Season 10 Finale: The Final Four, The Filmies & A Very Controversial Champion

0:00 Today on the Film and Whiskey podcast, we are wrapping up season #10 Brad, we're finally getting to take a break. I can't wait. Oh, and we're also reviewing a Whiskey. Brad, tell the folks about the whiskey we're trying today. Today we are going to be drinking Bardstown Bourbon Company's Cascadia Gary Anna Oak Barrel Finish, a whiskey that I am very excited to try. Bob, That's all. Ahead on film and whiskey.

0:43 Well, hey everybody, welcome into the Film and Whiskey podcast. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad Gee. And for the last time in season #10 Brad, we are coming at you with another special bonus episode. Bonus episode. It's music to my ears every time you do it, man. Brad, we actually don't have that that much on the agenda today. We can take our time episode. It's gonna go for an hour. 4. Minutes. Let's just be honest here. You know, it's funny because of all the things that I didn't pull up in prep for this episode, I did not pull up our bracket and we only have 4 movies left and I'm like scrambling to figure out what those 4 movies are. You're joining us for the first.

1:30 It would help me. Go ahead. Yeah, we are looking at our final four Bob for season 10. In the top left quadrant, we have the number 16 overall film, Star Wars going against the number 45 overall film, Rear Window. On the right side of the bracket, we have the number 2 seed 12 Angry Men versus the number three seed Casablanca Bob. I think this is the first time we have two upsets in the Final four. I mean, what can you say, Brad, we're getting more and more exciting in our old age, I guess just. Folks, I was going to. Going to intro this a little bit, if this is your first time joining us, as I said last time, why?

2:14 Why is this your first time that you chose to join us? Because this is the third bracket episode in season #10 Every year what we do we is we watch 32 movies a season. At the end of the season we put those movies into a madness style bracket and we start hacking away at that list until we come to the champion of each season. Now we have arrived at our final four films, as Brad has just said, I believe the newest of which is Star Wars, right? Yeah. These are all 40s and 50s films except for Star Wars from 1977. So we're looking at some true classics of Hollywood here in our final four. Also, today we're gonna be reviewing a Whiskey and we have, I guess what you could call Brad, the most prestigious Film Awards to give out, as we do every season.

3:01 Far and away I don't. I don't think any other Film Awards get handed out in March, do they? No, in fact, The funny thing is everybody's been complaining about how late the Oscars were this year, and we said screw that, we're going to go two weeks after the Oscars, baby. And we'll probably have we're the last awards. Given out. We'll probably have about the same amount of viewers. Yeah, exactly. And you know, we're all just going to be streaming on YouTube eventually. So welcome to our brethren at the Oscars, is what I'm saying here. Brad, I am popping the cork on our whiskey for the day. I'm going to leave it up to you. Do you want to dive into the whiskey first? Do we want to do it in between rounds? What? How would you like to do this? Let's do the whiskey, man.

3:44 I'm I'm ready to drink. This is a fresh pop. OK, so I have not even remotely sniffed at this bad boy until right now. Brad gave the name of this. It is the Bardstown Bourbon Company Distillery Reserve Cascadia Garyana Oak. Now, Garyana is an interesting kind of oak that I've only ever experienced and I think one other whiskey. Brad, we tried a few whiskeys from Westland Whiskey a couple years ago, and I believe it's Westland that has a Garyana. And they've been doing it for a couple years and it's always like their biggest release of the year. It cost $200. And now Bardstown's getting themselves in the game. As always, Bardstown is killing it with the packaging on their little samples that they send out.

4:27 Because we got this nice little. I mean, if it if it didn't have information about whiskey on it, I would hang it in my child's. It looks like an Eric Karl very Hungry Caterpillar book, You know what I mean? Yeah. That's good, so. Here's the notes that Bardstown gives on this Garyana Cascadia blend. Garyana oak, native only to the Pacific Northwest, is as wild as the shrinking forests it calls home. Dense and fiercely rare, it can't be farmed or cut at will, but rather gathered only from fallen trees and sanctioned harvests. It's tight grain and rich sugars shaped bold baking spice, caramelized oak, and a smoldering finish found nowhere else.

5:08 That is some damn good marketing copy. I got to be honest with you, man. I think we need to put a not for kids label on this. I was going to say, the way you read that it's supple. Curves OK. Finish. So let's give some quick stats on this. It's 107.5 proof. It looks like it's a blend of three different whiskeys, one from Kentucky, I'm sorry, 2 from Kentucky, one from Indiana, and they range from 8 years to 10 years in age. Let's get that out of the way. Now Brad, I want to dive into this. You look like you have already gone ahead and just swigged the whole thing. So I'll let you give nosing notes while I stick my nose in this.

5:49 I think this is a really interesting nose. It has a lot of oak on it. There's a decent amount of caramel. And for me, it, it reminds me of like the like the sour candy candy apple suckers that have like caramel on the outside, but then it's, you know, the, the sour apple on the inside it, it kind of reminds me of one of those. I like this there man. There's like 1 little funky note in there that I can't quite put my finger on. And at first it was like, maybe this is dill and then it tipped into like maybe it's because I like to, I like to pair dips because I'm in the Midwest. My wife makes like a pickle dip sometimes and I, I associate it with like potato chips. OK, we we get it, Brad.

6:34 Pickle dip. Do you not like Pickles? Pickles are one of the most disgusting things humans have ever. Created you you have the palette of a. Child that is not true First off. Second off, Pickles are gross man and the like the if the juice touches any part of the burger bun the entire thing is infected and it your. Ability to derail my main point by latching onto 1. Of my minor points is pickle dip. OK, so like, dill reminds me of Pickles. Sue me, I'm sorry. Like dill Pickles are the most popular kind of Pickles. Yeah, but but in any case. I'm like, who? Who makes it? Is it dill or is it like oniony? There's this weird savory, kind of like, I don't know how to describe it except like there's like a ranch dressing note going on in here somewhere and I'm getting weird wafts of it in between, like these nice waves of oak and brown sugar and caramel I don't know what to make of. It dude, does your wife make onion dip as well? Probably I'm not.

