb.

46:01 You are. Incorrect, Bob fact. Fact number one was the. Falsehood about John Williams. Nice. Yeah, I should have. Known better than to think that John Williams would ever let a first draft get out, you know, Right. Yeah. He, he's, he's. Pretty meticulous about his work, yeah. Let's see, we talked about Williams a little bit. I'm just trying to think of things before we get into the cast. I love the opening title sequence in that sort of like Saul Bass style. It's so good, man. It's incredible. I. Our friend Patrick Williams did a episode years ago about like a good opening credits scene and how they used to be a key element to movies and the, the opening theme would play for like 4 minutes while the credits rolled and it got you into the, the vibe of the movie.

46:52 I I think we need to bring back like awesome, crisp, clean credits, opening credits scenes Well and it makes so much sense because like. It's really established in the context of the movie that this kid loves James Bond and James Bond is just known for having those opening credits scenes. So it makes sense that they would stick one on this movie. Brad, I do want to talk really quickly about just the, the Spielberg camera movements in this movie because it's, it's among his best. His blocking is unreal. Like there are there, there's a scene where he's got like 5 FBI agents lined up in a room and I, I don't know if it's hand ratty or somebody is like in the foreground on the right.

47:35 And then he's got everybody else kind of like diagonally going back to the left. And it doesn't look artificial. He just, like, as a master at blocking people. But there's one little shot that just absolutely blew my mind. And it's when they're outside of the Miami airport, and Amy Adams has been waiting on him. And they find out that there's a guy in the car and we need to go arrest him. And it starts like facing the airport and it kind of rolls around the back of the car and, and pulls, continues to Dolly back and like sink towards the ground so that as they open the door, you can't see the driver inside. Yeah. And it's just like.

48:17 First of all, it's a simple shot. It's following action, but it's like at least four shots in one. And I think that what it did for me is it made me realize, like, Spielberg built this whole set or like, you know, put a facade on this whole set to look like it's the 1960s. And he does not care about like showing it off it it didn't seem fake. It was just like it felt very lived in. But you're seeing all these old cars and all these old costumes and the ability. To use a shot like. That to show off your set and to communicate like a small action it's just like who does it better than this guy man it's it's unreal even for me the.

48:57 The shot that stuck out to me is when Leo is leaving his mom's house and there's the new the replacement for him, the new daughter that like isn't terrified by a random man who looks homeless staring in their window, tapping on the window. And as he walks to hand ready. First off, you get the the line like, like, put me in the car, Carl put me in the car. Oh, just breaks your heart. But then once he's in the car, it switches focus from like what's going on in front to Leo in the rearview mirror mirror. Oh. Dude. What a great. Freaking shot and he just. Looks like he's 47 and he's like a 18 year old at this point. 19 year old.

49:43 Oh my gosh, dude, the the camera work is just so good. Like his life is disappearing from behind him and he has this bleak future ahead of him. It's it's so good. I think that's a. Great segue into talking about. Leo because I've always said that the aviator is still my favorite Leo performance and I think that I might be wrong and it might be this now because. Watching him. Play. The 15 year old in the front row at at his dad accepting the award at the beginning of the movie. He does this great thing where with his body language where he's like a little bit hunched forward and making himself look like small like.

50:26 Yeah. And he's like, yeah, like chewing his. Fingernails. And when he claps, he claps extra enthusiastically. And it communicates child likeness in a way that doesn't seem like, and I don't know what the word is, like dumb. It's just like he's not playing a dumb kid. He's embodying like naivete. And to go from that. To where he's at it. The end of the movie when he's like in prison and hacking up along and then finding out about his dad dying on the plane and you know, like kicking stuff, dude, you know, he only ages by like what, four or five years in the course of the movie, but in, in the life that he's being portrayed as, he's aging like 30 years.

51:12 And DiCaprio, I, I don't even remember how old he is when he makes this movie. He's got to be like 27 ish 28 and. So the whole course of the movie, he's. Actually playing younger than he is in real life, and yet he seems to be inhabiting like this old, wise, haggard man by the end of the movie. It's just unbelievable, man. Yeah, I mean honestly for me. It reminded me of like what's eating Gilbert Grape, moving all the way to like the broken elements of his character in The Aviator. And it's like it is a full journey from childishness to the toll that being a con man has taken on him. And Leo nails it.

