Cruisemas, Vol. 1: Top Gun: Maverick / Bardstown Bourbon Company Origin Series

0:00 Some whiskey Nation. Do you ever think about Awards course he do you drink whiskey and watch movies which means that, you know, that nothing is validated until a group of random people say hey we love what you're doing. The awesome thing about doc Swensons, whiskey is that it isn't just some group of schlubs that are given them Awards. They have been winning attention from some of the most important whiskey experts that you can imagine. They've been voted best distillery in Washington state by the New York International Spirits competition. They've been voted the best independent Pendant bottler by the Ascot Awards as well as the best finished bourbon from the Ascot awards for their La. Mente exploratory Cask their exploratory Cask series is where they release some of the most fascinating and adventurous experiments.

0:43 If you're ever checking out, docks line up and see a white label is a really good chance that that's the only time you'll see that bottle. So, make sure you snatch it up. Doc Swensons has been offering just phenomenal finished and Blended whiskies for quite some time. Now, you can find them online at Doc's, whisky.com. Mom. That's doccs whisky.com.

1:27 Hey, everybody. Welcome into the film and whiskey podcast. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G. Why Brad do you know what day it is today, bro? I am so excited. It's Cruz miss Christmas. Merry Christmas to you sir. Dude, Merry Christmas to you. Listen, we've been doing hanksgiving for the last three years and we first, we finished Thanksgiving and said, man, this is so much fun every year. What other holidays can we do? And of course, the first thing we thought of was Brad's favorite actor of all time, Tom Cruise and easily just attaching it to Christmas. Yeah.

2:08 It seemed pretty obvious. I texted you a few days later and had a few more ideas about possibly Meryl Streep, stir a place of Easter, is that what that is place of Easter, the 4th of June. I, he, she okay, then Bill night and Ida. I like, even though he is British and probably doesn't celebrate the Fourth of July, probably not so much. What else we got? Oh man. Oh, there was a Halloween. What was my Halloween 10? Let's look at your text. Oh, Tom Holland ween. There we go. Tom Holland, wean I responded. If I responded with Halloween McKellen, that would be a big fan of that and I took your Meryl Streep won and I turned it into the Oral day.

3:00 From the mayor of the hey, I love it. In honor of the Fallen. We watch Meryl Streep every year. Oh man! Alright, so, as you can tell, this is our first cruise Miss episode. We are happy that you've joined us. We're going to be talking about the year's biggest movie as of right now. Who knows if Avatar will overtake it? But as of now, top gun, Maverick is the top movie of 2022. How can we start? Yeah. How could we start Cruise Miss with any movie besides Is that yeah it feels like this. Triumphant return. For Tom even though he's gone nowhere. Like he continues to pump out. Awesome. Incredible movies, when we went to see Maverick my wife and I, they were showing the trailer for the new Mission Impossible and I just it literally finished and I was like, all right, but we can go now that that's all I needed to see.

3:56 Did you see the video they just posted like yesterday? No, I didn't. There's a new Nine minute video from the makers of Mission Impossible of Tom Cruise doing the biggest stunt in the next movie and how they, like, how they set it up. It is a Christmas gift to us all Brad. Oh man. I don't even know if I want to watch it until like, after I've seen the movie. I'm just so giddy. Well, we have plenty to talk about today. And before we get into talking about top gun Maverick, we do want to say, hey, if you're new to the podcast, welcome in, we would love it. If you would rate and subscribe, give us five stars. Please, we don't want those. One star reviews. But we'd also like is, if you could check out our patreon page, patreon.com/lenguin whiskey where you can support the podcast at three different tiers. We've got a three, a five and a seven dollar a month tear at each one of those tears.

4:45 You get a ton of bonus perks and content at the seven dollar a month to your, we're just giving you whole episodes just for you, we're giving you uncensored stuff. We say lots of words that we don't usually say on this podcast. So yeah, I think about joining us, Us on patreon.com film whiskey, Brad. I think what we should do today is just use our normal reviewing format and just do a condensed version because we have three whiskeys to drink today. Yeah, we do. We are checking out the Bardstown bourbon company. If we could have a drum roll I would ask for it up their origin Siri yes dude, I'm super excited.

