Mad Max: Fury Road / Bushmills Rare Cask 29-Year Irish Whiskey

0:00 In 2015, director George Miller and star Charlize Theron gave the world a Max octane pedal to the floor experience that sent audiences into a frenzy. In 2025 we try a whiskey that hasn't seen the Green Place in over 7000 days. The film is Mad Max Fury Rd. The whiskey is Bushmill's 29 year old rare cask. And we'll review them both. This is. The the Film and Whiskey podcast Welcome to the Film and Whiskey podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey.

0:56 I'm Bob Book. Witness me. I could you nearly just blew out my headphones. I I am not going to have fun editing this today because I already could tell that you're going to scream witness me 14 times over the course of this, this recording, Brad. Is it bad that I think that the first Witness Me moment might be the best moment of this film? I like the very last one but they're they're on par with each other for sure. Yeah, the the first one I like get like Holy Spirit chills. But you guys, I don't know if that's the spirit that's chilling you in that moment, Brad.

1:39 But folks, welcome into the film and Whiskey podcast. Today we are looking at the 2015 film Mad Max Fury Rd. Brad, I'm not going to bury the lead here. This is one of the weirder hard sci-fi films that we've done in a long time. I say hard sci-fi. It still takes place on Earth, but it is in a post apocalyptic wasteland where people have forgotten everything that came before the apocalypse except car stuff. And so we've got dudes doing weird stuff, but say in car words. And it is, it is a very interesting movie. It's a very interesting franchise. So it's the brainchild of this director, George Miller, who had made three prior entries in the Mad Max saga. I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb and assume that you, Brad, have not seen any of those movies. Sure haven't.

2:36 OK. So the first one I think comes out in 1979. It's one of Mel Gibson's first films. It's a true Australian movie and it takes place pre apocalypse. Like there's some elements of these weird biker gangs. But it it's it's more like a societal collapse movie. Whereas the second and third Mad Max movie are like true, hey, the earth has been poisoned and now we are all in these weird tribes. And from what I have heard, because Brad, spoiler alert, I too have never seen the first 3 Mad Max films. You don't. You don't seem much like a Rev head to me. Not so much man, I am, I am no War Boy, but I saw this movie and from what I have heard and what some random guy on IMDb reviewed this movie as, this is like the third film in the franchise.

3:25 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but on acid. And I think that even without having seen Beyond Thunderdome, I'm gonna go ahead and say accurate statement. Yeah, this movie is trippy. It is fast. Like there is all sorts of stuff happening here, Bob and I'm. Don't go there yet. Yeah, we're going to. We'll bury that lead a little bit. But I do want to say, Brad, that we need to set the stage for what we're doing on the podcast and what we're doing this season. So folks, welcome into film and whiskey. We review movies. We review Whiskey this season. We're looking at films from the last 20 years. We're asking the question, is this movie a modern classic? Here's the thing with Fury Rd.

4:10 Brad, I'm going to come right out and say I think this is a good movie. I have never been as all in on this movie as a lot of people are. This has been like a critical darling and perhaps the most beloved film in all of film Twitter for the last decade. And it has been hyped as one of the best action movies ever made, one of the best films of the 20 tens. And I have to say, I stand corrected on something I said earlier this season, Brad, because our criteria for picking movies for this season fell into 4 categories. Was it a Best Picture nominee? Did it make $100 million at the US box office? Is it in the IMDb top 250?

4:51 Is it in the letterboxed top 250? And I need to say, Brad, this is a movie that checks all four of those boxes. All four of the boxes. I didn't think we had any beyond Oppenheimer and potentially Dune 2. This is the only other one man. Wow, so this this is a big deal movie, Bob. It is a big deal movie. And so the I'm kind of in in between a rock and a hard place where it's one of those films that I have to kind of begrudgingly acknowledge regardless of my own personal feelings on it. I think it kind of is a resounding yes to our question of is it a modern classic? Because it clearly is clicking with a huge number of people and it was gobbled up by the Academy and by all those people going to see the movies.

5:41 Yeah, I mean, this thing picked up six Oscars, Bob that like, Yep, that's that's no joke for a movie. For a movie to win two or three is an impressive fee. I I mean 6 probably puts it in rarefied air. A lot of them are what we call below the line. So like, you know, not best picture or not best director or actor or actress. And I think that if there's anything that we're going to talk about a lot with this movie, Brad, it's the craftsmanship behind this movie. Like unbelievable amount of craft went into this movie and it has a very specific look and a very specific vibe that you kind of have to give credit to the director, George Miller as well. Again, regardless of if you vibe with it or not, it's a unique movie and it got praised a lot for how much of the effects were done practically.

6:29 And I think you can tell like, there's obviously a little bit of green screen going on and they used CGI to enhance some things in this movie. But you know, there's also some part of me that is just like, hey, there's a dude strapped to the front of a truck playing a guitar that shoots fire. This this is kind of like everything I want a movie to be in my 9 year old head. It's it's literally like a Metallica ACDC concert on a truck going like 80 miles an hour in the desert. All right. With that said, I don't want to go much further without really picking apart what you think of this movie. So we have to get to our first segment of the day, which we call Brad explains Brad's gonna. Give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds taken on the clock.

7:17 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. Once again Brad, I'm assuming first time watch with Mad Max Fury Rd. Bob, I have an announcement to make. Uh. Oh. This is a first in the history of my life as well as the history of the film and Whiskey podcast. This was my first and second time viewing this movie in one day. You watched the whole thing twice.

7:58 I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. I watched it from 5:30 to 7:30 and then I was doing dishes later that night and I was like I can't stop thinking about this movie I need to watch it again. And I texted my best friend Steven and was like bro witness me and he came over and we and we watched it from 8:30 to 10:30 and I bookended my day with Mad Max Fury Rd. That's insane. I'm I am so proud of you right now. I freaking loved this. Movie. Did you really? So much. Oh yeah, I thought you were gonna hate it, Brad.