51:57 I I do think one of my complaints about the movie is that like Leo feels he does a. Great job with it. But there are moments where he asks for milk that you're like, to me, it just. Feels a. Little bit off like like the believability of the movie falls away a little bit when he's like, can I have some milk? And you're like, and it's, it's not necessarily that he looks too old. It's at that moment you're like, he's been a con man for a while now, Like he would know not to ask for milk in this situation. I think that's the part where it falls for me a little bit. And I'm like, I think the script is asking Leo to do things that don't.

52:41 They just feel dissonant, discordant, but that's like a minor. There's a few moments like that. I, I think Leo, like you said, I, I feel like this middle portion of Leo's career aviator, this shutter island, I think it's like the peak of what Leo could because he wasn't chasing at this point and yet he wasn't a little kid anymore the way he was with Titanic and and some other ones. I, I think this is like peak Leo in a lot of ways. Well, and you know. I think. That 3-4 years after this movie comes out, he bulks up for Blood Diamond and The Departed. Yeah, and you kind of lose.

53:26 The. Boyishness at that point. And so when he wants to go back to doing like broken man stuff in the 20 tens, he has to do Shutter Island and Inception and The Revenant. And it's a very different kind of like tortured, broken psyche than what you get here. And so this really does seem like kind of his last hurrah in the like, I'm a wounded kid. And I think that, you know, like Chalamet has been compared to DiCaprio a lot in terms of like, they have a very slender frame. They got famous when they were very young, like abilities beyond their years. And I kind of think Chalamet is hitting this point now. He hasn't bulked up yet, obviously. But like, you know, I feel like Dune 2.

54:08 Is kind. Of the last time where he can believably play like, I'm still the young man coming into power and we're about to hit the like, what's, what's Chalamet's Shutter Island look like in a couple years here? What? What year did Shutter Island come? Out 2010 I think. Really. For some reason I was thinking. Of that in like a 2005 six area, no. Good movie dude, Definitely not a Thanksgiving. Movie. Not not least of which because it has no Hanks in it, it does not have Hanks in it. Let's let's knock out the rest of this cast before. We get to Hanks. I think Martin Sheen is great in this movie as he's so good. Adam's dad, I always forget that he worked with Leo again in Departed.

54:53 But to have him as kind of like the surrogate father for just a hot 2nd. And you get that great scene of DiCaprio sitting on the couch watching, like, Lawrence Welker, whatever it is, and trying to figure out like, is is this what a family is like? And ultimately not being able to, like, give into that. You know what I think it's it's it is a family and it's a good family and it's a tight family, but it doesn't work for what he needs at that point. Yeah. Well, and it it's a family. That is also building a false narrative because the real narrative of that family is if you step out of line, we kick you out of the family. Even if we help you fix the problem, we kick you out of the family.

55:38 And so I, for me, I read that scene as Leo wondering like, is this what a real family is like? But it's a dissonance, that picture from the weeping Amy Adams when he proposes to her and she's like, no, I'm dirty and broken and disgusting because I had this thing happened to me and not just happened to me. Like I chose this thing and I'm dirty. But then there's this picture of this neat, perfect little Irish family and it, it's such a good thing. I I still think we haven't really talked about the comedy of it all. I think one of the absolute funniest lines of the movie is when Amy, he tells Amy Adams all of the stuff and he just dumps it on her. And to be fair to her, she has no chance to like process at all.

56:23 But the one thing she focuses on is, wait, you're not a Lutheran? It's it's so good, such a. Great line man. Well, OK, let's talk about. Amy Adams because this is a very early role for her. You know, she, she kind of achieves a little bit of prominence around 2005 with a small indie movie she does called Junebug, which got her a lot of awards nominations. And that's around the same time that she does the first or second season of the Office as well. And then from there she becomes the Amy Adams that we know. I, I don't think this role works unless you have someone who can play like cute ingenue slash, very naive slash, believably broken, right?

57:12 Like when she cries in this movie, she's not doing the like, I'm a dumb girl crying, you know, like Marilyn Monroe kind of act like she's she's doing something that feels very like this is a a girl who was very sheltered and is trying to figure out life on her own and is way too trusting of other people. And I think that Amy Adams just absolutely nails that part. And I I do think that one. Of the key elements of this world that he's building because it it feels like you know how like eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is like it's a real movie, but it's like it's slightly in a different universe than what the real world is right. This movie kind of feels similar in how it creates these really gullible people.