7:39 I'm not a big raw onion eater. I like caramelized onions, but I can't bite into a raw onion. I like a good red onion on a burger, but white onions? Yellow onions raw, Not so much, man. Do you know where I don't like onions on your whiskey? Yeah. So it's I'm going to be a little bit muted on this because I don't know where this is going. I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 on the nose, Brad. I I'm actually with you, I'm at a 7 out of 10 and the funkiness that I was picking up, I think you're right. It's an onion vibe that I don't know. It's not in the, it's not in the realm of vegetal like a like a Scotch might be. It's just, I don't know. It's interesting the the palette on this doesn't stray too far from the nose.

8:25 It is oaky. There's like Sour Patch Kids kind of vibe going on. The funk kind of sticks around. I don't know if it stays as Onion, but there's just a there's a weird vibe to this that I'm not totally jiving with. Dude, do you know what it has? What's it got? It's got the will it funk. It's this is like, you can set this down next to some Noah's Mill. Then I'd be like, Oh yeah, this is totally made by Willet. It's got that like that weird funky dusty note paired with some floral like on on Noah's Mill. For me, it's always rose. This has that. And I will say like for being 107 proof, there's really not much prickliness on the palate.

9:09 It's a very muted kind of warmth, almost like if you are drinking like a Coca-Cola and you leave it sitting out and then it goes flat. It almost has like a flat whiskey vibe. And I don't mean to say that it has no flavor. It just doesn't have that sort of like alcohol prickliness that you typically get. Now, the flavor itself, I I'm going to differ from you, Brad. I think this is fantastic. It's super rich, really, really syrupy. You said Sour Patch Kids. It does remind me of like when you suck all the sour off of the red ones and you're basically left with like Swedish Fish at that point. It's got that like cherry candy syrup vibe to it with a nice undercurrent of oak. I like this quite a bit. I'm going to give it a nine out of 10 on the palate. Dude, you're just naming all the things I hate. Swedish Fish.

9:58 One of the worst candies ever made. Do you just hate the Swedes? Maybe that's what it is. That might be it. You don't like IKEA, you don't like sweetest fish. That's true. I do like a good horse meat meatball though. Get down with that. Sure, but not a dill pickle Horse dill pickle. Good. Two thumbs up. I'll give it a 7 out of 10 on the pallet. I really don't care for this that much. Bob. It it's yeah. And I think the finish kind of continues that for me. It falls into like a cherry cough syrup oak vibe that is just kind of not quite bitter, but it's just kind of this like type of a finish.

10:42 I don't know if that's a good, good auditory example of how I feel about it, but I'll give it a six out of 10 on the finish. I like this. Starts in kind of a weird place that it dips into a meh kind of place. Yeah, I don't know how to sell this because I do like it. But like all of my tasting notes, if you read them, you'd be like, that sounds kind of gross because it's it's that combo of like savory and sweet, almost like at at Thanksgiving when people will sometimes put the cranberry sauce directly on their like Turkey. And so you get the combo of like meatiness and fruit. Like this is cherry and almost wheat weeded bourbon notes coupled with this kind of like beef consomme French onion soup note.

11:27 And I like, I don't know how to explain that sort of salty savoriness that goes with the cherry. It does work for me. But if that sounds super gross to you, I can totally understand why. On the finish, I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. It is a little less long lasting than I would like it to be. It's kind of short for a 107 proof whiskey. But overall, I think the flavors that are left behind are pretty complex and I do like them. So I'm at an 8 out of 10 here, Brad. I'm at a six out of 10 on the finish and I think balance wise I'm at a four out of 10 Bob, I think. I think that this just nothing works. All the flavors are kind of discordant and they don't create a great experience.

12:12 I'm at a four out of 10 man. This one is not working for me. I I get it. This one definitely feels like the biggest experiment we've gotten from Bardstown in a while. And I don't mean that in in that like it's the most ambitious one. I think that's probably the Cathedral French Oak, which is one of the best whiskeys we've ever had on this podcast. Yes, this is an experiment in that it's like a big swing and I have a feeling that for a lot of people it's going to be a swing and a miss. Now I mention the Cathedral French Oak because this is part of the same series, this distillery series that they only sell in these 375 ML bottles and you can only get them from the distillery unless you are shopping from a trusted retailer online. Now, I believe the MSRP on this. Brad, did you have it pulled up?

12:55 It is $99.00 for the 375. So I think for for our audience, we're just going to call this a $200 bottle of whiskey. Well, and as with most of the distillery Reserve stuff, if it sells as fast as those other ones have, it's going to be $200 plus just for the 375. So we'll take it at the MSRP value, but you're probably going to have to spend more than that to try this. I don't think this is bad, but I wouldn't call it the top tier of the Distillery Reserve series yet. I'm going to give it a 6.5 on value Brad. Yeah, if I'm thinking about this as a $200 bottle of, you know, 750 bottle of whiskey, this is like a four out of 10 man. It it's, it's not working in the vein that I want it to. And I hate to say it, but like, I drank this the other day with a buddy of mine and we tried it and we were like, huh, that's really interesting.

13:55 And then we drank like a somewhat cheap bottle of Scotch and we're like, this is I would rather drink this any day of the week. Wow. So I'm I'm kind of in a place where I'm out on this one now. I will I will caveat this, as always, I love Bart sound bourbon company. I think they make incredible whiskeys that cathedral finishes one of the best whiskeys I've ever had. Their discovery stuff is really good. I like across the board, I love Bardstown. This is just one of those experiments that I don't quite vibe with. Yeah. And I realized I did not give my overall balance score. I'm going to call that a 7.5, which brings me out to a 38 out of 50.