5:26 I am so freaking jacked. Bardstown has been Incredibly kind to the film whiskey podcast over the years. We went to a really cool weird white T-shirt party there. Few months back at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. I mean they just put on some of the coolest stuff and I'm just so, so so excited for them to put out their very own distillate. Well, because we have three of those to review. We got to kind of rush through Crews mess here a little bit. Let's talk about top gun Maverick. This movie is in some ways, the biggest Triumph of Tom Cruise's career. It is a movie that has been in development since like the early 2010's in Earnest, the director of the original film Tony, Scott was attached and they were developing ideas for it.

6:17 It got kind of kicked to the, you know, they put on the back burner a bit and then Tony Scott died tragically and they really put the brakes on this for a long period of time. It got kind of picked back up again around 2015, 2016. They Are doing different revisions and bringing in new writers and looking for directors. And of course, Tom Cruise is kind of guiding this whole thing. It was supposed to come out, I believe in 2019, like the first trailer for this came out in like 2018 and they decided to hold it. I think for an early 2020 release and then the pandemic happened and it sat on a shelf and there was a bidding war for the rights to stream this during the pandemic because everybody was desperate for something to bring in some revenue.

6:59 And Tom Cruise being the guy that he is said, absolutely not. We will not sell this movie to streamers like this is going to be the movie that saves Cinema. And the crazy thing about it is that he was right, like this 100%, right? This is a James Cameron level, ballsy move and it paid off in Spades for my man. I mean, it literally is Tom Cruise living out every single movie he made in the 80s and 90s of him like betting against the world, that What he had to offer was greater than anybody realized, and he was 100%, right? And it made just the most Kick-Ass movie of the 21st century.

7:43 Like, it's movie, Just rocks, bro. All right, let's talk a little bit about the first Top Gun to set the stage here. Brad, have you seen the first Top Gun from 86 and if so, how recently did you check it out? I actually just Watched it. Well, at this point, probably like eight to ten months ago. So I watched it may be a few months before I saw Maverick. Same for me. I had never seen Top Gun. And the thing is like, when you grow up hearing about Top Gun and how eighties it is and the shirtless volleyball and like the homoerotic subtext and the cheesy synthesizer, Quentin, Tarantino, right?

8:24 If the the cheesy synthesizers and you know I'm thinking like oh this is just going to be, you know, an advertisement for The Navy and for how cool are the 80s and I watched it and I was like, oh, I forgot Tony Scott makes really freaking good movies. That movie was thrilling. Like, yes, it had some of those elements to it, but I didn't find it to be as overbearing as some other 80s movies that we've watched for this podcast. Wait a second. So you had not actually seen it until like just a few months before Maverick. Yes. Oh my gosh, yeah, I mean, I had seen it probably a decade ago, when I, you know, getting out of college area. So I'd seen it a while back and I remember enjoying it thinking like, oh, this is pretty solid and watching it again right before I went to see Maverick I was like, oh man, if they're able to pull off a 2022 version of this, this could be pretty daggone incredible. Yeah, that's the thing, people don't remember Top Gun, incredible movie really, really good movie. And then they do this, and they just one up themselves. Yeah.

9:26 And I guess where I'd like to really jump in here. Brad is. I've heard a lot. A lot of people talk about this movie and say, this is how you do a sequel, and I'd really like to parse out. What does that mean in the context of this movie? Because there are those little callbacks to the first movie. There's, there's even the really obvious like wink-wink call back to the first movie. I don't know if they all work 100% perfectly but I think what a lot of people are trying to get at here, is that the characters in this movie are Reckoning with the decisions they made in the first The. And so there is there's conversation with the first movie, while not being like, 100% indebted to the first movie. I don't know if that makes sense. No, 100%.

10:11 I think that the, the really neat thing about what they do with the script in this is that the characters of the film. Yes. They're in conversation with the activities and actions taken by themselves, or their parents in the first film. And yet, the mission still comes, First. And I think that they do such a masterful job of pairing together. The the drive, the thing that is pushing them forward and forcing them to be the best of the best, which is, you know, this Mission. They have to accomplish with a lot of really important and just well-written dialogue about who these people are and you get to see some good character development but all of it has the feel of the original Top Gun, which is that of like competition and pushing yourself, and striving to be the absolute best.

11:07 And they do it in just an incredible way. And I think the thing that really puts it over the top is the fact that they're not just trying to be the best at shooting pool, they're trying to be the best at maneuvering. Some of the most expensive things humans have ever created that go really fast and look really cool. And the great thing about it is like all of the military superiors, remind them of that fact. Frequently. They're always like yeah you put yourself at risk but you also put this 50 million dollar piece of Machinery at risk and cigars. John Hammond thinks. Yeah. All right. Let's let's dive in a little bit on I guess the plot of the movie and usually what we do is something called Brad explains where you break down the plot of the film in 60 seconds or less.