8:40 Oh, this is awesome 'cause I, I knew this was either gonna. There is no in between on this movie. You're either going to be 100% on board or all the way out on this movie. And I will say I'm not gonna give this movie A10 out of 10. Like it is not a perfect movie. So a little peek behind the screens. We actually recorded the whiskey segment earlier because we live busy lives. So I'm going to say the same thing I say in the whiskey segment. Friend of show David Thomas Tao taught us a new term last week called crushability. This is the most 11 out of 10 crushable movie I think that has ever been created.

9:22 What a bro. I love this dude. I'm so proud of you. On that note, you have to break down what this movie is about, which is it seems very simple. Like you could give a three second description of this movie, but if you want to flush out the world, you could probably fill a whole minute. The time is yours. You get one minute on the clock. Spoil the hell out of this movie and go. What is me? Mad Max Fury Rd. is a post apocalyptic film set in a world that is dominated by the desert. There are three territories. There's the Citadel, Gas Town and Bullet Farm, all of which maintain an iron grip on the population that is left on the earth. The leader of Gastown sends his Imperator, Furiosa, on a trip to get supplies from the other towns. She takes the war rig off into the desert, and for unknown reasons, but she steals away his breeders. Some beautiful young women that he is. He's getting his nasties off.

10:33 Yeah, he's breeding. He is breeding and so a massive chase ensues. The titular character is tied up like a a sack of potatoes as a blood bag onto the front of a car. He pairs up with the Furiosa and everything explodes and goes fast and it's freaking awesome. Bob. This is a 2 hour chase movie and I want to start today by asking you about something you said a few weeks ago, A number of weeks ago, I believe it was in our Ford V Ferrari episode where you talked about how at the end of the day, car chases are just not that entertaining.

11:13 And I kept that nugget in the back of my mind, 'cause I was like, well this does not bode well for the two hour long car chase movie that we're about to watch. Here's Here's the thing, Bob Ford V Ferrari doesn't have cars that have stit like giant like pole vaulting poles on the back of it with an engine, a whole car engine on the bottom of the pole as a counterbalance with wild psychotic suicide men hanging off the top of it throwing bombs at, you know, Matt Damon. But yes, we have these gigantic gas guzzling, welded together hot rods racing through the desert. There is a part in this movie where two men are on opposite cars that are racing against each other, laying on the on the hoods of these cars, siphoning gasoline and blowing gasoline directly into these cars engines as flames explode out the back of them.

12:14 It is perhaps more a peek into the male psyche than any piece of film has ever been. And the feminine disgust with the men in in the world. So surprisingly, there was a ton of pushback on this movie for minimizing the character of Max and making this essentially Furiosa's movie. A lot of dude Bros on the Internet got really mad that this was such a feminist movie or they perceived it to be such a feminist movie. So maybe let's get that small controversy out of the way here. Brad having no relationship to the Mad Max films, what's what's your opinion there? I mean, is this a feminist film? And if it is like, does that even matter? I, I don't think it does.

13:00 I I mean of all the movies that involve men fighting against women in like an actual physical altercation, I don't know how to say this without like getting like slightly political. This is the most bad ass of them. This is the most realistic, you know what I mean? Like, let's be really honest, if you had warrior Tom Hardy fighting a woman, it wouldn't go well, right? Sure. The way that they set up the fight between Tom Hardy and Charlize is so well done where there's always something holding Tom Hardy back.

13:44 And yet it doesn't do it in a way that takes away from how badass Furiosa is. So it makes it an even fair fight. Even though we know like if Tom Hardy was at full strength and Charlize Theron was at full strength, like we know who would win that fight. And so I, I, I actually think that this movie makes the most sense as far as the feminineness of the women in the movie and the maleness of the men in this movie. I like, I would actually, as the slightly more conservative person in this podcast, I would say they do a really good job with it. Perfect. Now we don't need to discuss it any further.

14:25 So there you. Go. OK, where do you want to really dive in on the film? Because we could talk performances, but at the end of the day, the performances are kind of window dressing for George Miller to just do cool stuff. Like there's really not. There's no characters in this movie except Furiosa. Like, I mean, there are capital C characters. Sure. I don't know that we need to talk about performances that much. I think we have to talk about it. Morton, Joe for. Yeah, we. Do 87 minutes. I So here's the thing about the world that George Miller has created is that it is simultaneously so cool and so inherently funny because the people that are in control in this wasteland are just absolute buffoons.

15:13 They're the stupidest people that have ever existed. Immortan Joe is, is cunning and very evil. Everyone surrounding him is is really dumb and everything they believe is really dumb and their vocabulary is really dumb. And I just love that we're in a world where the bad guy's name starts with Immortan, which is the coolest sounding thing ever. And then just like Joe. Yep. You know what I mean? Like I may, I remember making a joke when, when Furiosa came out this year that like they, they needed to just have a character whose name is like Imperious Ned, like just something, something that sounds cool. And then you you pick like Dave or Keith to be the name that comes after it. And it's Ned from Ned Flanders from The Simpsons. So.

16:02 Yeah, I, yeah, I think. Go ahead, Sorry. I think where I want to start with this movie is with my favorite part of the film, which is not any of the action. It's not any of the acting. I think I do. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that does a better job of world building without dialogue than this film. The way that Miller crafts a world and not necessarily like it's not that the world isn't built without human beings saying words. It's it's built without tons of back and forth dialogue like this is like the anti interstellar. Like you have so many moments where slaves are peddling like like 200 slaves are peddling on this giant machine to raise and lower war machines from the top of the citadel. And you have all of these drivers running up to this massive altar, making a symbol with their hands as they pray like to V8 the God of destruction or something like and you know, the moment when the the I referenced it already. It truly might be my favorite moment in the movie because it represents so much world building. The the moment when the the war

17:35 boy is about to die and he looks back at his compatriots and screams witness me and you feel the whole war rig every war boy in the area like it feels like a whole it's a holy moment and he. Sprays to them. Yeah, to that. To them and they're very false religion, but like let let us please get that on the table here. Yes, yes, Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Savior, but in the world of Mad Max, it's that moment where you go, oh, these aren't just a bunch of like dumb witless cancer ridden post apocalyptic idiots. Like this is a true psychotic religion that a Morton Joe has created in this world.

