My Big Fat Greek Wedding / Willett Family Estate Bottled 6-Year Rye

0:00 In 2002, director Joel Zwick and star NIA Vardalos gave the world a zany insight into the culture of big Eastern European families. In 2024, we returned to the well on a brand we've been mixed about. The film is My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The. Whiskey is Willet Family Estate Bottled 6 Year ride. And we'll review them both this is. The Film and Whiskey Podcast Welcome to the Film and Whiskey Podcast. For each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey.

0:51 I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad. G. And today Brad, we are in the year 2002 continuing our series on high grossing movies with a. Year of Our Orthodox Lord 2002. We are jumping into the little movie that could from 2002 known as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Brad. We had an option ahead of us. The a fork in the road, you might say, to either continue down the Star Wars path, of which there will be many more paths to come, or to try something different today. And at the time, I thought that it was a really good idea to try something different. Let's watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a movie that I have not seen in 22 years.

1:36 Yes, because it was, I mean, listen to this movie's credit, a cultural phenomenon. Oh, far and away one of the wildest cultural phenomenons I think I've ever seen. Because here's the thing, Bob. At the end of the day, I will watch Star Wars a million times over my Big Fat Greek Wedding. And yet it had such cultural power that I was kind of with you when we were deciding between the two movies. I was like, man, I like, I want to finish up the Star Wars series, but I'm really fascinated to go back to my big Fat Greek wedding. I mean, boy oh boy, did we have an experience, Bob. Did we see a movie or what, Brad? This film was definitely made.

2:23 Listen, 2002, folks, was a very different time. And Brad, I don't know that I have felt so old as I did watching this film again, because we've talked about how outdated some of the effects in Star Wars Episode One were. We've talked about how The Grinch Stole Christmas feels like a relic of its time. Last week we talked about Shrek and how that animation and all of the pop culture references don't hold up. And yet, somehow, some way, this small movie from 2002 feels older than them all. Brad. It's it really does, Bob. And and just so we're clear here, this is the fifth highest grossing movie of 2002 domestically, right?

3:03 It's behind Spider Man, Attack of the Clones, Chamber of Secrets and Signs, all of which we have now reviewed. If you are a member of the Patreon, you can listen to our Attack on the Clones episode. But here's Here's the thing, Bob. How did this make the fifth most amount of money in 2002? In terms of like box office ratio, so when we're talking about intake to budget, it had almost a 50 to one ratio Brad like it cost $5,000,000 to make this movie. It was a very small production. It made $241 million at the domestic box office and I believe like another 120 worldwide.

3:44 So it made 360 ish $1,000,000 off of a $5 million budget. Brad, I have so much I want to talk about with this movie because like I said, I have literally not seen it since we rented it in probably early 2003. It's been 21 years. I could have had a kid immediately after watching this movie. That kid would be able to join us for our whiskey segment today. That's how long it's been since I've watched this film. I'm really pumped to dive into this movie, Brad, But before we get any further, we do want to say if this is your first episode, welcome in. We're talking about the Greeks today. You know we are. What we're doing this season, as I said, is we're looking at the highest grossing film or thereabouts from 1988 all the way through 2019.

4:32 I thought that this was a really good idea, Brad, and we're getting to a point where it's still in the fun phase. The early 2000s are a really fun time to look back on. I feel like that stretch from, you know, like 9596 all the way through probably 2008 is going to be really, really cool and then we we tip into all the MCU stuff. So especially 2004. Man, that's just going to be a blast. We are still in the Golden age right now, folks, so we'd like to know what you think of this series. We'd like to know what you think of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Where can you find us To engage with us a little bit more? You can find us on all of our social media accounts. Please give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, or YouTube.

5:15 You can find us at the Handle film WW with an E. And if you want to go a little bit deeper with our content, if you want some bonus episodes, some some uncensored content, go check out our Patreon. We have so much for you over there that you don't get to see on these regular episodes. O If you'd like, you can support us at a three, five or seven a month tier, and the link for that is Patreon Filmwhiskey. Brad, it is time for us to dive into talking about this movie and in order to do that, it's time for our first segment of the day, which we call, Brad explains. Brad's gonna give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds ticking on the clock, so let's go ahead and hear your take with this little segment that we call Brad explains.

6:03 Brad Explains is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the movie that he has just seen, often for the first time. This was not your first time with this movie, Brad, was it? No, it wasn't. Similarly to you, Bob. I either saw it in theaters or at home soon. Soon after we went, probably went to the old Blockbuster and grabbed ourselves a copy of this. All right, so it's been a minute since either of us have seen this movie. Brad, you have one minute on the clock to spoil the heck out of this movie. Tell us everything that happens, folks. If you have not seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding and and you just got the itch, now you can hit pause here, go watch the movie, and then rejoin us. But Brad, you have a task set out in front of you here, one minute on the clock and go.

6:49 My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a film about a air quotes, 30 year old Greek woman and air quotes who's definitely not played by a 40 year old who looks like a 40 year old who is in the midst of a blossoming She is finding herself, she is figuring out what life is all about. She's losing the glasses and all because she met a hot dude. Here's the difficult part though. Bob, are Are you ready? Her family is Greek. I hate when that happens. They don't want her to marry a non Greek, but she does. And that's it. That's the movie.

7:30 That's. That's it. We learned some valuable lessons along the way, such as non Greeks are humans too and. Women should be allowed to go to school, yeah. That's, you know, it's a progressive film, Brad. It's it's so progressive. Here's the thing Bob, we'll we'll just get this out of the way. There are some wild statements in this film, like women shouldn't go to school and you know, essentially non Greeks don't count. Now this Brad, to be clear, these have been your stances on both women and non Greeks for a long time and so I'm sure that you really appreciated having that validated by Hollywood as well. Yeah, I just wanted to double down on it right here, right now on our platform.