14:37 Brad, I have a feeling you're going to be significantly lower than that. Where are you at on this one? I'm at a 28 out of 50. Wow. All right. So that's taking us to just a 66 out of 100 or a 33 out of 50. Now, you know, even though you gave it a low score, I kind of like the 33 out of 50 mark because it is like just a touch below where we start recommending a whiskey. And I think that like thematically that makes a lot of sense because I recommend it, you don't. And we both acknowledge it's going to be very iffy on if people get down with this one or not. So I think that 33 out of 50 kind of speaks for itself about the divisiveness I'm going to see in this one. Yeah, yeah, I I think that once again, bar sound makes great whiskey and that's the beauty.

15:24 They they experiment and they try new things. And this is a a limited release. If you want to try something from them, just wait for the next one. It's that's probably going to be incredible. All right, the whiskey has been gotten out of the way and that means that it is time for us to dive into this bracket. Now, we only have 3 total match ups today, Brad, so I think we can talk a little bit more in depth about our thoughts on each movie and the match ups in general. But let let me cue my dramatic sound here. It's time to get into the bracket. Brad, can you walk us through the first match up in our final four films? Yeah, we have 1977 Star Wars, a film that is beloved for one of us and misunderstood by the other. We have 1954's Rear Window, which is one of Hitchcock's greatest films.

16:22 I would say that it almost gets lost, though, in the breadth of films that Hitchcock has made. And so I'm glad that it is here representing because I like, I still think that this might be, I don't know, is it his best movie? It's this or Vertigo for me, and maybe that's a good starting point. So I subscribe to this newsletter called The Reveal and it's 2 movie critics that are working through a countdown of the top 100 films in the Sight and Sound list that came out a couple years ago. And they have a very long back and forth. Like they're basically they're like corresponding with each other. And one of them will like ask a question about the movie and the other one will respond.

17:05 And a couple weeks ago, they landed on North by Northwest and they were both very surprised that it would be in the Sight and Sound poll, not because it's a great movie, but because especially that international crowd that votes on that award really tend to like high art movies. And so they're like, you know, if any movie really encapsulates Hitchcock's kind of Hollywood entertainer vibes, it's North by Northwest. Yeah. And so they both had to kind of reckon with, like, do I have implicit bias for movies that feel more artsy or feel more weighty? And have I been ignoring North by Northwest's place on this list?

17:47 And I think that they both kind of referenced Rear Window as a movie that I could see that being on the list even before North by Northwest, because at least you have kind of the technical craft of being confined to a space and and seeing how the camera is utilized in that space. But I think a lot of that still applies to Rear Window where Vertigo has been kind of fawned over critically the last 20 years. And Rear Window is always like, Yep. And that's one step below Vertigo for me. And the more I watch Rear Window, the more I'm like, it's a different kind of movie, but it is every bit the equal of Vertigo. And it's really similar to like when we watched The Apartment, which is my favorite Billy Wilder movie, and then we rewatched some Like It Hot. And it's like, OK, it's a different kind of movie, but you can't tell me that it is any less the equal of The Apartment. I really think that in the absence of Vertigo here, Rear Window and 12 Angry Men are the closest things we have to two perfect movies.

18:48 However you want to describe that both in the effect they have and in the sort of like clockwork precision with which they move. And so I guess that would be my opening argument as to why I'm just a no brainer going to take Rear window in this debate. Yeah, I was. I was wondering where this monologue was going. Bob I I should have known. You should have known, man, that. You were just. A monologue, though, you got to admit. It was a great monologue, Bob, I think, I think Rear Window is a a perfect movie, nearly a perfect movie. The the ability that he has to help you feel claustrophobic and yet like open, like you feel like you're included in this New York courtyard that you kind of have a life here with the people, even as Jimmy Stewart is, you know, wheelchair bound for the duration of the film. It it's so much craft and story and it's compelling. I like I'm with you on rear window man It's incredible. I do think that I was, I was listening to you and I was like feeling myself like, yeah, Rear Window, man, it's incredible. And then in my head I was like, what? What makes Star Wars, Star Wars?

20:04 And I just heard the opening theme and my heart just leapt with joy. And I'm like, Rear Window can't make, can't do that, can't just think about the soundtrack from Rear Window. And I have an emotional response. I I think that there's something to be said for a movie that. Absolutely set the stage for what an epic movie could be for the rest of cinematic history, I think. I think Star Wars still holds itself high. It was my #2 vibe choice and for a reason. I I think Star Wars is going to be my pick here, Bob. Dude, I went back and listened to our last episode, obviously, because I had to edit it.

20:50 But you were like, Vertigo's moving on. And then I made the stupid decision of saying like, huh? Do you feel, do you feel pressured to do that? And then you were like, screw you, Star Wars is moving on. And it was that I wasn't even trying to rile you up. I was really asking you a genuine question. And you immediately flipped to Star Wars. Yep. And I just need you to know that you ruined everything. You have ruined everything, Brad, because I just know that we're going to end up with back-to-back to back coin flips here and Star Wars is going to come out the champion of this season against my will. And it's it'll be forever. To your shame, I mean. If it makes me feel. Better like Pulp Fiction won our first time around for this season.

21:33 That's true. So the a very was your. Number one pick for for the vibes list here too. It was. And I will say, if we're just comparing scores, like Star Wars runs away with it both because I don't really remember much of the actual score from your window and because once you get into the movie, there is no more score. Like, it's just diegetic music. So, like, John Williams wins by default, but also because it's one of the best movie scores ever written, you know, ever written. Yeah, I like it. Also, it elevates what I perceive to be a a kind of middling movie to the heights of like, pretty good. Yeah, but. But can a great score cover a multitude of sins is the real question before us, Brad, that means that we have to flip the coin of Destiny now, as we've established the coin of Destiny. He he has a slight lean to him, Brad, as you described it last episode, a slight lean towards heads, right? It seems to be the case.