18:33 And it like it's moments like that throughout the movie where it's not dialogue between 2 characters talking about like, oh like our religion is so cool. It's a visual storytelling of the power of belief in this world and what they believe in. And I, I just think throughout the whole movie, he nails the world building like it. Like if you ever had a pipe dream about what it would take to defeat other vehicles in combat in a post apocalyptic world, the weapons that they use in this movie are so freaking cool. Like there's I could go on and on and on, but I think the world building in this movie is like second to none.

19:20 Well, and one of the most successful things that that go into that that doesn't require extra explanation is you basically come to understand we are perhaps one to two generations removed from the apocalypse, whatever the event was that turned the Earth sour because there is people still alive who are old who are telling them about like, this is what a satellite did. And you get glimpses of like what you can understand as an audience member of like oral history that's been passed down. Like they say stuff like, oh, they told us that everyone used to have a show. Do you think they still have shows anymore? And they don't know what that means, but they know the language of it. And so you get this mishmash of a language that's been created or what's been leftover from the end times capitalism of before the apocalypse happened.

20:12 So you have the War Boys saying stuff like I'm going to go to Valhalla. But then they also say that in Valhalla they're going to be Mick feasting. So like there's references to McDonald's dude, which isn't a thing anymore, but it's. Just that freaking got me. It's so good. It's so good. To your point, there are also like these little visual cues that are just like, huh? So there's a moment, there's a stretch of the movie that is really brilliantly done. It's it's supposed to be taking place at night time and everything has this blue tint to it. And you can tell they filmed it in the day. It's great old filmmaking technique. But it's when they cut to the go ahead. Sorry, quick, quick aside. I learned that my TV needs replacing that I only use like once a month maybe, but in that scene I was like Oh my TV does not do Blues anymore.

21:02 What color was everything? Oh, it was like white, grey, bluish. It was all washed out. It was so bad. Like the first time I watched it, I watched on my computer, it looked great. The second time I was like, I'm going to put it on the TV and it's going to be awesome. And those scenes were not. So in those scenes, though, they cut to this random wide shot of a guy that's kind of dressed like a bird and he's walking around through quicksand on stilts and there's. Walking would imply that he's on two stilts. Yeah, sure, hobbling. He he's like crawling. He literally has a stilt for each appendage and it's one of the most terrifying things I've ever.

21:44 Seen just a very unnerving image and also not commented on at all because it doesn't need to because they're they're passing by and they're just like, what the fuck? And then they just then they just move on. But it's great world building. To your point, Brad. I think we could probably call them the Edgar Allan Poe's. Sure, sure, quoth the Raven. Even early in the film, and I think the the women reference it a few times the the young women who are being I was about to say. Traffic forcibly bred? Yeah, traffic is the correct word. I I meant I meant like trafficked away from him, like anti trafficked.

22:28 Anyways, they reference it a few times, but I love when a Morton Joe goes to his vaults where he keeps the women and they have like painted like you won't own our babies. Our babies are not your warlords. But over the door there's a quick glimpse of who burned the world or something like that. And they reference that in dialogue later in the film. And it's, it's kind of this insinuation of like maybe a Morton Joe was like the president of the US or, you know, like he was a important political figure that started the nuclear war.

23:08 You know what I mean? Almost like a a Doctor Strangelove type of character, right? Let's let's do this real quick because I don't want to necessarily move away from the cast yet. We'll talk about Charlize Theron because I think that's only real performance we're talking about. No offense, Tom Hardy, but you've got kind of a nothing burger of a part here. I would like to power rank random dudes in this movie. Oh, I have a number one for sure. All right, who's number one? Number one is Furiosa's Lieutenant that keeps like coming and checking in with her. Hey boss, you're going to Gas Town. Yeah, I don't know what it is about him, but the way he pops up in her window feels like I'm watching like a cartoon, like, or, or like almost like he's a comic book character.

24:01 A segment that's like just her and the empty space. And then the next segment, his face is just there. Yeah, but he's talking to her. Oh, it's, it's just my. Favorite. Now, we've already mentioned the dude with the guitar whose whose actual name in the script is the Doof Warrior. Yes, come on. Dude, I mean just only that like image, yeah. Absolutely. One of the coolest things. One of my complaints about the movie Bob, we didn't ever get like an extended like solo heavy metal guitar riff for like a solid like 3 minutes, you know what I mean? We. Needed him to shred, but we needed him to shred. Yeah, I'm a little.

24:42 I understand that he is like bungee corded to the front of this vehicle, but he's just playing power chords, you know? Demonstrate that you have some skill, man. Yes, yeah. I attended an Underoath concert once and before Underoath, the, the act right before them, I think it was called Animals Before Kingdoms. But we were in the absolute like front of the mosh pit, right up next to the stage. And there was a their their guitarist was playing a double necked guitar like 7 feet from my face. And I understood after watching him play the guitar, why people talk about their faces melting.

25:24 Yeah, it was the wildest thing and I wanted that in this movie. Well, see, the cool thing is that they've built in a mechanism where even if his talent doesn't melt your face, the flames coming out of the guitar. Definitely. Literally will do that for you my one of my other. There's a couple more like random guys who come off the bench and just hit 8 threes in a row and one of them is the fat guy with the gold nose that Max uses the human shield. Yes, yes. And then you've got the old woman from Furiosa's, like, home village that gets chainsawed in the neck at the end. She's wonderful. I don't know what her name is. She's great dude. Oh, absolutely incredible.

26:05 I, I think that all of the young women are great. They they do a great job. You've got, I haven't said Imperator. What's his name in Morton? Joe's two sons, who are named Scrotus and. Rictus. Rictus is incredible. The moment where he rips an engine off of a car and then just screams his own name in triumph. It's it's incredible. I'm also very thankful that this movie came out in 2015 and not like 2020 because he would have been played by Dave Bautista. I like Dave Bautista, but you're correct, yes. But I don't want him in this movie. Like, I love that.

26:52 There's no like, you know, obviously Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, other than them, there's no like really big names in cinema in this movie. Like, I think this was Nicholas Holtz. Yeah. I mean, he had. Broken through as a child actor and then kind of done a bunch of indie stuff as an adult. First of all, love Nicholas Holt. Oh, he's my. Favorite apologies to him for me saying that only Charlize was worth talking about. He he actually might be low key the best performance in this whole movie. I was about to say he's probably hands down my favorite performance in the film when he is like reciting the prayer of the of the war boy as he like undoes all the gas lines in his car to fill it up with gasoline.