8:18 I want to shout it from the mountain tops. Once again, folks, subscribe to the Patreon. This is the kind of content that you want to subsidize. OK, man, let's let's get something else out of the way here, Brad. And this isn't open-ended question. You don't have to make it yes or no. There's shades to this. Is this a good movie? No. Like, I watched this last night with my wife. And my My wife is a noted lover of Hallmark films like every Christmas. Despite my inability to watch films such as Oppenheimer or Past Lives or things like that, I find time every Christmas season to watch at least like four or five crappy Hallmark Christmas movies with my wife.

9:06 And we have a blast with it. Sure, we were watching this last night, and Haley goes, this is just a really bad version of a Hallmark movie. And so if my wife can recognize that this is like a Hallmark movie gone wrong, I think we can all safely say this is a bad movie, Bob. It is not well made. I don't know if I would tip all the way into saying like, this is a bad movie, but it's certainly like the most generous reading is this is a, this is an OK movie. Like, it's pretty mediocre at parts. I do think that there's elements of it, Brad, that are legitimately bad, and we're going to talk about that. But I think perhaps the best way to approach this movie is to A. Be honest about the fact that neither one of those things this is very good, but also B to really lean into the historical context here, because like this, of all the movies that we've watched Brad, this really feels like an A relic of its time. It feels like something that is like the most 2002. Yes.

10:10 Well, and not only that, like I think for you and I, Bob, this movie feels familiar. I know I'll speak for myself. I grew up in an area with so many Greeks and Ukrainians and Russians and Hungarians, and like all of Eastern Europe, was just packed into our little city. And so this movie felt like I like I have been in the the what I What's their name? Tula's family. The porta callos is that what it? Is the Porta Callos? Yes, I have been in the Porta Callos house endless times as like a teenager hanging out with my friends. Like the the, the couches that are covered in plastic. All of the kitschy, weird, like motherland things that they brought over when they were fleeing communism. Like, like all of that.

11:10 I I lived it. So there was a part of me that's like this, I don't know, felt like putting on a warm, fuzzy Mr. Rogers sweater. OK. I think that that is a perfect jumping off point because I want to talk about, you know, I've been thinking about this movie all day, Brad, and what I thought it was going to be and how it wasn't that, and then also what I wished it was and was not. And neither one of those are enough of a conversation to sustain a listener of this podcast for the next 45 minutes. Like, if we just give a laundry list of things we don't like, it gets boring very quickly. So I think what we should talk about first of all is the merits of the movie we got. Now again, we don't think this is a great movie, but I will say that even in the first 5-10 minutes of the film, what I noticed was, you know, I say that it's a relic of 2002. This feels very different than most of the comedies we were getting around this time.

12:06 And you know, like for example 2001, 2002 is is when a movie like not another teen movie was sweeping The young people of America like very, very raunchy, but also everything had this quick cut MTV over the topness to it. There was a like a really plastic looking Sheen on everything. This movie looks like an independent film, like it looks cheaply made and not that like the sets are cheap or anything like that, but it just doesn't look Hollywood Y and it also has like a completely different rhythm to it than the quick cuts that we're used to. Like, I I, I wish I could have gone back and watched the TV ads for this movie. Because I imagine that they're, they're the kind of ads that we got in the early 2000s where they would, like, show quick cuts between scenes and you'd have, like, a whooshing sound effect.

12:57 And there'd be a guy that's like Tula was a waitress. And then they'd whip over to something else that, you know, that's not actually the kind of movie that this is. And while I think that, frankly, I think this movie is kind of way too slow and a little boring, I do appreciate that it feels so much more like a movie for grown-ups than what it could have been if Hollywood had kind of taken over this production. 100% I I mean this movie started off as, you know, our main character Tula, played by NIA Vardolos. Vardolos probably say Vardolos. So NIA wrote this as like a one woman show and it kind of plays like that.

13:42 Like it's not trying to be a gotcha, funny, slick comedy. Like it's trying to tell a dramatic story. It just doesn't have, doesn't have great storytellers at the helm of the different mediums, the scripts, the cinematography, the the music that you would need for it to be great. But, like, they're not trying to make. Yeah, like you said, they're not trying to make a 2002 comedy. No. And I think that this kind of movie has been done to death, especially like in the wake of this movie, there's a film that came out, I don't know, one maybe two years ago. There's a Italian comedian, Sebastian Maniscalco, and he made a movie with Robert De Niro. I think it was called All About My Father or something like that.

14:31 And it's very much like it's like this, like his dad is an old Italian man who says inappropriate things. But by golly, we love him, you know, and I think that at its heart, what makes this movie work, to the extent that it does or does not work, is it's a very sweet movie and it cares very deeply about the people in this family. Like, the point of the movie is not to make fun of They are Greek and therefore they should be ridiculed. Like, do they say inappropriate things? Yes. But as with most people's families, we love them anyway. And there are, there are things to be appreciated about these people and the way they live their lives. And I I think that it seems so stale now because we've seen this movie literally 100 times since. But in 2002, when America was still very much like, you know, Brad, think about Greek food and the the proliferation of just, you know, foreign foods to the US palate. Like we didn't have Chipotle in 2002 in Ohio. We didn't, you know what?

15:35 I mean? We didn't certainly didn't have sushi and like pho and ramen places and like all these things that we've gotten across America now for for white people in America to watch this movie in 2002 and see like even remotely Greek things, they're like, oh, those exotic people, like. And that's the appeal of this movie. That's why it made so much money back then. It just seems like we've seen this 100 Times Now. Well, I I think the other reason this movie made so much money because it this is like Haley and I's entire conversation while watching this was like, why was this so popular? Like, like we felt like we were detectives on a mission trying to figure out like what made this so popular.