22:35 Yeah, and I guess that means that Rear Window is heads because it is the higher ranked film among the two. So Rear Window will be heads, Star Wars will be tails for a spot in our championship. Brad, flip that coin. Bob, I hate to tell you know it just it brings me a lot of joy to see you sad it also, you know, it hurts my soul a little bit. I've known you for a long time, but we have another tales coming up for my boy Star Wars.

23:16 I hate you so much dude. This is this is an outrage. The highest the number 16 film has ever gone in our bracket, Bob. Yeah, and it's just because you've manipulated things. Manipulated a strong word. Is in here man. I stand by my vibes list, Robert. I am fairly certain that we've had like 9 tails in a row now too, which does not bode well because if there's a coin flip in the championship, Star Wars is automatically the tails in that match up too. So I'm preparing myself to be heartbroken at the end of this episode, and it's all Brad's doing. And I think that that is a perfect segue into the Brad G Awards. Every season, Brad just makes up a couple awards that he wants to give out.

24:04 Sure, there's a lot of times he's watching these movies for the first time, and there's certain things that stick with him throughout the season that I would just never think about. And then he gives it an award at the end of the year. So, Brad, I know that you've been hard at work on these awards, so I'm gonna turn it over to you to present the Brad G Awards. You know, Bob, before we started this podcast, we, we're discussing, you know, what we would want to talk about and how we would want to do it. And we kind of landed on this idea of movies in whiskey. And we said, you know, let's, let's do a test episode and just just see what it's like. What? What movie did we choose for our test? Episode Bob, Brad. We chose the eternal classic Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy.

24:49 In the spirit of Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy, I have three awards to give out today. The first of which being the that That Escalated Quickly Award, which is the movie that took the hardest left turn. We have The Milk was a Bad Choice Award, which is the movie that has aged the worst, and we have the 60% of the time it works every Time award, which is for the movie that shouldn't really work, but man, it just does. I'm really glad that you didn't pivot towards you are a smelly pirate hooker for Brad's least favorite female character. That that'd be hard to sell, you know that. 'D be a tough one, man.

25:32 Oh man. All right. I'd love to hear the the winners. Do you have a nominees list or is it just one film for each? I, I honestly am open to whatever we decide, so let's go to that. That escalated quickly. I do have a nominee that I would like to argue for for the movie that took the highest left turn, and it has more to do with how I watched the film. I would give this award to sinners given the fact that I stopped watching it right before the vampires came on screen. Like I mean. You did. I hit play a few days after I paused it and literally the next thing I saw was him jumping over the camera and like landing on the field in front of the farmhouse. So for me, I think the hardest left turn was sinners. I'll give a couple nominees just to scanning our list of movies from the year, Inglourious Basterds, when they actually start blowing up and burning down the theater and then you just see Hitler's face getting blown apart with a machine gun. That escalated quickly.

26:37 It did $1,000,000, baby, the worst placed stool in history is all I have to say there. That really that took a hard left turn. And then I suppose you could do at least four different moments from Pulp Fiction. You could you could do the GIMP. You could do Mia with the heroin. You could do, oh man, I shot Marvin in the face. There's a lot of moments that escalate very quickly in Pulp Fiction, Brett. I man of these four options, I think it like let's just assume that we are watching these movies with absolutely no knowledge of the film going in. I feel like $1,000,000 baby would be the hardest left turn 'cause you like that is so far and away not what the movie is about.

27:31 Like he, like Clint, has lulled you into this sense of Ron Howard. Miss that. You're like, yeah, this is just like, you know, an Apollo 13. Yeah, it's, you know, it's just like this Cinderella Man type of movie. And then it's not. So I I think that's my vote. Where are you at, Bob? I think I'm in the same place. You know, Pulp Fiction may have like crazier left turns, but the fact that every story is designed to take that left turn, you come to expect it a little bit, $1,000,000 baby. Truly catches you off guard man. Pulls the legs right out from under you. All right, so Paul Haggis and Clint Eastwood come collect your That Escalated Quickly award from Brad G.

28:12 All right, our second award is Milk was a bad choice. What movie for you? Bob has aged the worst. Or even maybe not a movie, but like acting, performance, a line from a movie. What's something that has just aged incredibly poorly? I think my two it will be no surprise to anybody listening to this. My 2 nominees would either be Star Wars, which I think has just truly aged poorly. Like I just. The more I watch it the more I'm like this is this is cheesy, the effects are bad, the added CGI in the special editions is actually aging worse than the original. Like miniature work. That one aged pretty badly and then I. Wouldn't disagree with you on that. Yeah, man, I think my second one would be Fight Club, which is a movie that just has never worked for me. And I think the farther we get from it, the more we can understand why people misunderstood it and how it captured a generation of Gen.

29:13 X Bros. That's those are my 2 nominees. I guess you know my nominee is singing in the rain because nobody likes singing. Anymore. Clearly it's singing in the rain, dude. All right, What are you thinking, man? I. I mean, I'm proud of neither of us for saying American Beauty, because I feel like that or Green Book would be the two that everybody else would vote for. That the woke mob would come for a. 100% man. I don't. I honestly, I, I've made this award and then I'm looking through it and I'm like, you know, I don't, I don't know if any have aged extremely poorly for me. I, you know what?

29:54 I will give the award to 1 Battle after another because it's aged pretty poorly since it came out six months ago. Now, 10 seconds, if you have to think about this longer than 10 seconds, we'll just move on. But milk was a bad choice could be the the circumstances under which you watched the movie. So like it was a bad choice for me to start watching The Assassination of Jesse James at 11:30 at night or something like that. So is there any anything in this list that you're like, it was a bad choice for me to watch this movie on this day or at this time? Not one that. Not one that comes up for me right off the hat. I I would say Shawshank Redemption. I remember watching Shawshank at like 5:00 in the morning for that episode and being like like this is pretty dour start to the day.