27:40 Sorry to fill it up with guzzling. Guzzling. At like the the the mantra that he goes through and when he rips the flare against the ceiling and goes to slam it down and Max barely grabs his hand. Like incredible acting for Nicholas Holtz. There is so much slapstick comedy in this movie too, and so in this scene they're driving through a literal sandstorm, which apparently is also a portal to hell. And I was about to say, this isn't in my mind. It's not a sandstorm. It's like a nuclear fallout, Yes. Yeah, sure.

28:21 But you you have him wanting to commit ritual suicide and there's no one around to witness him except Tom Hardy, who is who is called his blood bag because he's been kidnapped and he's being used for his blood for transfusions for these war boys that all have cancer and are like the minions for Immort and Joe. And he just looks at him and goes, witness me blood bag. And then they cut to Tom Hardy, who has a mask on his face and can't talk. And he has like a looney tune's eyes bulging out of his head like it is so funny. Oh, it's incredible. Can I also say I could not get it out of my head both times watching it that when Hardy has that mask on his face he looks like Gerard Butler? Oh, interesting, I thought you were gonna make a Hannibal Lecter reference there.

29:16 Yeah, that that would be a good reference, but for some reason I I literally like was like, wait, I thought Tom Hardy was in this movie. That that is Gerard Butler. Gerard Butler would. Absolutely fit in with a Mad Max, but he has Mad Max energy. He would kill it dude, it would be so good. All right, let's real quick talk about Charlize Theron, because, you know, they make a whole Furiosa movie after this that she's obviously not in. It's a prequel, but I think one of the failures of Furiosa is that I buy Charlize Theron as a badass and I do not buy the very slight and slender Anya Taylor Joy as someone capable of whipping someone's ass. No offense then.

29:56 That's not to say anything about Charlize's body type either. Like she's a very fit woman, but she has a swagger and an energy that just screams I will throat punch you in a way that not many people can pull off on screen. Yes, 100% I, I'm, I'm gonna upset you here, Bob. I actually don't love her performance here except her eyes. Like her eyes are like 50 out of 10, the most intense, sad, broken, like absolutely incredible. And anytime she talks, I'm like, I don't know if her heart is in this role. Yeah, and part of it.

30:42 So there's a a huge back story about how she and Tom Hardy did not get along at all on set. So I wonder if that's carrying over. But also every line of dialogue for her is very bad. Just not good. I mean, you know, they're like, she's like, oh, I want to get them salvation or whatever. And he's like, well, what about you? And she just looks out the window and goes redemption. Redemption. It's so bad. It's such such bad dialogue. And that's I feel bad for her because anytime the script doesn't have dialogue for her but the cameras on her like she might be the best performance of the movie. Agreed. But in the scene where she just like drops her arm and wails in the sand, it's like dude, incredible acting. And there there's a few moments like that where it I wish this was more art housey of a film and he was willing to just sit in those moments like the second time through of watching it. I like there were like 3 or 4 moments like that where I'm like, George, just just let us sit with Charlize for like 6 more seconds.

31:53 But like, I'm not asking for a minute of her screaming, but she screams for like, I don't know, 3 1/2 seconds of film time. And it could have been 9 and it would have been perfect. And the camera could have slowly like zoomed out as it just the sand whips around her eye. It would have been incredible. And, and there's just a few moments like that where they cut away from a beautiful, cinematic, incredible shot. And I'm like, oh like we we spend about an hour and 37 minutes of the runtime in a chase we could have done with an hour and 35 1/2. Agreed.

32:34 Yeah, and I actually have my main criticism of the movie is completely based around what you just said. I think we should take a break here. We'll come back, we'll we'll get, you know, 2 facts and a falsehood done. And then I want to go in a little bit on why I think this movie doesn't totally work for me in the way that it does for a lot of people, but it's definitely it. It all has to do with that sort of pacing thing. So Brad, let's take a break. Let's drink some Bushmills, and then we'll come back and witness each other. What do you say? Witness me. All right, so today we are checking out Bushmills, the rare casks, 29 year old Pedro Jimenez cask finish Irish whiskey. That is a mouthful, Brad.

33:25 It really is. That is incredible. You did it Bob. This is another wildly cool whiskey that we are drinking this week following our Bushmills 30 from last. Week. That's right, we want to say thank you again to our friend Zach Johnston, who unloaded a bunch of samples upon us. As I look at this Bushmill sample, it looks like it says this is sample #14 of 50. So Zach was in in rarefied air even receiving a sample of this. And even though this is a second hand sample, I am still very grateful that we're receiving it, Brad. Yeah, 100% from the start. Bob, I I just want to take a a Mosey down memory lane.

34:07 From the very start of this podcast, I have been blown away by the kindness and charity that exists in the world of W100. Percent like people just don't say no, which is really awesome. Like the spirit, the spirit of sharing a pour with somebody extends from like your basic entry level PR Rep or sales brand ambassador all the way up to like CE OS in this industry. It's been really, really great, man. Yeah. And it's all it's LED us here. It has culminated in Bushmills 29. So like Brad said last week, we had a Bushmills 30 year old release that was not part of this series that they call the rare casks. So these were annual releases that Bushmills has been doing. And after the first release, I'm reading directly off of a website called Whiskey Advocate.

34:56 Right now, the one we're drinking today is the second release in this series. It says that after the first release, Bushmills gave their fans, some say in how they picked the second rare cask expression. So they basically put a three, three pack of samples out on Flaviar's website and ask people to pick their favorite. And so the one that came forward was this 1990, two distilled Irish whiskey. That isn't that crazy. It was, it was aged for 12 years in ex bourbon barrels and then taken out of those bourbon barrels and put into Pedro Jimenez casks for another 17 years. So the whiskey was distilled April 6th, 1992.

35:38 It was recast on July 12th, 2004 and it was bottled on January 17th of 2022. Just think about all of the world events that this whiskey has seen. Absolutely crazy, man. There. There's a maturity here that these young bourbons just don't understand. They'll never get it, man. They'll never. Just don't get it. They're only like 8 years old. Like man, this is this is a mature drinker's whiskey. Bob, now it looks like this was limited to A500 bottle release. So we're talking like 2 casks and it was originally slated at a $750 price tag. We'll talk about value when we get there.