11:50 But since we are going speed round today, I think we should do 30 seconds or less for Top Gun. Marty, second you get 30 seconds to explain this movie, I gave you no warning about It and go, Tom Cruise is an experimental pilot and then he isn't and he's teaching young pilots on how to do this crazy stunts. One of the pilots is gooses son and he's angry at him but that to work through their differences to defeat the bad guys. And then there's a little Mission Impossible sequence and they steal an F-16 from the 80s and escaped. It's actually an F-14 I think. Oh yeah, you still fail, but that was only 20 seconds. So nice job sir. Yeah. Thanks man. Man, you did leave out the entire subplot of Maverick.

12:33 Finally, finding love. That's true. You know, that really is that what we go to the theater for is that? I mean, listen, if that is almost. It's like what two and a half hours. It's a pretty long movie. Yeah. It's like yeah, 215, something like that to 22 to 20 and 20 seconds. Yeah, you know. Okay. All right. I went to see this movie in the Peter for a third time, the other day in preparation for this episode because they re-released it at Christmastime, just hoping to squeeze a little more money out of this thing. It has incredible legs. I mean, it came out in like April, so then I got them April or May.

13:13 And it got the Memorial Day bump, it got the Father's Day bump, they got it like and then just kept stretching and stretching. It got the Labor Day bump, like it was just incredible. How long this thing played in theaters and one of our best friends, Mike Giles still had not seen this movie. I've been trying to get him to go see if her forever. Michael and I'm like, Mike, it's dudes. Fly in Planes. Like, what more motivation do you need to go see this movie? I'll tell you what, what? I was really looking for. Was this after the second time I saw this movie in theaters, I started to get a little bit like pretentious and, like film, critically about it and I was like, okay, the script is kind of bad and a lot of the dialogue is like Maverick.

13:54 You used to be the best and Maverick being like what I ain't done yet. Like there's just a lot of that kind of stuff going on in here. And I'm like, ah, like this is really bad dialogue guy, really liked this movie. But can I really be 100% on the like? Whoa, Top Gun Mavericks, the best ever. And I have to admit, I was wavering and I went to go see Avatar the way of water, and I'm like, Jim Cameron. You've done it again. Like, it's a really good movie. Let's go. Try Top Gun for a third time and see what's going on. And I gotta say, dude, top gun. Maverick is a better movie than Avatar, the way of water and it is, it is one of the best action movies I've ever seen it. Like, I just paid attention this time to the editing and like the sheer volume of what they had to stitch together.

14:40 In some of these sequences is stagger. I don't know how they got. So much footage for some of these like in-flight aerial sequences. It's incredible, man. This movie is, it's not just oh this is a cool movie. This is a fun movie, this is a real feat of filmmaking. The type of which we only see one In a generation. I think, yeah, what Tom is able to do with the camera to create the movie. Let's Talk 100% directed this movie Bob. Like all everyone in the credits is just an alias for Tom Cruise who wouldn't put it past him. Jennifer Connelly, actually just Tom Cruise wear the wig, okay? What they are able to do with the cameras in this movie to give you the experience of being a fighter pilot is beyond recognized.

15:43 Yeah, like the I just Don't know how you're able to do it, so seamlessly and just give you the utter exhilaration of being a fighter pilot. And I think that the reason I call Tom out specifically, is because he is, he has such a desire to truly immerse people into action. And I know how deeply he works with the directors and with the editors and how involved he was, especially in this movie that, you know, like you said, he didn't work. On for over a decade at this point. Yeah, man, and I feel like there is to some extent. There's not much we can say about the making of this movie.

16:23 Like people people kind of Pride themselves on knowing some of the backstory here, the way that they fit it out, these fighter jets with cameras so that the actors could sit in the back seat and the pilot in the front seat, but it looked like the actors are flying the planes, but they really were in the plains and they would go up for hours at a time and the actors would kind of be responsible for filming themselves. They had to learn cinematography techniques and editing techniques. To be able to capture their own takes of what was going on as they were up in the air for a couple hours. And I mean it's just it's an incredible collaborative effort but it's also like this is Tom Cruise's movie like from front to back and not just as an actor. But this is really like I said, this is his crowning achievement in terms of having his fingerprints on every part of this movie.