30:50 Yeah, dude. Yeah, that, that was a little rough, even as enjoyable of a film as it is. All right, well, we'll give it to 1 battle after another, because that's the spiciest take I've heard yet today. So, Paul Thomas Anderson, on your way back from the Oscars, stop by Brad's house. All. Right. And that leaves us with just one Anchorman Award left to give. It is the 60% of the time it works every time and it's the movie that shouldn't work but just does. And I, I think there's a few options for this award. I think Cinderella Man could could fit that. You just have a lot of things going on that make it seem like it shouldn't be great. And yet for you and I, it transcends all that.

31:32 But I am going to go with a movie that if I just described the plot to you in 20252026, you would say Brad never make that film. And it's a movie where a man with a mental handicap goes on a journey across Americana and experiences all of the most important events of the 60s and 70's the entire while pursuing a woman who does not want him, uses him, and gets AIDS and dies. Yeah. I think that's a movie that shouldn't work, but man oh man does it work so incredibly well.

32:12 And that movie is called Singing in the Rain. That's right. Yeah. I think that Forrest Gump is a good nominee here, for sure, because you're right, the pitch meeting on that one has to be absolutely wild. But the extent to which it works is also up for debate. I think that that's a good movie. I think my nominee here would probably be Green Book, a movie that did come out in this political climate and did meet a whole bunch of resistance because of it. And despite all of the very valid criticisms of Green Book, damn good movie. I yeah, I get misty at the end of that, but I don't know what to tell you, man. I think it works.

32:53 So that's my nominee. I'm with you man, I think Green Book is a great choice for this award. All right, what are we? Are we giving? It's a Green Book or it's a Forrest Gump. I I think Green Book is the choice. That's a good one. Nice. All right, Peter Farrelly, I don't know what the hell you're doing these days, but you can come. You probably actually do have the time to come to Brad's house and collect your work for 60% of the time. Brad. What a fantastic Brad G awards list that was. I like it. Thank you very much, Sir. All right, man, let's get back into the bracket. We have the match up on the right side of the bracket. I'll turn it over to you for the intros. Brad. Yeah, we are looking at Sidney Lumet's absolute classic The 195712 Angry Men versus 1 of Bob's all time favorites recently dethroned. He does not love this movie anymore. 1942's Casablanca. Bob, let me just tell you what happened to you or let me ask you what what happened to you, Man, you have been a ardent Casablanca defender.

34:01 I walked away from our last episode shook. Yeah, I don't know if it's just because for so long it was my default answer for what's your favorite movie of all time? And that the older I get, the more I've realized like maybe it's Jurassic Park, maybe it's ET and Casablanca is still up there for me, but it may not be my favorite anymore. And so I can I. Can I just tell you I was having a meter with a, a meeting with a donor last week and he was trying, he said something about like, we're talking about movies and he says something or I'm like, yeah, you know, it's movies that are like just fine. And they're kind of fun to watch every once in a while, you know, like Jurassic Park.

34:41 I I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Your. Money anymore? I literally went off about Jurassic Park for like 10 minutes. That was you should dude that that guy's not giving any more. Money literally at the end. Of it, he goes like, Brad, why did we lose our biggest donor? You're like, don't worry about it. It was incredible. Oh, man, yeah, forget that guy. All right, so we're talking about Casablanca, though, And I do think that there are some small flaws with Casablanca. It is about as perfect of a script as you can possibly get, but I do think it hits a little bit of a lull in the middle. Now, 12 Angry Men is a movie that we have both said multiple times is as close to perfect as you can get in what is essentially a 90 minute film. I believe in the episode we said that there were 300 different camera setups across that movie, which is just staggering. And it, you know, when you think about the fact that it's Sidney Lumet's first feature film, it's like, how how could you do better than that?

35:43 I think if we're looking at the IMDb scores, 12 Angry Men does rank higher than Casablanca at this point. It's in the top ten, maybe the top five on IMDb. Now, again, this is our list, so we can do whatever the hell we want. I'm really torn, man. I think my heart still says Casablanca 'cause I I could never throw Ingrid Bergman and her beautiful face into the fiery abyss. Yeah. But I think if we're just talking about like, the mechanics of a movie, 12 Angry Men might barely edge out Casablanca. So where are you at on this one? Yeah, I mean, Casablanca is #47 on the IMDb top two, 5012 Angry Men is number 5. Wow.

36:28 It is one of the very few films with a nine point O aggregate score, which is, which is really wild. And I, I think it does speak to what happens when you take a really beautiful script, you tighten it up and you, you put them in this claustrophobic room and you have like, I think there's a version of this movie where like they take it and they do a Warner and like just follow everybody around. And you know, because it's in one room, it feels very contained. But I think the choice to go on the far opposite end of the scale and use as many different takes of the exact same room as possible, it really works for a film that is trying to establish how viewpoints can change when you add more information. And so I, I, I think I'm going to vote for 12 Angry Men on this one, Bob.

37:24 Wow. I think that's the only thing for me to do then is to say Casablanca because I'm so close on these movies. Who's an agent of chaos now? Robert, I think I was going to vote for Casablanca anyway, but it it seems more poetic now to force the coin flip. Yeah, man, it's really hard to say Casablanca should go in the abyss because if if your argument for Star Wars is like, I can't think of a movie that influenced cinema more, Casablanca is top five on that list for sure. Like, it's it's freaking Casablanca, dude. What? What else can you do? I think that we're going to do a coin flip. And what does that mean in terms of the seating 12?