36:18 It is 53% ABV or 106 proof. And Brad, just like last week's 30 year old, this might have an even darker color to it. We're talking like when you go to a wedding and they have like unlimited Coca-Cola and you kind of get to like the third or fourth glass and your ice has melted. It looks like just slightly watered down Coca-Cola. Yeah, no, absolutely. This is a beautifully dark whiskey, very rare for an Irish whiskey. But we are drinking a rare type of Irish whiskey, so I would expect something this beautiful in my glass. All right, let's dive in. Man. I am sipping it live. You've already tried it, so why don't you hit us with your nosing notes?

36:59 This thing is incredible. There is figs all over the place, a really heavy Raisin vibe. There's white grapes. It reminds me of like powdered sugar as it's like going into a baking mixture. Like, you know, my, my wife makes cook it like sourdough cookies and she'll like mix the powdered sugar in and it and it smells like the KitchenAid mixer is mixing it in. And it also reminds me, I've talked before about being in Ukraine and they had fresh cherry juice when I was over there. It reminds me of like a really fresh, vibrant cherry juice. This is an incredible nose.

37:46 I'm going to give it an 8 1/2 out of 10 here. I'm getting so much date on the nose here and it's funny because like I've never really smelled a date, but I've eaten them, you know what I mean? I've never taken the time to be like, what's the smell like? It smells like a date tastes like it is super syrupy, really sugary. You get the powdered sugar note that you gave is really great here. There's a ton of like molasses. And then it tips into, I don't know if it's 'cause I was thinking about Coca-Cola. I get a little bit of that kind of like slightly cola note effervescence on here. There's some cherry which almost reminds me of what we get on some really well aged weeded bourbons. I think there is definitely some bourbon influence here behind all that PX cask influence. I like this better than the 30 on the nose. I'm going to give this a 10 out of 10, Brad. Holy cow, Bob Yeah, the pallet here once again, absolutely stunning.

38:41 Bob, this is the most pruney whiskey I have ever drank in my life. And yet somehow like prunes are not known as, you know, everybody's go to relaxing enjoyment type of food. Somehow this is like so heavily pruned. There's cherry syrup. It gets into a little bit of a baking spice clove type territory. I've never tasted a whiskey that is so prune forward and I absolutely love it. Cannot get enough of it. This is a 9 1/2 out of 10 on the palate. Brad, I don't know how to say this man. It it's perfect.

39:29 No, it's it's too much, dude. It's too much. Oh no. The like it was a it was a drastic difference between front of pallet and back of pallet. Front of pallet. It's like, OK, here we go. I'm picking up on the pruniness. It definitely it's like drinking prune juice. And I'm like, all right, it's going to land the plane. It's going to be really sweet. I'll get those dates back on the end here. And then it kicks to the back of the pallet and it turns into an incredibly bitter and sour and dry red wine note that is it's yeah, it's not quite tannic. Like it's it's still mouth watering. But it's really bitter, dude, and I just think that it's it's been in the cast too long.

40:11 I'm taking a second sip. Please forgive the silence here. I want to give this a fair shot. No, I, I think for me, the back of the pallet was more of like that tart cherry sweetness that I thought worked perfectly with that Pruney approach. There's, there's a ton going on here and I, I think it absolutely the plane lands beautifully. Where are you at after your second? Yeah, I'm in the same spot, dude. It it unsweetened cherry juice is a fantastic note on this, but it's coupled with red wine and prune juice. And I think ultimately what's bumming me out here is that it completely swallows up any notes that might be present naturally in the whiskey. Like it just tastes like we've had a couple whiskeys that are like they say that their wine finished, but we know that they're just like mixing wine into the blend. This reminds me of some of those in a really in a big bummer way. Dude, I respect the craft.

41:14 I'm I'm coming all the way down to a six out of 10 on this dude. Wow. All I hear you saying is whatever is left in that sample. Bottle you can have it 100% this is this is one of the more significant bummers of the past couple months for me. Dude, I. Was going to say I I was just telling a a good friend of the show the other day. This has been such an incredible spate of whiskeys that we've drank like we've been on a good run. For me it's continuing. I I guess we. Should keep giving scores. I think it's a nine and a half on the finish. It's a medium bodied like fresh bread, baking spices, the figs, the cherry, the prune. For me, it's the breadiness on the back end that I'm really loving.

42:00 I I think this is just so good, Bob. Yeah, I I'm trying to separate out the flavors of the finish from like the overall experience or like the, I don't know, the structure of the finish. I guess it's long lasting, it's mouth watering, it is medium to long like I think those are all really good things here. It just continues to carry over flavors that I think are subpar. Now that that really tart cherry goes away, the prune lingers and you get a little bit of ethanol on the finish. But again, what's really a bummer for me is that Irish whiskey, of all the types of whiskeys we try, Brad is probably, I would argue, the most delicate whiskey and probably therefore the most susceptible to getting overwhelmed by whatever they're aging it in. And the 17 years in PX casks is just, it's taking everything over for me.

42:53 And I think I'll come up to a 6 1/2 on the finish, but that's about as as high as I can go here. Oh, man, Yeah, dude, I'm. I'm bummed. I'm bummed too. We'll kind of move to the finish because Bob Bob's clearly sad and I don't want him to be sad to the balance. So yeah, balance 9 1/2 out of 10 for me. I think that they manage the complexity of this whiskey really well and it tastes utterly delicious. I, I will say last week with our wonderful friend David Thomas Tao, he introduced a new category of grading, which you know, we're not going to grade on, but I, I think we're going to reference from here on out every once in a while of crush ability.

43:38 This is not as crushable as the Bushmills 30 like the Bushmills 30 just was so approachable for a 30 year aged whiskey. This one is much more. You got to sit and take your time with it, so the crush ability isn't quite there as much. Balance is a 9 1/2 out of 10. Where? Where are you at on balance, Bob? Yeah, I it, it is a drastic change in nose and front of pallet to back of pallet and finish. I'll I'll just stick it a 6 1/2 again. I feel like I'm even being generous here because I know what this is and that it's very expensive and I'm very grateful to receive it.