58:04 Like there's so many people that like as and maybe this is just like a modern cynic, but you look back and you're like, were people really that gullible that you drop a you drop a necklace and people are like, it's a necklace for me, you know, and it it. Feels. Put on just enough and it doesn't break the illusion of the film. But Amy Adams, I think, does the best job of making that gullibility feel believable because she has experienced such deep trauma and she has a family that builds this false narrative about who they are as a family. It makes her character holistic and feel very real and lived in and she's only on screen for 15 minutes of a two hour and 25 minute movie. Like I think she is one of the best written characters. It helps that Martin Sheen is her dad and she's a great actress in her own right that build it into a believable character system.

59:07 But man, oh man, I I think she is my favorite like sub character of the movie. She she has that innocence, she has that trauma and horror and the Co ability and I, I thought she nails it. And especially it's just wild. Like this is her first role, like her first big role. And if if we were talking about directors and scoring them like we did a few seasons back, this would be an example of Spielberg being a great director of actors and actresses. I think he, I think. You have to. Give Spielberg some credit here. You know, you don't necessarily give him credit for Martin Sheen being awesome.

59:49 He, he's an established actor at this point, sure. But to take Amy Adams and give us that performance, nailed it. I think the closest analog. In like a character that we've seen before on the show is Jessica Chastain as Celia Foot in the Help. There's a very like a very similar kind of. She looks like the ditzy dumb blonde. She's much more than that. And and I still feel like Amy Adams is probably a little bit better here because she feels more like a real person even than that character in the help does. And I think Brad that that takes us to our boy Tom Hanks. It's a it's a great Hanks performance because he nails what he needs to nail. And then the things that aren't great, you can forgive. This is an interesting moment in Hanks's career. So you know, he's won both of his Oscars in the early to mid 90s.

1:00:38 He is on top of the world. We've talked about the run of films he did throughout the 90s to the early 2000s before. It is still fairly unbroken in this year. He has Roads to Perdition and Catch Me If You Can. And I think Roads to Perdition is him trying to find something new to continue doing, playing like a, a criminal, playing a hitman. And it, it doesn't quite work. It's a good movie, but it, it doesn't quite work for Hanks. And then you have him sliding into this role and it, it just fits like a freaking glove. He's returning to the well of being able to do comedy from the the days of Bosom Buddies and, and A League of Their Own and what, what have you. And I think that he also is able to bring that sense of unspoken gravitas to those scenes where he's just, like, looking lovingly at DiCaprio, this criminal.

1:01:29 And it might not be in the script, but it's definitely something that he and Spielberg were able to draw out of the character. Yeah. Oh, and in the same way. That we got to watch Leo go from this innocent child to a broken, you know, world weary traveller. You get to see hand ready go from just an FBI agent who got tricked. And another one of the best scenes of the movie is when Leo walks out of the bathroom and he's caught red handed by Tom Hanks and is able to con the person who is supposed to catch in it. What a great scene. And so he goes from being this FBI agent who was utterly humiliated by the person he was supposed to catch to oh, wow. Like, I'm a father and I want to love this kid, and I am able to move beyond the initial story.

1:02:22 I saw the mystique around Frank Abagnale into recognizing who he really is and a scared little kid who's on the run and just wants to be chased and wants somebody to care about him. And so that arc for Hanks, I think it gives him a great role to, you know, like you said, it doesn't matter how big or small the role is a great part is a great part. And he he knocks it out of the park. He sinks his teeth into this place where he he sees Leonardo DiCaprio and dives into his life and draws him out of the false narrative that Leo had constructed for himself. It it's a great role. And Hanks plays that transition so well. And, and you see it when he's sitting next to him on the airplane and goes, you know, hey, I, I didn't want to be the one to tell you this, but you feel the sense of like weight and responsibility on Tom Hanks that like, I didn't want to do this, but I'm an adult and I care about you, which means I need to be the one to tell you.

1:03:23 So I'm going to do my responsibility even if I don't want to do it. And tells him about his dad dying. And, and it's just a, it's a great moment of character growth for Tom Hanks, his character. And as always, Hanks does that so, so well. Yeah. Yeah, man, I do. Think this might go on the Mount Rushmore of Tom Hanks accent work. Capital A capital W for good and bad reasons. So, you know, Hanks was not really an accent guy in his early going and he wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for Philadelphia. And then his follow up movie is Forrest Gump and he becomes Tom Hanks accent guy and wins an Oscar for that.