16:18 And I think that the the element of foreignness makes sense. I think too though, there's just, there's just so many places throughout this movie where you get to see a big family at its best and at its absolute worst. And I think that people watching this film either could relate to that and go, ah, yeah, my family too, right? My last name ends in a ski. I I get it like or they don't get that experience and they've never had a big family and they love the idea of being a part of one. And I I think that's kind of the core of why this movie, at the end of the day, it is heartwarming and it has, I don't know, it just has that vibe of like, oh man, that feels really sincere and and kind and funny. And even if it's not well made, it it it it portrays a story of something that I want to be a part of. And I think that's kind of why it did as well as it did. Yeah, I agree man.

17:24 And like, I think that the last 15 minutes of this movie do a pretty good job of tying things together and really underlining those themes. If we can start jumping off into like what didn't work about the movie Pratt, because I don't know how far we can go without talking about that. No, I I think we just need to talk about the positives, the. Whole the whole time. And then hit it with like five. Yeah, exactly. I I extol the movie for for not tipping into straight stereotype. Like it could have been so much worse than it is. However, like and I and again I think it's really good that it has that heart. It reminds me a lot of, like, you know, when you watch Goodfellas and you watch the way that Scorsese understands how Italian families work like it.

18:14 It is that kind of a thing. You can tell that it's made from not just an insider view, but somebody who really loves the culture that they grew up with. I just don't think that, like, I don't think there's a lot of comedy to this movie. Like there's there's some little funny character traits. The the dad with the Windex is a really funny trait. Like, you know, and then you've got like the Greek women talking about how they have to like, pull one over on the dad and the dad is this old patriarchal guy. And like, yes, there's there's like some humor there. I just don't think there's enough humor to sustain an hour and a half long movie, aside from a few chuckles here and there. Yeah, it's almost like it's almost too appreciative to be funny, if that makes sense. Yeah, this is.

19:01 This belongs very firmly in the hallowed ground of the 90 minute film, but it didn't quite feel like. It did not. It felt like at least a two hour and 7 minute movie. Like, like, I I mean, it was every single second of that. I think it was like an hour and 34 minutes was the total runtime and I felt every single second of it and some and and it's because of what you said. There's so many places in this movie that drag on a little bit too long that that move a little too far. And like there are some funny comedic moments. For me, it's when she goes to walk and gets caught by the headset she's wearing and like falls to the ground like great physical comedy followed up by a really awkward scene of the two of them sitting behind the desk and like, very awkwardly talking to each other about nothing. And.

20:01 And it was like you could have just ended right after that. Really funny, like brilliantly written little physical gag and you could have moved on to the next scene. But no, we had to sit there for another. I don't know, 80 seconds, right? And it it's stuff like that that I'm like, oh, this movie gets dragged down by so many decisions. Like that. I mean the the point that they're trying to make with this movie is is my family is funny, but they're ultimately good. And so you've got three options with a scene. A is exposition like this is establishing something necessary to moving the story forward. B is this is building towards A gag? See is this is building towards an emotional pay off And there are so many scenes in this movie where the scene is building towards nothing and it's not accomplishing anything narratively.

20:53 Like we understand from the title of the movie that there will be a wedding involved here. It takes a good long while for these two people to get through their dating relationship and into the wedding phase. But then I feel like there's not a lot. Like I maybe I was expecting father of the bride a little bit here, but there's not a lot of wedding prep, there's not a lot of actual wedding stuff. There's just kind of like, Oh well, my parents want us to go to the Country Club, but my my Greek family says no, OK And then we move on to the next thing and there's it just seems like the rest of the time is just being kind of padded out with filler. I I don't know, man. And I know that this started as a 45 minute one woman monologue show, which I imagine honestly Brad would be very funny and very entertaining because Neo Vardalos understands the humor in this story. But now we're talking about doubling the length of that story just to make it to 90 minutes, and we're back in Grinch territory from 2 weeks ago. Well, it was.

21:52 It's funny when you when you said something along the lines of like so many of the scenes feel like they're going nowhere. It honestly the the movie that popped into my head was Do the Right Thing, where that movie just feels like it's taking a slice of one block in New York City and just showing you like, hey, here's here are things that happen on an average day in the summer in New York City. And obviously it all culminates into something and there is a story thread going. But if so many of the scenes in that movie just feel like they're just establishing the vibe of of the world that, you know, Spike Lee is creating. And I feel like that's what they're trying to do here. They're just trying to establish like here's the vibe of what a big Greek family is like the IT just kind of gets old somewhat quickly.

22:52 And may, you know, maybe that's the genius of the film. It's it's gotten old for Tula, too. OK, so man, the thing about this movie is I feel like it's not that far off from being a really good movie. Like if they had just leaned 5° in either direction of making it funnier or making it more emotional, I think we we would have gotten a movie that wasn't just 5% better. But, you know, bumping this up from my score redacted to like a 7.5 out of 10, and I don't think it's that far off from it. But it's also that makes it harder for me to pinpoint exactly what is off with it. Dude, I don't know if that makes sense. Like it.

23:34 It feels almost there, yeah, but just a little underbaked. Yeah, I I mean, honestly, like I think if you make it a little more Hallmarky, it gets a little bit better partially just cause Hallmark knows what it's doing with its movies. Like, there's a formula. You stick to the formula and you're going to have a Hallmark film that so many people are going to like. And I this movie just felt like it was a little bit directionless. Like, I mean, I don't know if it had even just like AB Plus director that, you know, was somewhat well known. I feel like that person would keep it a little more reigned in that the actors wouldn't quite have as much leeway to just be boring. Yeah.