17:14 Yeah. And what an honor for like, for all of these young actors you know, like Miles Teller is a star in his own right by now, but for all the rest of them, like, can you imagine working with Tom Cruise on this movie? How awesome that would be? Like there's not a lot of movies that have this much of an ensemble cast where there's such an obvious difference between the lower Echelon actors. One of the greatest stars of all time. All right, well, let's talk a little bit about those actors and let's go to performances here. I think maybe we should start with those younger. You know, the people in The Academy here in Top Gun Academy and like, I don't know that we need to go through each and every one of them. I am a big fan of bob bobs.

18:02 Bob is my guy, my favorite scene in this watch through is when they're all playing. Like what is it called? A fighter pilot football, or whatever, on the beach? Play offense and defense at the same time and that scene ends with everyone lifting up Bob and chanting Bobby. Yeah, Bob and I was like, yeah, this is my dream. This is this is exactly what my dream is being carried off a beach by fighter pilots, who are chanting my name and you're just slathered in like Sons. Yeah, you know like why not I think Bob does a great job I think you like honestly I think they all do a really good job. The two people that you really need to focus in on our miles Color as rooster and Glen Powell as hangman. And Glen, Powell is a superstar in the making. Like that guy just has the face and the jaw lie of a guy that's like destined for superstardom of the future, Tom Cruise. Yeah, like a hundred percent and thing is like, he's the cocky pull.

19:00 In this movie, he is the Maverick of this movie. That's the thing. Is that like rooster is the Iceman in a lot of ways and like, ice man had his own Swagger in the first one, but ice was known for being cool, under pressure and for not spring. NG into action all the time and Tom Cruise's character. Maverick was known for being the hothead and and not caring about, you know, putting everybody else in danger. And now you see that Dynamic flipped where it's like, oh no hangman. The Maverick of this movie is kind of the bad guy. He's the dick and he's the worst and Glen Powell plays it so well because it's not simply a one-dimensional 80s, you know, villain. We're like your family came to the ski resort and disguise like I could ski faster than you like, it's not like that.

19:43 He he truly does have a point with telling rooster, like you can't be as cautious as you are, and they play this really wonderful yin-yang with each other. And I got to say, man, like Miles Teller might be at this stage of his career, the better actor than Glen Powell, but roosters also a much more complicated and layered character and so in every scene Miles Teller has a lot more to do, and Glen Powell gets like one line and it's kind of Gish and it's amazing how How much your eyes are drawn to Glen. Powell like he just has a commanding screen presence. For someone who is like, you know, the fourth fifth, most important character in this movie.

20:24 Yeah, he has a way of commanding, the attention of the viewer just with his physicality in his presence. And you you don't want to like him but you can't help but understand his point of view and what he's trying to tell rooster throughout the film. And I, yeah. I'm with you. 100% on Glen Powell in this. I've been a big Miles Teller fan for a long time now, probably, since he was in a movie called The Spectacular, Now, back in 2013, and then Whiplash happen, and I was like, yeah, I'm on board for whatever this kid wants to do. Dude, Whiplash, it's such a good movie. I remember, reading a profile of Miles Teller that, I think it was in GQ back in about 20, 15 or so, and he seemed, like, just the most full of himself person, ever, and I was like, oh, that's a bummer. And I don't know.

21:13 Like I don't know if life has kind of leveled him out a little bit but I'm really I'm ready for the the teller science here. Like I'm ready for him to like finally come into his own and take off as a movie star because I think that he has the ability to be a star and he also has the acting chops to be a really good actor along with it. Mmm. Yeah, I'm with you dude. Ever since I saw him in Whiplash, I have been just a fan of anything that he does and I'm with you, I I think the real question to ask about Miles Teller is mustache. Yay, or nay, I'm going to say, yay, it is a bit wispy, but he pulls it off and he pulls it.

21:55 Like, I know for a fact I cannot pull off a mustache, it takes a very particular kind of man to pull off the mustache. I think a, it helps that all these dudes are jacked. Yeah. So it doesn't look accidental. You know what I mean? Like, you can tell that they're taking care of themselves, so, the mustache is clearly on purpose. Mmm. If Miles Teller was like 50 pounds overweight and tried that mustache to be like, oh, okay. You've just you've just got to try beard? Yeah. Right. I don't know how about you mustache? I think I met on the mustache. There. There are not many mustachioed men out there that I would approve of. Okay, I'm glad that we settled that, let's talk a little bit about, I don't know. The rest of the military people.