1:04:06 And then I would say it's like an even 5050 split of every movie he's made since then where he's either trying to do a voice or not trying to do a voice. And that's a huge chunk of your movies to try to be doing a voice in. Yeah, you know, in in Toy Story, he's just Tom Hanks and it's lovely. And in Saving Private Ryan, he's just Tom Hanks. And in Castaway, he's just Tom Hanks. They're all and there's the great and then there's the terminal. There's the terminal. There's the terminal, yeah. Yeah. Man, so you got Forrest Gump, you've got the Green Mile. He's like, I'm from Louisiana now. No, you're not. Then you've then you've got the terminal, you've got this movie, you've got like, what else are we talking about?

1:04:47 Even Mr. Rogers, he tries to do Mr. Rogers voice that does not work at all. And I feel like he's been doing this thing for the last five or so years where he does gravelly voice now, which is not his natural voice. But every movie he tries to talk like this now. Ever since Sully. Yeah, the man, The man from. Otto called Otto. Yes, a man called Otto. He does. The same voice. I don't know that he's trying. He's trying to, yeah. He worked with Eastwood. And he was like, this is it, this is the rest of my career. I don't know that the hit rate is as high on Tom Hanks accent guy as it is just regular Tom Hanks. Yeah, that leads me into saying this is a horrible Boston accent.

1:05:33 It's not good. And yet I. I will give him. Marks in that a lot of times when Tom Hanks is doing accent guy, he falls out of the accent. Like we talked about it in Forrest Gump. There's a couple lines where he just becomes regular Tom Hanks. He does the Boston. Accent in. Every line of this movie I to his credit, and I don't know if that's just Spielberg being like, Tom, you forgot to do the accent that time. Let's do it again. Yeah, but I I think if you got to give him credit somewhere on the accent, it's at least consistent across the board. Dude, if there's anything. I want to be known for it is sticking to the bit and he stuck to that bit. It was it was great. And I I think when you do it consistently throughout the whole film, it goes from being like annoying that he falls in and out of it to like almost like lovable. It's like, ah, you suck at that accent. But yeah, you do it the whole time. It's OK, man, good job.

1:06:29 I do. I do think that the. Knock knock joke wouldn't work as well if he didn't go knock knock because it's it's so good and I also love the. The way Spielberg builds the script to tell the joke. So he gets his one F word in and then later to his police Sergeant or whatever he said, he starts it and then it cuts to something else. And it's that little joke with the audience to be like, you know where this is going? Yep. Yeah, it's it's pretty. Awk. Before we move into, let's make it a. Double and final scores. I'm implementing a new Thanksgiving related scoring metric here, Brad. OK, on a scale of 1 to 10 Thanksgiving turkeys, how many Thanksgiving turkeys does?

1:07:20 Ketchum, if you can get how many? Thanksgiving turkeys does the Tom Hanks performance get Now this could just be how good of a performance is it or how how hankful does it make you but use whatever logic you want but how many turkeys are we giving Hanks for this performance I would give. Him about 8 1/2 Hanksgiving turkeys I think this is a great performance It like it is up there one of his best it's not like transcendent I I wouldn't call it like something that moves me in AI can't stop thinking about this performance the way that I would a Captain Phillips to be honest. 100% yeah.

1:08:01 This is like an 8 out of. 10 Thanksgiving turkeys. I I would never want to give someone half of a Turkey on Thanksgiving, so I'm I'll stick to round numbers here. We'll say it's an 8 out of 10 Turkey. And Brad, that takes us to our final segment of the day, which we call let's make it a double. We're near the end of the episode. So thanks listening to the film and whiskey show, let's pair another film with this one. Even if it's struggling. It's the final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's make it a double. Is the part of the show. Where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. Brad, I'm gonna go 1st and I'm gonna go quick on this one because you, you took my pairing earlier. I, I thought I was gonna be super clever about my connection of this movie to the Wolf of Wall Street because it's DiCaprio and the FBI and the guy on the train and Hanks pulling stuff out of the laundry.

1:08:52 I think that's the perfect mash up for this because you called it out. I'll give a second option, and it's gonna be the theme is gonna be great title sequences from the early 2000s with a jazz score. And the year before this you have the great animated opening sequence of Monsters Inc. So if you just want to watch. 2 Great. Jazz influenced scores and cool animated title sequences. You could do a lot worse than Monsters Inc and Catch Me Yeah. Oh. Man, I you're going to love this, Bob. I'm I'm not going to pair it with this movie because I don't like the movie as I was thinking about movies that focus on the theme of like brokenness and how it.