24:23 Well, so one thing I remember about the marketing for this movie, and it's it's in the opening credits too, is that it starts off by just saying my wedding and then slowly the the words big, Fat and Greek come in and shove their way into my wedding. And it's it's supposed to be this really funny visual representation of what this family is going to do to this poor woman's wedding. And you look at the poster for this movie, and it's the two of them in their bridal, you know, their wedding attire with the family, like butting in on the side. And I remember this being this loud, raucous family, you know, like just kind of doing their shenanigans for an hour and a half. And I got to be honest, man, I feel a little bit like this was not a big fat Greek wedding.

25:08 Like this was a wedding with like a little bit of moussaka on the side. And that's about it. Yeah, Like it just maybe. And again, maybe in 2002, this seemed like an uproarious comedy about this raucous family. But they just seem like people with big personalities. They don't really stand in the way of any of the wedding stuff. They have their things that are like, tacky. And you know, the one at at the end of the movie, John Corbett's character saying, oh, did your answer to your make up for you? She says yes, and they're laughing. And he says drag Queens could learn a thing or two from your aunts. It's like it's a funny touch, but these people really never insert themselves in ways that are a hindrance to anything. And so it kind of feels like, what is the point of this movie? Is it just like I am getting married and I am Greek? Because that's not a compelling story. And you you have to do something more to make this family insert themselves into the situation and cause bumps in the road, Because otherwise there's just it's not progressing towards anything.

26:16 Yeah, but Bob, the the brothers and and cousins make the the fiance, the dumb white fiance Say like dirty phrases in Greek. Yeah, twice. It's twice, yeah. So it's like, it's funny, man. And they're all Nated, Nick, which which is once again directly lifted from Goodfellas. Yeah. So you know, there you go. There's my life. Make it a double for the day I guess. Goodfellas, as a movie I don't care for, does not belong in the same class as my big Fat Greek wedding. All right. But let's go back to what I was just saying for a minute here, because I want to get your take on it. Do you think that would fix the movie?

26:57 Is it just that, like, if you're going to call your movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, like let's let's ramp up the Greek stuff here a little bit. Let's ramp up the big fatness of it because it doesn't feel big, fat or Greek like for most of this movie. Yeah, well, I don't know if it's the lack of big fat Greekness. I think it's the lack of compelling interactions between the family members. Like the one of the only parts of the movie that I was like, oh wow, I feel really, like connected here is when when Tula and her brother Nick, like, sit on the bed together and he shows her his college brochure and is like, hey, you like you inspired this. That whole interaction between the two of them was the most real interaction that any cast member had throughout that whole film, including Tula and her fiance Ian. Like that.

27:58 There's just not enough authentic human interaction to make me believe that this is a real big fat Greek family. Do you want to talk performances or is there somewhere else we should go before we head to break? Man, I I mean, I I think we could kind of do a quick roulette on like performances, cinematography and sound like you know, three of the the more important things that we experience in a movie. So, like, yeah, performances were. Were there any that stuck out to you in a good way? I actually think NIA Vardalos is really good. Like I I think that she does a good job with her character. She's very natural.

28:38 You know, she kind of reminds me of, she has like the the Liz Lemon Tina Fey thing going on a little bit, and I like that. But it's also her story and she wrote, it's like, of course she's going to know how to play essentially herself. I was really let down by John Corbett in this movie because his entire role is like nice guy with a completely blank face that he has. There isn't just no personality like, and I'm not saying that like I I'm not really familiar with his work outside of these films. But like, I don't know if he's a good actor or a bad actor, but this character is just a nothing burger of a character. There's He is there to be supportive fiance #12, and he accomplishes that, and he looks blandly handsome in the process.

29:25 And that's pretty much all we get here. Yeah. There's nothing from him that makes me go, Oh yeah, I would risk the wrath of my entire culture to marry this guy. And like, if if there's a casting you have to nail, I think it's Tula's parents and her fiance. And they should have great chemistry between the two of them as they antagonize one another over these cultural differences. And her parents, I think, are decently well cast. Oh yeah. I like from the, from the fact that I've met so many parents that are exactly like Tula's parents that I'm like, yes, nailed it.

30:06 Spot on. The Fiance is just terrible. Easily the worst part of the movie for me. And the the sucky thing about it though is like, I don't think that they have terrible chemistry, but every scene that they're in together has a different rhythm than the rest of the movie. Like it's much more low key and they have this great like almost, you know, we are, we are dating but we are best friends vibe like they have a relaxed nature with each other and it's really nice, but it also means that they take more pauses in between their lines and they're kind of just staring at each other lovey dovey and it it slows the movie down. Every scene with the two of them slows the movie down and it takes away from the source of the comedy, which is the rest of her family.

30:52 And I'm with you man. I think that both of the parents are really well cast, aside from the fact that Michael Constantine, who plays the dad, looks like the Greek version of Paulie from Goodfellas. Like, I keep going back to this. I think the mom, Laney Kazan, is really, really good. And Aunt Vula, played by Andrea Martin, is so good, she's like the best. That's what you want out of a supporting character in a movie like this. But I remember at the time, you know, Joey Fatone from In Sync is in this movie for about 11 seconds and he makes it on the poster. And it was one of those things where In Sync. And by 2002, like we were kind of getting over the boy band thing and so they were starting to branch out and do other things.

31:33 And I was like, oh man, like Joey from *NSYNC is in this movie. I don't know that he needed to be in any sort of a bigger role than this. But I remember seeing his name pop up again and I'm like, Oh yeah, I forgot he was in this like everyone outside of the two people getting married, the parents and the one aunt, I don't know that I remember any of that, including her brother who we just talked about like he's in one scene and that's pretty much it. They don't really spend a lot of time on the rest of the family here. Well the the brother kind of has AI have cancer and then they never mention it again. Thing where he like goes up to his dad and shows him a a relatively decent drawing that he wants to use for the new menu and the dad literally just goes and then he does it again at this at a certain point and that's it, That's it. Like, that's the whole storyline. At the head table at the end of the movie, he's like, I'm going to be an artist.