22:38 Ed Harris shows up for a couple minutes and he's great because he said Harris, I actually I want to focus in, on a scene with Ed Harris, is maybe in the second a good. It's like, it's like the thesis statement of the movie, but he's gone after about ten minutes and he's replaced by Jon Hamm. Who, once again, I don't know what it is with Jon Hamm and me, but like, I never 100% by, what Jon Hamm is doing. I just don't know what it, I really like him and I think he's a good actor but I just like not always believable for me. And even here, he's like I buy him as a guy who dislikes Maverick, I don't buy him as a high-ranking official in the US Navy had. And I don't know, I just all of Madmen. I watched the first full season of Mad Men and select episodes following that.

23:23 Okay, so like all right, I want to show. Yeah, he's incredible. I think that that role just fits him so perfectly that I don't know if it's, you know, he acted as way into a corner for Himself like talent-wise? Or if he I like it just seems to be his bit that he's slightly reserved and like has a secret all the time. And like, that was his big thing in Mad Men. And I, I just think that it carries over into every single role he takes. And it doesn't fit every role, but that's kind of who he is now. And so, I don't think it's necessary that he's Don Draper.

24:05 I think it's just that he He was that character for so long that he always holds something back from his roles. Do you know what I think it is? I think that he tries to find an edge to his characters that I don't know if he's truly capable of conveying and I think what he's going for is what Bradley Cooper actually does really well listening to podcast. The other day was talking about how like when Bradley Cooper did Silver Linings Playbook? The director of that movie basically. It was like I saw before anybody else that what Bradley Cooper's best treat is is his his ability to be driven by anger and in every character he's played since then he's a character that's driven by Angela even licorice pizza. He's it's funny but like he just blows up at people and you know that's what's so great about his performance in American Sniper. It's like a very calm chaotic build inside his head, but he's driven by anger and I think that with Jon Hamm he's trying to do the Bradley Cooper but he just Doesn't quite get there and I can makes me wonder now like how would Bradley Cooper be in this role?

25:11 So I don't know. Yeah, well I think that's all fascinating stuff but I want to drink some whiskey. So how about we get into this Bardstown bourbon company origin? Series? That sounds good to me. We'll come back. We'll talk about Jennifer Connelly and Tom Cruise, but let's drink some whiskey. Alright, today, we are trying bardstown's origin series. Now again, Brad alluded to this but this is the first release from Bardstown that is made solely of their own distillate. And we've got three incredible Expressions here. The first one we're going to try. It's the origin series. Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey.

25:52 It's 6 years old. It's a high ride bourbon Mash bill. There's 36 percent Rye in the mash Bill and they're releasing it at 90. Six proof, they have like a whole list of reasons. They want to release it at 96 proof, but we're going to take them at their word that they say that this just happened to be the one that tested best. And I'm excited to try it, man. Let's, let's give it a nose and a taste and give our our thoughts. On this 96, proofer? Oh man. Bob that is, that is really nice. It's really bright on the nose. There's a lot of like I orange blue. Just gonna say orange and like, hmm. Almost like a grapefruit kind of citrusy.

26:34 I like that a lot. All right, I'm interested to hear. We have to say about the flavor because I have thoughts. The only one of these three that I had tried prior to tonight was the second one that we're going to try, which is 100 proofer which I loved. This one is very Because 100 proof or is a weeded Mash bill. This is a high-rise. You're a reigai. What do you think of this one? I was going to say, it gets a little bit minty. Mmm, throughout. There's a little bit of that Rice spice coming through for me. It's a little bit creamy. I really like what they have going on here. Yeah, it's not a very sweet bourbon. Like it definitely goes more Oak heavy and it's not grainy, but like the spice is there, the black pepper is there.

27:19 It does have some of those kind of minty Rye notes to it. Brad. You're absolutely right. I think subsequent sips prepared me for that better but I'm going to go ahead and go on record and say, the 96 proof actually was the perfect proof to release this. This thing packs a punch at 96 proof. It gave me a heck of a Kentucky hug on the way down. I'm really impressed with this even if it's not necessarily my preferred flavor wheelhouse. Yeah, dude, I am a huge fan of this. It's got some really nice oakiness almost gets into some like Christmas spices on the on the Finish little bit of molasses, kind of a feel, almost like a gingerbread cookie. I really like this bourbon a lot, man. All right, we're going to move into what I think will be my favorite one on the day.