38:04 Angry Men is the two seed. Casablanca is the three. So Casablanca is in the privileged position of tails here, Brad, for a spot in the championship. Flip that coin. Robert, we have set our finals. We are looking at 12 Angry Men versus Star Wars. Man, no Casablanca, no Vertigo. I can't believe that I have to advocate for 12 angry men to win our bracket now because I just, There's no way I'm going to advocate for Star Wars to win this bracket. That's that.

38:48 Dude. Well, luckily for you Bob, we have a little bit of time before we get there because we have our not quite annual, what would you call it for an every 32 weeks seasonal. We have our seasonal awards that we're going to be giving out called The Filmies. Yeah, these are pretty simple. It's just really based on how how do Brad and I appreciate movies versus the general population. And so there's really only three awards. There's the most overrated film, the most underrated film, and then the most divisive film, which is the film that Brad and I were the most divided on.

39:29 Now, Brad, I have told you dot to look at a specific tab of our shared Google Sheet here because this is where I have it all listed. So I would like you to try to guess. Let's start with the most overrated film. This is the film that had a much higher rating by the general population on IMDb versus where Brad and I landed on it, which is much lower. Brad, where would you think we would be giving out the most overrated film award? Oh man, I I have to think. I mean, part of me wonders if it's sinners or one battle because I was, you know, I was pretty low on one battle, but I don't think the overall IMDb score for one battle is actually that high. Like I want to say it's like a 7.5. So I I can't imagine it's that American. We, we well, sorry, we're going ones that we scored low and the population scored high, correct?

40:24 Correct. Yep. OK man, we've just watched so many great movies this year. It's really hard to say. I I'll say Green Book cause 'cause you and I are higher on Green Book than the average person, Brad. You have fallen victim to one of the classic blunders and what that is, is that. Starting a a landlord. You forget that sometimes one of us can give a score so low that it affects our average score even if one of us likes the film. And that is exactly what I did by tanking our final average on the film Fight Club, which I believe has like an 8.8 or something on IMDb and in our average it only came out to a 6.75. So we were a full 2 points out of 10 or more lower than the IMDb score on Fight Club.

41:21 Man and I, I think I gave Fight Club like an 8 1/2 or A9. Yeah, and I gave it A5, so suck it my club I don't. Care. Yeah, Bob, that's insane, man. I I honestly was wondering if, like, the Assassination of Jesse James by the coward, Robert Ford might hit that because of me. I forgot that you occasionally like to tank things as well. And The thing is, you came all the way up to a 6 1/2 out of 10 on The Assassination of Jesse James, this time where the IMDb average is only a 7 1/2. So we really weren't that far off on that one. Sure. All right, now let's flip the script because it's time for us to talk about the most underrated film. This is the film that Brad and I loved more than the general population did. So Brad, as you scan this list, keep in mind how average scores work at the end of an episode.

42:10 What do you think is the most underrated film of the crop? Oh man, honestly, I think only my brain and heart is immediately drawn towards Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy, because I know you and I just love that movie. And I think we gave it 10 out of 10 just for nostalgia and, you know, in the world of comedy, I think it's a perfect comedy. So I my brain goes towards that, I think you and I are both still higher on American Beauty than the average population. Green Book would fall into that category.

42:52 I think. I will go ahead and say Anchorman is my guess. I like it. It's a good guess. It's wrong, but it's a good guess. Now I think with this award, a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is like if you and I are both giving a movie a 9 1/2 or A10, we're already separating ourselves from the IMDb score because the highest ranked movie there, it has like a 9.1. So in that case, you and I gave a film A10 and a 9.5 for a 9.75 average that only has I believe a 7.6 on IMDb. And that film is 1961's West Side Story. So we were a full again, we were over 2 points higher than the average on West Side Story.

43:42 Now, despite your hatred for musicals, I do think when I see West Side Story and then 7.6 next to it, I'm like all right guys, like that seems a little low. That that is a little, that is a little bit low. I gave it a 9.5. I really like West Side Story. It's not like my jam that I'm going to turn on once a year, but to what? 7.6 is pretty low. Man that that's an absolute classic. That's that's a travesty, is what we call that. Yeah. All right, Brad, it's time for the last Filmy Award. And that is the most divisive movie of season 10. Now. We actually had surprisingly more divisive movies than I expected between ones from the past that one of us hated once from now that we have changed our tune on, and then also contemporary films that definitely did not work for Brad and only kind of worked for me. So what is sticking out to you as the most divisive, Brad? I mean, I think I gave 1 battle, A4 or A5 and you gave it an 8, I want to say, so that that immediately sticks out to me. I came up on Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford quite a bit.

44:56 I can't think of many other movies that we were like super separate on. I mean Star Wars I gave a pretty high score and you are wrong. So I'll, I'll go ahead and say Star Wars knowing your lunacy. Well, once again, Brad, your memory continues to be faulty and very short because the most divisive film is very obviously Fight Club, David Fincher's 1999 turd of a movie that I gave a 5 out of 10 to, and you gave an 8 1/2 for a full 35% difference on our scores out of 10. Yeah, yeah, that movie sucks, bro. It's a, it's a, it's not a well made movie and I don't understand why people like it. Bob, Fight Club is a incredibly well made movie. It has a very interesting message and there's a reason people really like that though.

45:49 And that message is come pick up your award for the most divisive David Fincher. We'll see you soon, Brad. We have a championship match up to get to here. And I don't know if you had given us 50 guesses about what the championship match up could be that we would land on these two movies. Sure. Yeah. I, I think that Star Wars is the dark horse that was always meant to be. If I was still a Calvinist, I would have said, yeah, this is this is as God intended, Bob, But you have it up against what I think the general population would say is a true worthy contender for the throne in 12 Angry Men.