32:33 Everyone's like, cool, Draw Something for me. That's that's your character arc. Like, OK, cool. Oh man. And and like, watching it this time through, I I actually liked the brother. I I thought he was like, pretty charming and like among all the, like, sleazy younger brothers that you have in like, romantic comedies, he's easily the nicest one of them all. Like, he's he's not actually a sleazebag, but you get that from about 14 seconds of screen time. So I'm like, give me, give me more Nick. Give me more, Nick. That's the That should have been the title of this movie. All right, man, I think we're at a good point to hit pause. Let's drink some very pricey whiskey today. What do you say?

33:18 Let's get to it. All right. So today we are checking out Willett Family Estate bottled rye. This is a single barrel rye that is 6 years of age. It follows Willett's high rye mashbill, which I have pulled up here. Brad. Four, sorry, 74% rye, 11% corn, 15% malted barley. It's 113.4 proof. Now, Willett is an interesting brand that we've had on the show many times. They really made their bones on sourcing whiskeys from many, many distilleries, a lot of which had stopped producing whiskey at that point.

34:02 And so they'd they'd gotten their hands on some old stock of whiskey. They would release it under their label as single barrels, and it would command thousands of dollars because people found out what was actually in the bottle and they were sitting on a gold mine. Then they started distilling their own stuff and they are still trying to market themselves as a luxury brand. And a lot of their stuff is just fantastic whiskey. But there are an equal number of willit haters out there because aside from all the other brands that they make, like Noah's Mill, the stuff that's actually bottled under willit is a lot of times only like four, 6-7 years old. But it's commanding hundreds and hundreds of dollars on the market. So Brad, you know with all that background, let us first say we did not pay for this whiskey.

34:49 We had it donated by a friend of show Wes who has been just stocking us up on whiskey lately. But also we're returning to Willett again. Where are you sitting overall on Willett as a brand I? Don't know man, I I feel a little funky. About it there it. Is it? It just is a very unique brand that has a lot of unique expressions that overall if I had to like just give it a yay or nay vibe check, I think I'd lean towards nay. Yeah, I think I would lean towards nay, especially on things that are will it branded with the purple tops and the green tops, which this is I will forever crusade for my beloved Noah's Mill. That's one of my favorite favorite whiskeys on the market. So if you can, you know my general advice would be if you can find will it brands or or will it labels that aren't will it branded things, you're going to be paying significantly less and I think that it makes it much more worth the purchase. But Brad we have a task set out ahead of us which is to review this whiskey and then spoil how much it costs to buy this whiskey.

35:55 This is a really old barrel. Wes told us that it was actually from like pre bourbon boom. So we're talking about like, I don't know, this is probably a a a 10 year old barrel full of 6 year old rye. So this was first put in the barrel probably somewhere around 2008 or prior. I'm really excited to dive into this one, man. I know that you've drank it, I have not. So take it away on your tasting notes, Brad. This is a really, really beautiful nose Bob. There's caramel, there's cherries, there's clove. The the rye spice starts to come through. For me there is like a distinct Cream of Wheat note that I got as I was nosing it. I honestly really fantastic nose. Nothing that like bumped it up into the upper echelon, but I'll give it an 8 out of 10.

36:47 I'm going to give it an 8 1/2. I'm with you man. It has a really beautiful rye forward nose, almost some like fresh herbs or or like a freshly cut grass like. There's definitely something that reminds me of being outdoors with this one too, but then it's under laid with. I don't know how else to describe it besides like Coca-Cola spice. Like there's a nice sweetness to it, almost like a molasses. But then all those great baking spices that you get on the nose of a freshly cracked Coca-Cola as well. Really beautiful. I'm going to give it an 8 1/2 and I'm about to take my first sip. So why don't you walk us through the actual palette, Brad? Dude, this is delicious.

37:27 Like there's nutmeg, there's cinnamon, there's caramel, there's rye, there's oak. All of it is balancing together really well. This is the first time I'll ever give this note, and maybe the last. I almost felt like there is a little bit of a really nice olive oil taste to it. That man oh man, just unlocked the whole thing for me once. I like pinpointed what that flavor was. I love this stuff. I I gave it an 8 1/2 out of 10 here, Bob. I think I'm also going to be in an 8 1/2 and it's because it doesn't quite work as well for me as it does for you in terms of marrying these flavors. I know that there has been at least one whiskey before Brad, that I've said olive brine on, and that's here. But I think for me it's a little bit closer to like dill pickle brine than it is to olive brine.

38:18 For me, we get dill on Rise a lot, but this one is like a really sweet weeded bourbon. So that Cherry Coke note that I always pick up on weeded bourbons with the dill forward rye and that sour note is underneath everything on my palate and it doesn't kill the experience. But I also don't know if those two flavors are as naturally paired together as what they're trying to do here. Really good, but it keeps it from being like transcendent whiskey in my opinion. So I'm at an 8 1/2, which is damn good. But man, I thought for sure when I when it first touched my tongue, I'm, I thought it was going to be like a nine and a half.

39:00 So I'm just slightly let down, you know? Yeah, and I'm kind of in a similar place with my finish. The rye spice comes through really strong on the finish, which I love. The longer it sat after drinking though, the more it reminded me. You said it earlier, Bob. Almost like a a cherry coke molasses. It almost turned into like an apple juice flavor for me that I I loved. I I really, really enjoyed the finish here. It probably was my favorite part of the experience. I I'm going to stick it in 8 1/2, but man is it really good. The second and third SIP on this is where this really shines and I I do tend to put those more on the finish than on pallet because you already got that flavor lingering on your palate from your first sip and it builds and builds. It gets much more like dense like a it's like a thick piece of cheesecake by my third sip and I really, really love that. I think once again I'm going to give it an 8 1/2 on the finish. This is shaping up to be a really high scoring whiskey and I think it's exceptionally well balanced to Brad, like everything that we had on the pallet, on the nose, on the finish.