1:09:36 Drives us. Away from our home to like, try to figure out who we are. You're going to love this. You're, this is like your, I thought about almost famous that his, his house is broken. He's seeking like some form of identity through music. And so he goes on the road with his, his idol and then realizes like he's just as broken as I am. So I, I do think I'm that level. Almost famous could be a good pairing. I I think though, I'm going to focus more on the like, let's focus on a fun con man movie and I'm going to go with 1973's The Sting. 'Cause that's something such a good it's. Such a good movie man.

1:10:26 It's it focuses on con man movies we need. Like whether it's whether it's watching the heist the way you do in the in The Sting and Ocean's 11, or whether it's just getting caught up in the story of a con man like this movie, We just need more. Does Hollywood make more? They're great. Movies. I think is it? I thought I saw something the other day about the the magic. Oh, man, this is like very nonsensical coming out of my mouth right now. What was the magic movie that Jesse Eisenberg? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now you see me. They're coming. Out with a new one of those? Are they coming out with a new one? There you go. Those movies suck, dude. They're not. Good. So they're not.

1:11:07 Good movies, man. They're trying to. There was a Really. Good movie. There was a really good movie that came out like 2 months ago called Roof Man with Channing Tatum. I think I talked about it in one of our Friday episodes. Yeah, because my brain if you like. If you like, catch. Me if you can. It is like the 21st century equivalent of that. I might actually just change my vote to that movie. It's really good. Catch me if you can is. From the 21st century, but it's set in the 20th, you know. What I'm saying? All right, man, We've given out our turkeys. We've picked our our double features here. Let's give this movie some final scores. I think that this is like a close to perfectly made movie. There is still something.

1:11:50 Within me, that's like there's. A ceiling on these types of movies. So I I think I'm going to come out to a nine out of 10 on this movie, but it's a very high 9, if that makes sense. I'm with you. I'm at a nine. Out of 10, it's it's not a perfect film. There's there's little flaws here and there. It is a like true to the word RIP roar in good time. And if anything, the reason this doesn't hit hit like a 10 out of 10/9 and 1/2 out of 10 peak. It's because there is a little bit of tension between Spielberg wanting to have have fun with the movie and Spielberg wanting to be serious with the movie. I I think that's where the movie I, I don't want to say falls apart a little bit.

1:12:31 It it just a little rough around the edges when you when it when those two elements rub up against each other. But other than that, man, just catch me if you can. It's a great freaking movie. Is it a good Thanksgiving movie? I think it's a really good Thanksgiving. Movie what you said to the start, man, it like there's a little bit of longing. There's a huge element on family. It's fun and entertaining. Anybody could sit down and watch it and be like, oh, that was a good time. I'm glad I sat down and watched Catch Me if you Can. So yeah, great holiday flick. All right. Last thing I'll say. Brad, I just happened to pull up the domestic box office for 2002, and you can see I've just opened the tab 'cause my face is all bright now, but let me read the top few movies 'cause I don't think we knew how good we had it back then.

1:13:19 It's such a good mix of franchise stuff and sequel stuff and originals. Yeah. So from from 1:00 to 12:00, here we go. Spider Man, Sam Raimi, The Two Towers, Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mel Gibson in Signs. Oh my gosh, Austin. Powers in Goldmember. Men in Black 2 Ice Age, Then you have the best picture winner, Chicago, Catch Me If You Can and the James Bond movie Die Another day. Now, not all of those movies are great movies, but I think that I I miss having like real summer blockbuster movies.

1:14:06 Yeah, mixed with prestige, mixed with like, here's a new Spielberg to go with it. What a perfect line up of movies, dude. Yeah, dude. The movie industry. Has has morphed and evolved in a lot of ways that I don't enjoy. And with that, folks happy. Thanksgiving from us here. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. OK, so we gave this movie. A nine out of 10 on average I do want to hear what film and whiskey nation thinks of this one how long has it been since you've seen catch me if you can and will you consider turning it on for your family on this Hanks giving you can let us know at any of our social media accounts Facebook Twitter Instagram tiktok YouTube at film whiskey what about LinkedIn Bob we. We still on LinkedIn.

1:14:53 Find us on LinkedIn. I'm posting on. LinkedIn. Come find us there, baby or. If you want to join the conversation, we are on our Discord server. We're on there every day. You can talk to us there. Find a link at the end of every single one of our show notes. We will see you. Next week with another. Regularly scheduled episode, but until then, I'm Bob Book, I'm Brad G and we'll see. You next time knock. Knock, knock. Knock.