28:09 Like I said, the only one I've tried so far. This is there, 100 Proof bottled and bond. It is a weeded Mash Bill featuring, 20% wheat. It's a six year old bourbon. Coming in at 100 Proof. Brad, what are you picking up on the nose on this one? Man, this one gets a little bit sweeter. Mmm, it's got vanilla, it's got caramel it. Almost gets a little bit into, like, a fruity, like juicy Peach type of feel. I really like this knows. Bob it reminds me of like a pineapple upside down cake, but if you swap the pineapple ever peaches, it's like it's caramely. It's bready, but it's definitely got that layer of vanilla. There's some Maple going on here. It almost tips into like, like, Knob Creek territory for me. I have a Knob Creek Single Barrel. That I'm really liking right now and it's almost into that like, nuttiness but not quite there.

29:02 It's more of like a freshly baked bread or cake to go along with that. Wonderful note of peachy were picking up. I'm going to give it a sip, I'm assuming you're already stepping on it. So give us your notes Brad. Yeah. It stays in that kind of stone, fruit Peach. Feel it gets a little bit caramely, but literally, to the point of almost being like, like a A toffee. Like there's a chocolaty feel to this and smooth and velvety Bob Parts, on Bourbon company makes makes good whiskey. This is damn good. This is really good. I brought I just love weeded bourbon, it's just my favorite kind of whiskey. Like yep, everything I love about bourbon is here in this. It's really decadent really sweet waves of caramel, waves of vanilla.

29:49 I will say, right when I went to swallow, that same thing happened that happened on the first one. It gets this one. Almost gets a little bit tannic to me like it made my mouth pucker a little bit and it kind of dried out my tongue a little bit. It's not just okey but it's almost tannic and it turns slightly bitter. That's the only note that I can give on this. That I don't really care for but overall, I mean, this is like right in the Wheelhouse if you like Weller. You're going to love this if you like Rebel Yell. You're going to love this really, really good stuff here. Yeah. And then honestly, if I can move into the Rye Bob, this is some damn good. All right.

30:30 So this one is also clocking in at, 96 proof. I have not tried it yet. Brad, I'll allow you to sway me, as I give it a nosing. Nosh this has all sorts of like really fresh cherry going on. I think it gets into a little bit of spiciness right on the nose. It gets into some cinnamon, some clove. I love this nose. Yeah, it's definitely Raw. Why forward this smells like a almost like unbaked rye bread dough there's some dill on it for me it's almost in that like more sour rye as opposed to the mint irae. I really like it though. I'm excited to see if it has sweetness to it or if it stays in that like really grain forward kind of palette. Now, for me, as I get into the palette that it has all of the Rye punch up front and then it sits on your palate for a little bit and almost turns into like a really soft vanilla almost like a shortbread cookie for me.

31:29 Mmm. And the the finish on this has a little bit of spiciness but it finishes with all sorts of really nice, soft, sweet notes, it's vanilla. It's caramel. It's it almost turns nutty for me a tiny bit almost like a like an almond. I think this is an incredible R. I usually when I when I go nuts for a ride it's because it starts off a little bit sweet and then get spicy this one for me starts off spicy and moves into those sweeter areas and I'm a huge fan. I do think this is the thinnest mouthfeel of the three like it's a little bit thinner for me and I think it almost drinks like a almost like an 80 proof bourbon. Like there's a little bit of sweetness there. It's it's kind of hokey it reminds me of like some of the lower proof, Buffalo Trace offerings like a benchmark, but definitely more on the rise side of things. It's really Pleasant.

32:30 And I think inoffensive and in my again, it might just be, because I'm not as big of a ride Drinker as Brad is. But for me, if I had to rank these from one, two, three, I think I would go, 100 Proof bourbon, 96, proof Bourbon, and then this Rye, Yeah, I think I would go Rye just a little bit above the bottle and bonds and then the there, their regular bourbon. Oh, the second sip of that ride, Bro, I might be on board with you man. Oh yeah, I'm telling you man it's a damn good rock. Got really good all of a sudden. Oh yeah. Okay the rise. Number two actually the Rye might be number one. This is slowly creeping up here.