40:15 Was in concert with each other now. Is it like the best thing I've ever knows, the best thing I've ever tasted? No. But I think I am going to bump it up to like a nine out of 10 on balance. Yeah. Balance wise, I think that everything you are getting here is a a smooth experience that that blends together incredibly well. So I'm with you, Bob. I'm at a nine out of 10 on the balance. All right, now it's time for the conversation, Brad. The conversation about money. So when a man loves a woman. He buys her. Will it green label? OK, so how much is this retailing for?

40:56 Again, this is a single barrel from like 10 years ago, folks, so. How much? How much do you want to spend, Bob? Yeah, I think you can probably spend whatever you want on these, huh? Yeah, I I mean here. Here's what I I did today folks as I was drinking this and looking up information on it. This is a bottle that you could spend anywhere from about $350.00 on to about $1200 on the like. That's the literal price range that I saw for this and it hit me. I think that we need a new category of pricing. And Baba, you can tell me if I'm crazy here, but I feel like if we hit $150.00 or higher, we're entering a territory of value that we just need to call luxury like that.

41:45 Like we're no longer talking about even like 120 bucks. For most of my friends who drink whiskey, they would swing $120.00. For like, man, this is a once in a lifetime I I really want to have this experience. But once you get above 150, most people I know would balk at that and you get up past 200, three, $100. I don't know almost anybody who'd spend that kind of money on a whiskey. And so for me, I don't know. Do you think it's OK to just say what is the price on this? The price is luxury. Yeah, I think I'd probably set that at like 200 from that matches personally because you know, there's some barrel products that I would call premium but not luxury. And I know that this is all semantic. But yeah, when when we talk about a luxury whiskey, I think from here on out we should be thinking, all right, you know that you're dropping at least $200.00 on this whiskey. Is it worth that price?

42:42 And folks, there is a free market out there. You can spend as much as you want. But we're going to say for the sake of argument that this is at least $200.00 at at least $200. I think this is like a 5 out of 10. It's a six year old ride, dude. Like Whistle Pig is 6 years old. That's 50 bucks you can get Russell's Reserve six year. I know we're talking about bourbon now, but like, there's no reason for this to cost $1000. I don't care how good it is. Like I it's really good folks. But it, you know, it is a coin flip for me whether I would want to spend that much money on this bottle. Yeah, I'm. I'm in a pretty similar place. I gave it a 5.5 on value score, but I can't really say anything different than you Bob.

43:27 This is a luxury whiskey that is very tasty. The juice is really good. I don't know if it's luxury level good. So I Bob, I'm coming out to a 39.5 out of 50. Like just on the cusp of really being a great whiskey. Brad, I am coming out to a 39.5 out of 50. Oh. Look at us. But The thing is, like, it should be a 39 point, you know what I mean? Like if you're going to pay $200 for a bottle of whiskey, it should be a 40 out of 50 or higher. Like, yeah, this doesn't feel like, Oh my gosh, we finally found a great one. It feels like this is appropriately placed and it may even, you know, it should be a couple points higher than it is. And I hate to poo poo a whiskey that's like this good. But if you're going to be charging people $1000 for it, like yes, it should be a good whiskey. That should go without saying.

44:30 Yeah, Bob, I just and the world of luxury whiskey is wild. I I think I'll just say that. Do you know how many bottles of Rebel 100 you could buy for $1000 5050 bottles of whiskey? 50, 750 millilitres. How many millilitres is that Bob? I don't know, man. Listen, it is quite a few. 35,000, Yeah, Brett, I think that every time we talk about how many bottles of Rebel 100 we could buy for the price of a whiskey this season, 'cause this is not the first time we've done it. I just picture us actually accumulating that number of bottles, and by the end of the season, we're just sitting on top of a pile like smog. Like just hoarding our treasure for ourselves. Oh.

45:16 Bob, if if you were a dragon, what what color dragon would you be? I'd probably be bourbon colored with the amount of Rebel 100 I'd be drinking. An an amber. A nice and soft amber dragon. Let's let's shift from whiskey to uzo and keep talking about my big fat Greek wedding. What do you say? Let's get to it. All right, everybody. That was will it something something Single Barrel Rye, a whiskey that tasted delicious and dag on it. It better 'cause that's a that's a mortgage payment, Bob. I think that the difference between like, if I can, if I can paint an analogy here, Brad, you and I are operating with a budget equal to what my Big Fat Greek wedding cost to make.

46:07 Yep, and this whiskey costs what my Big Fat Greek wedding actually grossed at the box office. We should start a new podcast. My My Big Fat Greek Whiskey podcast. Yes. Yes, all right, man. It is time for me to try to redeem myself a little bit at our next game, which we call 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 and I have to figure out which one that is.

46:48 Brad, I'm at 9:00 and 6:00 on the season. I am slipping quickly towards 500 and I don't want that. Let's make it 9:00 and 7:00. No. Let's please don't hit me with your two facts and a falsehood, Brad. Fact number one, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was filmed in only 27 days with the final scene shot of the movie being Tula and her brother Nick talking on the bed about him going to art school. Fact #2, Tom Hanks wife Rita saw the play and recommended that her husband produce a movie version. In an interview with NIA Vardalos, she mentioned that she had hung up on Hanks when he called because she did not really believe that it was him. Fact #3.