44:20 What I will say though, Brad is on the value category. So this is MSRP 7:50. I've seen it all over the place, you know, in the mid $1000 to $2000 range. I actually am going to give this a pretty good score value wise for what I think it's worth because again, we always say that in the luxury category A, you don't really need our opinion. If you're able to afford a whiskey of this price, then you're going to do it anyway. I think that I've matured enough in my whiskey drinking that I can I can flat out say something is not for me or is not to my taste and that does not affect what I think of the overall value of it. I would never pay the money for this 'cause I don't like this whiskey.

45:05 However, I'm going to give us a 7 out of 10 on value because there's literally 500 bottles of this it. It took almost 30 years to make this product like this. There's an incredible amount of craft going on here that is just undeniable, regardless of what I personally think of the final product. Yeah, I, I will say I think that the Bushmills 30 is a better value. This is still a stunningly good whiskey, not quite on the level of that thirty. I'll give it a 7 1/2 on value. Like I think you're getting a great value if you buy this bottle, but for, you know, 4 to $600.00 more, which is a wild sentence to say you could get Bushmills 30 and I think that's like a 9 1/2 out of 10 on value. So I am coming out to a 44.5 out of 50. Dude you are way higher on this than I am. So much higher.

46:04 I'm at a 36 out of 50, Brad. Wow. Yeah, we're, we're way off of this, which it's crazy because I'm like, I'm looking at this whiskey. I'm like, this is not a 36 out of 50 for me in terms of my enjoyment of it. But the nose was perfect. The value is pretty good. That brought it up a lot. That takes us to an 80.5 out of 100 or a 40.25 5 out of 50. So this has not only hit the 35 you know would recommend mark, but the 40 out of 50. This is a no brainer pick up mark for us. Yeah, just go buy it right now. Every single listener of the show. Totally worth it. You won't regret the money you spend and your spouse will not be upset with you at all.

46:45 Never ever would you? OK, let's let's let's break this down a little. Would you recommend trying this at the bar 'cause you're you're looking at like a 90 or $100 pour here probably? Yeah, it if you if you are looking for a hell yeah birthday pour a Witness me kind of birthday pour, then I would say yes, go for it. All right, I'm going to say no, but that's just me. If they have the 30 available, I would say take that instead. So Brad, there we are. Let's get back into talking about Mad Max. What do you think? Witness May. All right, everybody, that was Bushmills 29 Rare Cask series, a perfect whiskey that we have no notes on. Ain't that right, Bob?

47:42 Yes No notes. Loved it. Loved it so much. Oh you're ridiculous man, that makes it was so freaking good. Oh, man. All right, Brad. Well, at at least we can be agreed on one thing with Canada. Their favorite segment is an incredible experience. We are talking 2 facts and a falsehood Brad. Is going to try to stump your ball to our 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.

48:25 I am not doing super duper great Brad. I I've now lost four games and I've won, let's see, 12345678. I'm eight and four down to a 66% win total here. If you were the Browns, oh. That's like the best year we've ever had. Yeah, easily. I really hope that all of these 3 facts have something to do with witness me just so we can get a couple more of those in here. I should have done that. That's funny. All right, man, take it away. Fact #1 The film was originally intended to star the one and only Mel Gibson in the title role back in 2003, but because director George Miller ran into problems with shooting locations and Gibson's interest in creating The Passion of the Christ, it never happened. Fact #2 Charlize Theron shaved her head for the role of Furious Said Mad Max Fury Road, and as a result, she had to wear a wig for her role as Anna in 2014's A Million Ways to Die in the West. Fact #3 Hugh Keys Byrne, who played a Morton Joe, stayed in character throughout filming, demanding that the crew refer to him as a Morton and saluting him with Witness Me whenever he entered A room.

49:49 My buddy #3 is the falsehood. I'm like, I'm just, I'm just going to say that right now. I hope it's not so that we could laugh about it. I don't even want to entertain the other two. I #3 is the falsehood right? Witness me. Am I correct? Yeah, you're right. Yeah, that was that was the worst one you've ever done, but it provided you with more. It's my favorite. It's my favorite one I've ever done, Bob. Oh man, that's fantastic. So yeah. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Can I tell you one of the facts that I wanted to put on here, but I knew well, maybe you wouldn't have believed it.

50:31 Here's one of the facts. There is a brand of like, it's like a food company that makes like baking goods. I think it's called like Wiltmore or something. They make sprays that you use to like spray cakes, right? Like if you ever watched the Great British Baking Show, they'll like spray color onto their cakes and they make a brand called Something Silver and a ton of people on their Amazon page and I verified this. You can find it today like 2025, January 1st. You can still find this on their Amazon page for their silver food spray paint.

51:16 People have reviewed the product as if they are a war boy and they talk about it like 5 stars brought me two steps closer to Valhalla and Morton Joe himself uses this brand like and there's, there's like multiple reviews and I, I wanted to put that in the two facts in the fall So, but I didn't know how to do it in a concise manner. But that is a real thing that happened. And I it's moments like that where like my hope for the Internet is restored. So on that note, you know one of the famous lines from the movie is where they're talking about going to the halls of Valhalla all shiny and Chrome. Dude, they released a cut of this movie in theaters six months after it premiered, which was called the Mad Max Fury Rd. Chrome Edition.

52:11 And it was in the black and white version of this movie. Yeah, which is apparently awesome and very bad ass. I've never watched the black and white version. But this, I'm going to watch it right now, Bob. This is not the only time this season we're going to run into this problem, because not even problem this cool feature, because they did the same thing with Godzilla -1 last year. And I did go see that movie in black and white and that was freaking awesome. Yeah, absolutely ripped. Oh man, I'm so sad I didn't see Godzilla -1 in theaters. That's all right, you know, You know what you did see twice today? Mad Max Fury Rd. Mad Max Fury Rd. All right, well, let me throw a bucket of cold water on this cool conversation we're having with Bob's Nitpick Corner. Oh my least favorite place.