33:10 Bob I'm telling you man, you sit with it for long enough. There's just so much complexity there, man. Yeah. Wow. And I was comparing it to Benchmark. A minute ago. Shame on me. I wasn't going to say anything. Wow. All right. So I guess We're saying here is that all three of these are really good and all three of these could be our favorite on any day of the week. And that's kind of par for the course with Bardstown bourbon company. We really love what they're doing. We always have, I'm super pumped that they're finally releasing, their own distillate, not blended with anything else, and they can hang their hat on these three Expressions. I think, if you can find any of these on the Shelf, they're definitely all worth picking up. I would give a wholehearted recommendation to the bottled and bond and to, the Rye. Yeah, 100%.

33:53 This Rye is Edible and the bottle and bond and their their regular bourbon are both nothing to sneeze at sneeze at either. So, get yourself some origin series Bardstown. Berman company guys. Well, Brad, are you ready to return to the danger zone? Dude, I was born ready. All right. That was the origin series from Bardstown bourbon company. We are freaking pumped about that. We are also pumped about Cruz. Miss Mary greedy, for two facts in a falsehood Bob. Oh, did you, did you prepare to fax in a falsehood For Crews? Miss fax number one. My goddamn Cruz is awesome.

34:35 Fact, number two, Tom Cruise. Maybe one of the greatest movie actors of all time. Fax number three, Tom Cruise blows the big one. Because Leslie 3, that is the falsehood good job. I did it. Let's talk about the last two big names in this movie. Jennifer Connelly as Penny and Tom Cruise as Maverick. Jennifer. Connelly does a very commendable job here because her character is ridiculous. She is a single mom talking about Bob's, a single mom who owns the nicest bar in that area of the country. And she apparently works it by herself on a Friday night serving. Guests at a time.

35:19 She's a supermodel. She rocks the hell out of a pair of jeans. I mean, just an absolute smoke show, if we're being honest Brad. Like, yeah, she's great. She's also not a real human being and I think Jennifer Connelly does the absolute utmost she can with one of the most ridiculous characters I've ever seen. I love Jennifer Connelly, man. Dude, ever since A Beautiful Mind. Like exactly. That was well maybe maybe dating myself here. She's obviously has been famous for much longer than a Double mind. But like I remember seeing a beautiful mind in theaters, when I was like, I just turned 11 and I was like, who is that lady? Because she is a real pretty. And that's what that's what, that's what hooked me. And then I watched her performance, she wins an Oscar for it.

36:03 Like, she's so good in that movie. And I'm so happy to see that. She is like, back on top of people's minds again because she's great. Yeah, I really love Jennifer Connelly in this. I think that she plays she's a perfect counterpart. Or Tom Cruise at this stage of his career in that she is so self-confident. She knows what she wants to do as an actress that with everybody else in this film being really young and, you know, not just in the in the shadow of Maverick but also in the shadow of Tom Cruise, I think he really needed somebody like Jennifer Connelly to play the, I mean, I don't know about second lead, third lead, whatever you want to call it, but she plays opposite of Tommy An incredibly well and holds her own.

36:50 Yeah, I mean I was listening to a review of this and they were talking about how Tom Cruise hasn't really had a believable love interest in a movie for like 20 years. And a lot of that is just that Tom Cruise's characters have become very sexless characters. Like he's just the guy who jumps off buildings instead of the guy who's a woman and I mean it's kind of true. This is the first time that you really get to see Intimacy in a Tom Cruise movie in a long long time and it's not like sex. It's just Just like it really that sex scene in this movie is Tom Cruise is shirtless and you see him lay her down in a bed and then you just see them like giggling for a while and then they're talking about deep stuff. And once again, I think that it's a credit to the movie that its Chief concern is showing the maturity of Maverick showing how Maverick grows up.

37:41 Even though he's in his 50s, right, that this is like this is the kind of relationship that two mature adults should have and I really, really loved that. I think it was a great touch, like I don't know if it's just something weird within Scientology, that Tom Cruise doesn't do sex scenes or whatever. But like, in this instance, the the very chaste nature of their relationship. I think actually thematically helped. What? They were trying to do in the movie. Bob, are you really going to bring up Scientology on cruise missile? Do scientologists celebrate Christmas. I hope they do. I thought you were gonna ask him. They have sex that juice, who knows? Knows who's to say.