46:32 Yeah. Now, you had the IMDb top 250 pulled up a minute ago. I'm wondering, you know, if you still have it up or still have it handy where Star Wars Episode 4 ranks on that list. It's got to be top 10 or 15 for sure. I think I want to say Empire is more highly rated, but I could be wrong about that. Yeah, but we're talking about two beloved films here. Yeah, Star Wars Episode 6 is at 93, so still the top 100. Star Wars Episode 5 is at #15 overall with an 8.7 and Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope is at #29 with an 8.6.

47:13 So it does. It does make me feel a little bit justified to say Bob. This still has an average of an 8.6 on IMDb, which is nothing to sneeze at. It is right below Terminator 2 Judgement Day. There you go, as it should be. Let's be honest here, Terminator 2 significantly better than Star Wars episode. You gave that movie like a nine. What are you talking about dude? It's a it's a great movie, man. I kind of want to go back and watch that and Aliens again. Oh dude, so good. I need you to just tell me before we start talking about these movies anymore. Are you voting Star Wars here?

47:54 Yes. OK, I will give you as much time as you want to try to convince me or to try to defend your choice here. Why Star Wars over 12 Angry Men specifically? Man, if there was a movie on this list to compete with it, I think it would be Pulp Fiction and 12 Angry Men, because both movies to me stand out as just visionary usage of craft. I think for me though, Star Wars is what stands out when it, when you look at what they did for film, for the industry in terms of miniature usage, even in the realm of CGI, like what Lucas was willing to do to advance the the world of CGI. And I like I'm with you, I think that the special editions from the late 90s, like the CG doesn't stand up great. But you wouldn't have any Pixar and like these modern CG marvels if you don't have Lucas pushing for it with episode 4. Beyond that, I think that you have a like, you wrap this classic hero's journey in a inimitably fun and interesting framework with great actors who I think are doing a great job. I think Alec Guinness is

49:24 absolutely wonderful as Obi Wan. You have Han Solo is like one of the greatest rogue characters of all time. Harrison Ford just starts his career off with a bang. And because it goes on to become one of the highest grossing actors of all time, there's just so much about Star Wars that works that it, it continuously amazes me how much angst you hold towards Star Wars. What, what did Star Wars do to you as a child, Bob? That's what I'm curious about. You phrase it as angst, which and when it's more of just like I don't think about these. They just didn't work on me to that extent. And I think the clunkiest 1 is episode 4. Now, I, I will also, I need to make you clarify here because even in your defense of Episode 4, you used the word they a couple different times to talk about the Star Wars movies, plural.

50:20 And I, I'm wondering the extent to which you are using Episode 4 as a representative for all of the Star Wars movies and the sort of revolution that they ushered in. Because I only want to focus on Episode 4 here because I do think it's clunky. I think they they really ironed out all the kinks for Episode 5, which is a much better movie than Episode 4. And when I look at how clunky I think episode 4 is up against a movie like 12 Angry Men, This would be a much more difficult choice if we were talking about Empire, but we're just not. We're only talking about A New Hope here. And I get that it kicked it off, and I get that it ushered it in, but it is a materially worse film to me than probably either of the other two in the original trilogy. And I I like the other two.

51:13 I I always go back and forth between 6:00 and 4:00. Which one I like more, I like 5 is the clear best of the films. I would say though, Star Wars sans the other two, if the other two had never gotten made. I still think Star Wars stands up as one of the greatest films of all time. I think that it struck A chord with the American public and it would stick around to the public consciousness even if Lucas went on to make other movies and do other projects. That's a good point. I there's a part of me that wonders too, like if that had happened, how much would it personally have affected you though?

51:54 Because any movie that you know, if you look at all the movies throughout history that broke the record for highest grossing film of all time, whether it's Gone with the Wind, Sound of Music, The Godfather, Jaws, and then after Star Wars, it becomes ET and then Titanic. Those movies all had major cultural impact in the 10 to 20 years after they came out. And then as generations come out, you just have less of an attachment to those. And so even a movie like Titanic, I find myself defending to people more than I thought I would have to because that was very personally affected me as a as a kid seeing that movie. And I still think it's like a nearly perfect Hollywood movie, but there's a distance now that that young kid, there's no like Titanic cinematic universe that is bringing people on as new converts to that movie The way that Star Wars is. And so it's it's hard because as much as we want to mentally divorce Episode 4 from the rest of the Star Wars franchise and universe, you really can't.

52:56 Like the prequels got their hooks in you. And because the prequels got their hooks in you, the original trilogy was able to to get an audience with you. No, it was the opposite for me. I I grew up watching the originals, Yeah, like in the 90s before they came out. I remember seeing the prequels in theaters. But I like I got man. I had the VH s s I had the special edition VH s s original trilogy, Man got its hooks in me. Yeah, well, and it's just frankly better than the prequel trilogy is. So like, I'm, I'm good with that. But I guess my point still stands though that it's really hard to divorce one entry in a franchise from the impact of the rest of it, especially since it's now a multi generational.

53:39 The only thing that's like that in the history of movies is like James Bond where your grandpa could have been going to see new James Bond movies and now you are too. The MCU hasn't spanned that that time frame and so it we don't know if it's going to have the staying power of some of those other franchises. Yeah, Mission Impossible would be close, but, you know, even that's only 30 years. 30, Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So yeah. All right, Jamie, we've delayed it long enough. You're just making the argument for me, man. This is Star Wars through and through. No, I'm trying to say I think you're lumping 9/10/11 movies and some TV shows into one movie. Bob, do you really?

54:22 Think I'm lumping the TV shows between the Star Wars Holiday special and everything Disney has made. I will say there are some very, some critics that I really respect that say that Andor is the best thing Star Wars has done since like Empire and that people should be watching it. And I I've never watched it, but I might, I might get around to it. I'll never get around to it, mostly because I don't watch TV anymore. Well, there you go. All right, well, on that note, Brad, we're talking about movies and we're doing a coin flip. So Star Wars for sure is Tales because it's the sixteen seed 12 Angry Men, the objectively better film. It's going to be heads Brad, for the championship of season 10.