52:57 Can you imagine what the music sounds like for this this segment? Bob's Midpick Corner. So here's here's my big issue with the movie. We have this saying when we talk about films like this, which, you know, it's not. I wouldn't call it like a madcap movie. It's very relentless and kind of breathless and it goes at 1,000,000 miles an hour and it never lets up. My issue with that is that that statement is almost never actually true of any movie. Like even the most relentless high octane action films have these built in moments of respite from the high energy action sequences. And I guess I'll call back to a movie like Mission Impossible Fallout that we reviewed just a couple weeks ago, which also has a car chase that Brad described as kind of boring. So this is really breaking a trend for you, Brad. Yeah.

53:55 It explosions, people's faces getting ripped off. We haven't talked about it. The Morton's Joe. Death. Oh my gosh. Is incredible. Truly brutal. Oh man. So my issue with this movie though is that George Miller is a good enough writer and director that he knows that you need these moments to catch your breath. However, the world that he has created is such a heightened thing and such a highly stylized thing that even in moments where you just need pure human emotion to come out to give you a breath of fresh air, you can't really fully get that breath of fresh air because you're still immersed in a world where a guy named Rictus is chasing you.

54:46 Do. You know what I mean? Because Nicholas Holt says even Larry and Barry weren't chewing on my windpipe. They've got little. Smiley faces, she goes, Who's Larry and Barry? And he points to lumps on his neck that he's drawn smiley faces on. So that's, that's because I can never fully not disengage, but you know what I mean, Like catch my breath in this movie. I think that it ends up being so extreme all of the time that it becomes kind of exhausting for me. I, I told you to watch this movie in one sitting and I'm a hypocrite because I, I couldn't do it myself today. Now, I've seen this movie before, but this movie works really, really well for me in doses of like 1/2 hour and anything more than that, it just starts getting to the point where I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I feel like sensory overload all the time and it it beats me down a little bit. I'll I'll make a small comment on the the cinematic mastery of it.

55:48 This is one of the most brightly colored post apocalyptic films I've ever seen. Like even the sands themselves have this bright redness about them that I think is like so attractive and draws you in it makes the desert interesting as opposed to most like just bland brown deserts. The, the thing for me, friend of show Jordan, who was on Whiplash a few episodes ago, his complaints about this movie was that the whole story revolves around them driving out into the desert and then driving back from the desert. And I, I, I think that as I thought about that and as I like reflect on the complaints that you have, I think everything makes sense within the world of the movie.

56:39 And so for me, I like, I'm so immersed in the world that the way they choose to interact with one another in their downtime just makes sense to me. Like, like the the women who clearly have had education and you know, there's a piano in their room and like they're a step above the common populace. Like the way that the red headed woman engages with Nicholas Holt's character, like feels so genuine and meaningful because they are able to find human connection despite the intellectual gap that very obviously exists between the two of them. And like, it's just stuff like that throughout the film that is just so lovely and heartwarming.

57:29 And I, I, I think that's like the whole purpose of a post apocalyptic film. If you're not going the nihilism route, you have to go the we can all find the core of what it means to be humans when everything else is stripped away. And you even see that in the main relationship between Furiosa and Mad Max, like from the moment where, and I love the moment where Miller has them like lock eyes for the first time. From that moment through the end of the film, you get to watch them slowly build a meaningful relationship with one another based on respect for each other's capabilities and you know, trauma bonding, for lack of a better word.

58:14 Like going through hard times together. It's all of those things layered upon each other that, for me, make this such a crushable movie. I'm with you in that I think you've pinpointed that, like everything makes sense within the world of the movie. But even if you take a universe like Star Wars and and I'll even go to A New Hope, a movie that I don't particularly love that much, But you know, you're you're thrust into a world where you will eventually get to like the cantina scene where it's just like dudes in rubber masks who look silly. But what grounds you in that world is when you go into his aunt and uncle's house and it just looks like a house.

58:55 Not not before that when they're still, when they're still unburned and alive. But you just get like, yes, Luke is whiny, but you just get them sitting at the dinner table drinking milk. And like that's it's a grounding human moment where yes, this is sci-fi and yes, they're on another planet. But like, we're in a house. There's not a ton of stuff distracting me. We're just watching people be people. And to your point earlier, the moment in the movie that had the opportunity to kind of hit reset and give me that breath of fresh air was Furiosa by herself on a sand dune grieving. And we get 8 seconds of it, and then we're on to the next thing. And I think that when you have a movie as heightened as this in its stylistic choices, I was trying to think of like, how would I explain the aesthetic of this movie to someone?

59:46 Because just saying like steampunk doesn't work. It it basically follows it. Follows the story contours of Children of Men. But if Children of Men was acted entirely by Muppets, I think that you would have a sense. Of the overall tone of this film. I think fair. So, all right, so I have to ask the question then, who is the the real the Michael Caine If everyone else's Muppets is it? Is it Charlize? Hmm, great question. I think it has to be Charlize. If you're the Charlize or Tom Hardy, yeah, I want to find a funnier answer. But yeah, that actually is the only way it works. What?

1:00:30 What's the name of the old guys up in the box making fun of everybody? Statler and Waldorf. Yeah, I just want Statler and Waldorf making fun of the War Boys as War Boys themselves every time one of them says witness me. So anyway, with, with that said, I think that's why I'm still a little bit held back on this movie. I do think to your point, there are like there's some incredible moments throughout the film. And I keep thinking of this one shot in particular. And it happens in the 1st 10 minutes of the movie. It's the first time you see Furiosa like from inside the truck cab, from like the passenger seat facing out and her face is painted. You know, the top half of her face is painted and they frame this shot so perfectly where the black, the the bottom line of the black paint on her face perfectly lines up with the horizon line outside and the white sand extending into blue sky.

1:01:27 It is like it's, it's so good. Unbelievable shot. There's so many like that too. Throughout the film, they do such a great job with the actor's eyes, like specifically Charlize and Nicholas Holt. Like their eyes just burn with this intensity. And like I said earlier about the colors of this film, it's, it's almost like they maybe like put the contrast up just a tiny bit so that you can see all of the emotions that these people are going through in absolutely any moment of the film. Brad, I think that we're in a good spot to move to our final segment of the day, which we call Let's Make it a Double presented by Blackwood Distilling Company. We're near the end of the episodes of Things, listening to the film and Whiskey Show.