47:31 Despite its status as a small independent film, and despite never holding the number one spot at the American box office, the movie went on to earn almost US $369,000,000, a return of over 61 times its budget. Well, I'm going to say #3 is true because I'm pretty sure we both established that earlier in the episode. So I think #2 is true. I mean, Hanks and Wilson were producers on this movie, and I don't know the thing about her hanging up on him, but I can see that happening. So I'm pretty immediately circling #1 as the falsehood. But The thing is like, I mean, I, you know, it seems like it would be shot in 27 days.

48:12 It it there's nothing going on in this movie that would necessitate a long shooting schedule. 122 days, Bob. So OK, let's it was. Grueling 14 hour days. Let me break this down with #3. When you say that it made like USX number of dollars, you're talking like it grossed that worldwide, but it was the equivalent of 360 uus dollars, right? I am saying that despite never holding the number one spot at the American box office, the movie went on to earn almost US $369 million, well return of over 61 times its budget. All right, I'm just going to say #1's false because everything about 3 sounds true.

49:01 I guess. I don't know if it was ever number one at the box office, but who the hell cares? Number one is the falsehood. It actually. So it didn't actually ever hold the number one spot at the box office and it I believe it is the second highest performing film based on budget to income ratio to like Paranormal Activity in 2007. I say all that to say you are correct, Bob. Number one is the falsehood. All right. I wonder how many shooting days this movie did have. Brad, We should probably look that up. That's a that's probably about four from July 5th to August 3rd, principal photography.

49:47 And then on August 10th, filming officially wrapped. So like, yeah, almost, almost, exactly 27 days there, Brad. I 100% made that up. Like, I'm really not kidding. I just was like, I don't know, I feel like most shooting for small films is anywhere from like 35 to 60 days. Is that is that crazy? I would, yeah, sure. So I was like, I don't know, 27's a short amount of time, I'll say that. Not. You know what? Nope. That's my Big Fat Greek Wedding three. My Big Fat Greek Wedding one. The shooting schedule remains a mystery. We have no idea. Let's talk for a second, Brad, while we're on the subject, this movie has two sequels. They just came out with a new one, like a year ago. I'm like, I am a little bit shocked, You know, I I think that the, the best analogy is like the Mamma Mia series, which keeps getting sequels, but also like Mamma Mia was based on a stage play that was based on Abba's music. Like there was a lot going into Mamma Mia. I can see why that would get sequels. I just can't believe that this movie continues to get sequels more than 20 years after its original release. It's kind of crazy.

51:03 Yeah, especially considering the second one made $90 million at the box office and the third one, let's see, made made $38 million at the box office that came out September 7th of 2023. Yeah, it just came out. Wow. You could say we're recording this as an homage in honour of that new movie coming out. All right, man, what else is there to say about this movie? What is? What's sticking in your craw that we haven't talked about yet? Oh man, I I don't want to stick it to this movie any more than we already have Bob. Like this is a this is a good hearted film with people who tried really hard. It's a very harmless movie, you know. Yeah, yeah.

51:49 There there is a little bit of, we'll call it harmless sexism and racism, but outside of that, you know, it's it's pretty harmless. Actually, I would like to talk about the sexism and racism for a second because I feel like it, it affected you or it stuck out to you more than me. And I don't know, like maybe I'm just a a much more sexist and racist person than you, Brad, I'm not sure. But we compared this movie in our text messages to each other, to the movie Green Book, because I said basically everything that they accused Green Book of doing is kind of what this movie actually does. And I don't want to step on any let's make it a double. SI have no idea what your choice for let's make it a double would be, but she, it does kind of seem like she wrote this movie in the most Greek stereotypes are funny kind of way. Yeah.

52:43 And dude, like I said earlier, it just seems like white people in the early 2000s ate this stuff up, you know? And and again, we didn't talk about this in the casting thing, but John Corbett's parents are like the perfect white people to put in this movie. Like they are the most perfectly casted people, but I imagine everybody in the theater looking exactly like those people and just thinking these Greek stereotypes are so funny. What is it, Brad, about the the quote UN quote racism of this movie that you feel like you know didn't work or what is outdated or anything like that? I don't know if it didn't work or felt outdated, it just felt very honest to how the world. How do I want to say this?

53:31 People who come from a strong ethnic community, like the Greeks, often just have the worst views of non fill in the blank. Greeks, Ukrainians. You know what? Whatever you want to, whatever you want to say. And it's a stereotype that I have seen played out so many times in in the world that I grew up in that it just felt like, Oh yeah, I guess, I guess they still do that, don't they? Right. At the very least in 2002 that was a thing and and so I don't know if it was like racism towards Greeks. I I think it was more of like that kind of generic attitude that the dad has. That's just kind of like, yeah, it just feels really cringy. And it's the same attitude that he had towards women. And I'm not saying that the film celebrates that very obviously. The film is painting the father figure as a relic of the past. So I'm not saying like the film supports it. It's just very blatant.

54:37 And I I was almost like taken aback by how blunt it was that. I mean, he just flat out says This is why women shouldn't be educated and you're like, oh wow, you. Just. I guess we're going there, huh? Yeah, you don't quite hear it, put that bluntly, even in movies that want their characters to come across as sexist anymore. Yeah, that's true. You know, Brad, this is going to be one of my hottest takes of all time on this podcast. But I can't tell whether they should have been even more stereotypical in this movie. Like to make A to make it funnier. But also, like you mentioned earlier, that there's a universal aspect to this movie that people can go to this movie and see their own families in it. And I think that that is in large part what made this such a huge box office success.