55:06 Flip that coin. Bob, when you started this season, did you have any idea that you would have to be playing the John Williams theme music because Star Wars is our number one film of season 10. Just before we were recorded, I took a shower because I want to look nice on camera, you know?

55:47 And as I'm stripping off my clothing in the bathroom, I have. This is AR rated episode. Yeah, dude, I have YouTube reels going. And it was just a clip from an episode of The Office where Michael Scott is having casino night, and he asked Toby if the Boy Scouts are coming to receive their check. And Toby's like, no, I didn't think that'd be a good idea because of the alcohol and the gambling and because it's school night and because it's in our dangerous warehouse and because Hooters is catering. And then he says, is that enough? Or do you want me to keep going? And Michael just looks at him that says, why are you the way that you are? And then he says, I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.

56:34 And Brad, I don't know if words have ever applied more to my relationship to you in this moment. You chaos agented your way from the round of 16 all the way to the championship via coin flip. You had to flip the coin every single time. There was no good argument made, and yet you still got your way. It's infuriating you. Know what I have to say to that, Bob? What? But a BOM, BOM, BOM, BOM, BOM, BOM, BOM. I hate this. I hate we're done. The podcast is over. This is the last episode. This is all just a gimmick to tell you guys that we're done with the podcast.

57:18 We're done. We're not friends anymore. Yeah, it's over. Now Listen, Star Wars, I will give you your kudos. You are the season 10 champion in at least one of our hearts. And Brad, on that note, I think the only thing left to do is to very quickly walk through our top five whiskeys of the season, which were definitely something that we had more of a consensus on. I'll go really quickly through these because we've already tried these whiskeys multiple times and three of our five are from maybe our favorite distillery in the world and that is Glenn Moringy at #5 We had the Glenn Moringy 10 at #4 the Glenn Moringy Nectar #3 is the Glen Moringy Quinta Rubin 12 year, which I immediately was like, oh, that's going to be #1 No, it was only #3 and it was defeated by two whiskeys that we tried for the first time this season.

58:14 The number 2 was the Jack Daniels twice barreled American single malts that we tried, which came out to a 44.25 out of 50. And at #1 the Pursuit United Triple Mash Rye, which I'm super happy to say is #1 because we love those guys at Pursuit United. And I, I respected the swing of them sending us that sample with a note that said we think this is the best whiskey of the year. And then they were right. It was the best whiskey we had this season. And that was like it. That was the only sentence in the letter. It was like, it was like. We think this is the best whiskey ever made by human hands. Cheers. I was like, all right, call your shot, man. Good job, Kenny.

58:55 The balls on these guys, yeah, couldn't believe it, man, but they were right. And so we have our ultimate pairing of film and whiskey for season 10, our champion Star Wars, A New Hope and Pursuit United Triple Mash Rye. And that is our final. Let's make it a double for season #10 Brad, it's time for us to get out of here for the day. It's been almost an hour like you said it would be. I want to turn it over to you just for 30 seconds. Final thoughts on Season 10 and what you're looking forward to in season #11? You know, I, I found myself as we went through this season, so glad that we took the time to like review a whole season.

59:36 I don't think we'll ever do it again, but I think it was worthwhile. And I think Season 1, we had no idea what we were getting into before we started. Man, oh man, we started with a heck of a group of 32. Especially when you think that we took Goodfellas out of this. What were the other two movies that we had already reviewed? Yeah, I can't remember. There's a couple of them though. Yeah, we just had a a really great grouping of movies and it's been so much fun, man. You said that this took an hour, but in all reality, Bob, this has taken seven years.

1:00:17 Like we have built up to this since 2019 when we put out a preview episode of Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy that sounded like it was recorded in a barn. Dude, I was just telling someone yesterday about our first marathon recording session of season #1 where we did 4 movies in one day and the only mic we had to record with was a conference call microphone that sat on the table in between us. Like, we've come a long way since then for sure. Yeah, I really the preview for this season should have been like audio from the Anchorman original episode and then like morphed into audio from us today, Crystal.

1:01:02 Clear. Yeah, exactly. I'll, I'll just say real quickly, you know, we started season 10 as kind of a bonus content thing back in 2023. So if you listen to some of these recent episodes, you'll hear me saying in 2023, because they originally released as bonus episodes for our Patreon patrons. And we told them at the time, eventually these will become the episodes for season 10. And so I think we knocked out about half the season ahead of time via audio so that we could start implementing video in the meantime. And so this season in itself has been almost three years in the making, Brad, as always, man, this has been just like, it's so much fun to do this podcast with you.

1:01:42 It's so much fun to be able to have a little community online that follows us through it. We are gonna take a couple weeks off here across April, but we will be back in May with season #11 Brad and I are finalizing our list of movies for season 11. I'm really excited about the ideas we have for it. Dude, I just, I can't wait. I'm ready to take a couple weeks off and come back fully energized for another almost year long endeavor here with you. Dude, it's been such an absolute blessing to go on this journey to watch over 300 odd movies with you, drink a ton of whiskey, go go to cool places like New York and Kentucky and it's just been a blast, man. It's a it's a wild time. Also just to for you guys, the fans, like we have patrons out there who believe in what we do enough to give us money, which is wild.

1:02:31 Thank you. We have fans who come on to our Discord and have conversations with one another. It is really just an absolute blast to be a part of this and I I feel really thankful today. I love it man. You're just thankful because you won all the coin flips so. I mean. You know, on that note, guys, we will see you in May for season #11 we may or may not have some bonus episodes in the meantime for you. You know what, like give us a couple weeks off. We've been posting every week for seven plus years, so we might just take a couple weeks off here, guys. But on that note, that wraps up season #10 let's go ahead and sign off until season 11. I'm Bob.

1:03:13 Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.