1:02:19 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 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 going to go ahead and get mine out of the way here. It's a movie that you've never seen and probably never will based on just what I know about some things that you are sensitive to in films. But I made a comment earlier about how I loved the the language of this film and how there's, it's mostly English, but there's some random words thrown in that you just don't understand. And it reminded me so much of Stanley Kubrick's movie, A Clockwork Orange, where you have this kind of maybe a little bit set in the future society where people use words like droogs for friend, but everything else still kind of looks familiar. It's just this weirdly heightened scenario. And I kept thinking about Clockwork Orange throughout this movie.

1:03:16 Once again, I don't know when we'll ever watch that movie. It's one of the best movies ever made. But that's my pick for this one, Brad. Yeah, I I don't know, man. Clockwork Orange. Not my cup of tea, to use a British reference. I think, man, I'm, I'm trying to go between pairing this with another, just like I, I don't know, like wild, great action. Like part of me is thinking about Edge of Tomorrow, something like that. I think I'm actually going to stick in the post apocalyptic world with a movie that I really loved when it came out. I honestly haven't returned to it probably since then. I'm going to go with Book of Eli. Oh, good one.

1:04:03 I like, I I absolutely loved that movie when it came out and I think the reason I'll pair it is because I think both films do such a great job of world building of what has happened to the world after the apocalypse. Like, and even just the opening shot of Book of Eli is freaking like beautiful and memorable. Yeah. I I think it would be a heck of a post apocalyptic evening to watch those two films back-to-back. Man, we could not be more wildly apart in our picture. Yeah, I was going to say I would start with Book of Eli and then do Mad Max. So Brad picked a movie about the Bible and I picked A Clockwork Orange. Does not bode well for me at all. All right, so those are our 2 picks for Let's Make It a Double.

1:04:54 Let's make it a Double is presented by Blackwood Distilling Company. No matter what movie you choose to pair this up with, you can always make it a double with Blackwood Distilling Co. Brad, we are in 2025 now it's new year, hey. Happy New Year, Bob. Happy New Year to you man. But, you know, what has carried over from last year is big discounts, baby on film and whiskey, 'cause you can still go to bourbonoutfitter.com/film Whiskey, type in our code Film whiskey at checkout and you will receive 5% off a bottle of Blackwood Distilling Company. We've been raving about this toasted rye for, I don't know, six months now. Yeah, it's, I brought it out over the holidays. It's a big hit, man.

1:05:35 I I have finished my bottle, I have moved on to their toasted bourbon. It's freaking spectacular. If you can get your hands on a bottle of it. If you have a little bit of that Christmas money leftover and you're looking to splurge on something just that will knock your socks off, check out Blackwood. Bourbon All right, Brad, it's time for us to get into final scores on this movie. This is really hard for me because there is no story to this movie. There's very little plot, and so everything that works about this movie is a testament to like, filmmaking craft. You really could, and people probably do, teach this movie in film school 'cause you could watch it as a silent movie and it would work. You can watch it not knowing anything about the Mad Max universe and it works.

1:06:19 It is like I. Never thought about that. It I mean it truly is just like this is what it means when someone talks about movie making, making something out of essentially nothing. Yeah, there. There's so many parts of this movie that I think to myself, this is the combination. Like this is the combination of like CGI and practical effects coming together to be the definition of movie magic. Like the fact that, you know, 80% of this film is practical and the CGI is used just to enhance and bring it along a little further to tease it out.

1:07:02 I don't know if there's many movies that have done it better than this. And I I can see why critics especially would give this movie A10 out of 10 because they're not simply looking at entertainment factor, they're looking at the craft behind it too. For me, I am entertained by this movie and I respect this movie a lot. It just doesn't quite hit the heights that it does for other people. I'm going to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I want to say 8.5, but I need to be true to myself. It's an it's an 8 out of 10. Only an 8. But it's an 8 with like 10 out of 10 filmmaking behind it. You know what? I. Mean, I don't know if I ever thought I would hear you say this film's craft is perfect. 8 out of 10.

1:07:50 I would I would imagine a minimum of like an 8 and a half nine. Brad, I am. I'm a new man. It's 2025. I will no longer be swayed in my opinions on this. Podcast, Bob, I mean, at the end of the day, this is an 8.1 out of 10 on IMDb. Yeah. So I I think you might be in good company of the masses. I have ascended the masses. I've been chosen by a Morton Joe. I will say that this is a 9.5 for me. Wow I dude I could not stop thinking about this movie for an entire day. I like I could not have done anything else with my time but watch it a second time in a single like like 14 hour period.

1:08:38 I can already tell what's going to happen here. This is going to be the sleeper of the bracket this year. You're going to pick it to beat every single movie. I'll have it get knocked out in like round two and then it'll still come back to haunt me. That's funny. Yes, it is going to haunt you, Bob. This movie's so freaking. I'm so happy you liked it, man, That's like seriously, that was going to be miserable if Blake just had to come in here and and hear you complain for an hour. So this is. Great. And then and then you'd be like, yeah, it's pretty good. 8 out of 10, yeah. Not a good episode if that's the case. So we're coming to an 8.75 out of 10 on average, but we'd like to know what you think of Mad Max Fury Rd. I'd also like to hear what people think of Furiosa. I think that movie is like a 7 out of 10. But Chris Hemsworth in that movie is the best thing about either of these two movies.

1:09:29 So, Brad, you should first of all watch Furiosa. Tell me what you think of that one. But folks, we want to hear from you. You can find us on any of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube at Film Whiskey. Bobby, you didn't mention our LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn baby. Witness me on LinkedIn. If you want to have a conversation about this movie, the this just Grand Imperator of a film Bob, you can find a conversation happening every single day on our Discord server. We are over there talking all the time about movies, whiskey, and all sorts of other things.

1:10:12 If you would like to join the conversation, you can find a link at the end of every single one of our show notes. Next week we'll be back with a movie that I really, really, really like, and I'm interested to see what Brad thinks of it. It's a movie called The Big Short. So join us for that next week. But until then, I'm Bob Book. How many cars get blown up in the Big Short? 0. Witness me. And we'll see you next time.