55:31 But I wonder if it's actually a successful thing for the movie itself. Because as I think about, you know, you could plug in any ethnicity into this movie and call it like my big fat Jewish wedding, My big fat Persian wedding. And you would have to change very little about the movie in order to make that work. Like, so much so that, you know, like they say OPA every now and then and they drink ouzo. But, you know, if you said it in, I don't know, wherever else, you can just have them drink a different liqueur and say a different word, The the comedy doesn't really come from their Greekness. And I think that's kind of a detriment to the movie. Is that I don't feel like I learned a lot about Greek culture from this movie. Not that it's like required to teach me Greek culture, but be it just seemed like we are going to kind of make this family blandly quote UN quote ethnic.

56:27 And I think that they made it so palatable for white American audiences to watch this movie and and identify blandly different things about this culture that it doesn't really feel true to Greek culture. Do you know what I mean? Like if you can swap out entire cultures that easily into this movie. I don't know if it's really doing what it set out to do that well. Are you sure that's not just a reflection on how, despite all our differences, humans are really all just the same, Bob? We have the apple and we have the orange. Yes, see, he understands it. You know what, honestly, though.

57:08 It's kind of a touching moment. I I really like that moment. Yeah, I did too. And then he gives him a house. He sure. Does. That's the most 2002 thing about this movie. No one can afford a house. Now what are we talking about? Home ownership. What a joke. Oh man, I I think the the way that you could swap out another, you know, insert another ethnic group here. I don't know. Yeah. We're going to get into hot water. We should probably steer away from that. Brad, it is time for us to get into our last segment of the day, which we call, Let's make it a double. We're near the end of the episode, so thanks listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's favorite another film with this one, even if it's struggling.

57:54 It's a 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 am kind of curious to hear what your pick for Let's make it a double is today. And I I was hoping we would get through the episode without you mentioning it, but I'm going to pair this up with Mamma Mia. I I just feel like they are the same movie. And I say that Bob never once having seen Mamma Mia. They do. I mean, I think it, I think it's set in grease. So, like, you know, we're already halfway there. Yeah. Now if anyone had just sung ABBA songs in this also, well, I I also have not seen Mamma Mia. Why the hell are they in Greece?

58:40 Isn't ABBA from, like, Sweden? What are we doing? You know, it's Sweden's just way, way too out there for the American public to. It's just a hop, skip and a jump away from Greece. As we all know, people who vacation in Greece often fly through Sweden to get there. Yeah. Very, very obvious, Bob. Brad, I think like I said earlier, there's 100 movies. You could pair this with any movie about a a big family who has stereotypical beliefs and things to learn. Like I thought about just putting Coco here. Coco would work great here. But I'm going to, I'm going to pick a movie that I've never talked about on this podcast, and it's an Eddie Murphy film called Coming to America, in which he plays an African Prince who is sent to America to find a bride for himself. It is a very funny movie that also deals in stereotypical beliefs and, you know, Americans not used to outside cultures. It's also a movie that got a sequel, I think two years ago, almost 40 years after the original movie. But I think that Coming To America does it so much better. And it's the first one of the first times that you see Eddie Murphy playing like every character in a scene, and they would make him up to be different people. The thing that you would see with like the Nutty Professor movies in the 90s, I just really love coming to America. And I thought about it a lot during this movie. Unfortunately, I thought about it because I think it's a better movie than this.

1:00:08 And that takes us to final scores. Brad, where are you falling on my Big Fat Greek Wedding? Oh man, Bob, this isn't a good movie. And yet, I really enjoyed it. Like, like it's fun, it's cringy, it's ridiculous. There's moments in it that feel almost like it's veering into the trash film genre, which make it funny. I think I'll come to a 5.5 out of 10. Yeah, we've we've been sitting in this area for a while now. It seems like, and I don't think that this movie hits the lows that either for me at least, that that either Phantom Menace did or like the Grinch.

1:00:54 Like, I think the Grinch has moments that are just like this is one of, this is like a a physical assault on my senses. And I hate this. This movie is just kind of bland and it's not funny and it's kind of boring for being only 90 minutes long. And yet it seems very innocuous, very harmless. And I come out to a place where I'm like, that was fine. I don't ever need to think about this movie again. I don't understand why it made so much money, but I'm also not really angry about it. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't. It doesn't suck. So like, I'm coming out to, I think I'll give it a six out of 10, and I think that's kind of a generous score for this. But a lot of times it's like when when I come out to something being fine, I don't regret watching it and I don't feel like it's an hour and a half, I'll never get back. So there it is, 6 out of 10 for me, 5 1/2 from Brad, which takes us to an average of a 5.75 out of 10. The real question, Brad, is how far away from episode 2 is this movie in terms of overall goodness? Personally, I would put this quite a bit higher the OR I would put Attack of the Clones quite a bit higher than my Big Fat Greek Wedding.

1:02:10 Like man, at the end of the day, like Lucasfilm had millions of dollars to make. Attack of the Clones and you can tell. I would like to see a $100 million version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and a $5,000,000 version of Attack of the Clones, just to see what happens. Because Lucas did that in 1977 and it was called Star Wars. There it is. All right folks, if you want to hear more about Attack of the Clones once again, you can find us on our Patreon, where we recorded a whole review so that we can be Star Wars completists. You get bonus episodes, you get tons of new content, you get access to a special Discord server, check us out on patreon.com/film Whiskey.

1:02:54 And if you want to tell us more about this movie, you can find us on all of our social medias Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube at Film Whiskey. Or you can jump onto our Discord. Discord is an incredible place where we are talking all things movies, all things whiskey, and just about anything else going on in the world. If you want to join the conversation, you can find a link to the at the end of every single one of our show notes. Next week is a movie that I am incredibly pumped for. We're looking at 2000 Threes, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl. I cannot wait to revisit this movie. Brad. Such a good movie.

1:03:35 Yeah, super, super excited for that. All right, join us next week for unproblematic actor Johnny Depp. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.