38:25 All right man. Let's talk about Tom Cruise. Like, I don't know what else to do here. The reason we save him for last because, obviously, it's his movie. But Brad, I think the most obvious, like, I almost don't even want to bring it up. The obvious thing about this movie is that it is a Meta commentary on Tom Cruise himself, right? Like there is that scene with Ed Harris where he's like, you know, what does he say? As he walks out, he's like, you're about to be obsolete. We don't need your kind anymore. And Tom Cruise turns around and says, maybe so sir, but not today, and I would not today. Only, yeah, Cruise Miss baby like Christmas and it's a very obvious I don't want to call it a metaphor. It's it is an allusion to the fact that Tom Cruise is part of a Dying Breed which is movie stars. We don't have movie stars anymore. Who else who else out there?

39:19 Can open a movie like this and make it have the legs to make a billion and a half dollars at the box office? Leo DiCaprio is probably the youngest real Mega wattage movie star that we have anymore and he's like almost 50. Really? There's nobody younger than him. I mean, Like can you think of a person that can open a movie on the scale of a Leo? Like just based on, I want to go see the new blank movie with their name. Cert like there's just like stardom is measured differently than it used to be. Yeah I used to just go see the new Denzel or the new Tom Hanks and now it's like that movie looks cool because it's Spider-Man and also Tom Holland is in it and I like Tom Holland because he is Spider-Man.

40:06 Yeah yeah and then you have people like Downey jr. Doing something like Doolittle right? That's yeah, so I guess what I'm saying is like, Tom Cruise knows that he is our one of our Last of a Dying Breed. And this movie is very much. The story of how Tom Cruise saves Cinema. In addition, to being the story of how Maverick Saves the Day. Yeah, I think he's also not just talking about like superstardom I think he's also pointing out the use of man. Annual mechanical filmmaking techniques, rather than CGI and how that is a Dying Breed among filmmakers that there's just not as much use of practical effects that there's this massive Reliance on, you know, computer-generated images and for him, that's not what a movie is. And so I for me when I heard Ed Harris deliver that line, I took it to be more about the craft and the Art of filmmaking. Being more so than just, you know, I'm Tom Cruise, I am a superstar, although I know it's about that as well. All right, I want to close out today. Before we get final scores, I don't think we need to make it a double today.

41:21 It's pretty obvious, double watch Top Gun and then watch top gun. Maverick does Tom Cruise deserve an Oscar for this movie. And I say that because I think the real question is like, does he deserve to be nominated? Because everything I'm seeing right now is like he was a shoo-in to be nominated. And now at the end of the year, he's like, teetering on the edge of whether he'll be nominated. I think it's 100%. Yes, he should be nominated. Added but I want to go back to that argument. We've had for so long about if we really want to respect the ego stroking that is method acting. What is more method than flying? A fucking plane. Like this man is diving off of cliffs and parachuting, down mountains and flying planes for your enjoyment and also he's a really good actor. Like what more do you need?

42:15 Need and again in a year like this where we're still bouncing back from covid and the movies are still not really all the way back to what they used to be. If we didn't have top gun Maverick this year, this year would have been an absolute financial disaster for the movie industry. Like, my man literally saved Christmas for for the movie industry. Yeah, I just thought, how do you not honor that? I don't know, man, for me. I feel like this should be his Revenant. Like, I don't know how Tom Cruise doesn't have an Oscar like some of his early films. I think are some of his best acting. Some of the middle years of his career, I think he was really honing in on what it meant to be an action star. And at this point, I think he really kind of coalesces. Both of those things in one movie in Top Gun Maverick. And so, beyond the fact that this movie saved Cinema for a year at least and the amount of work and dedication, he put into it.

43:19 I think, I think he just deserves it based on the body of work of his career. Here. Yeah. And I mean, like, we always seem to get pissed off when we talk about past Oscars and, you know, like the year that the Godfather to came out. They gave the Academy Award to a guy named Art Carney, who was a well, respected older actor and comedian, and it was basically like this is your Lifetime Achievement Award Art Carney. But then, if you go through and look at the list of best actor, nominees that year, it's like Pacino and Godfather Part 2 and Nicholson in Chinatown. Like it's just, it was a Regis in retrospect. And I guess what? I don't care in this instance, like, give Tom Cruise a freaking Oscar. I like, I think Colin Farrell maybe gave the best performance all year and I would love to see him win but not really at the expense of Tom Cruise at this point, like my guy is going to end up killing himself, doing some dumb stunt to try to win an Oscar.

44:13 Like please, please just get an Oscar do get a posthumus what. All right, man, move man. What kind of score you give in Top Gun Maverick? I will give it a nine and a half out of ten. I'm giving it a night and a half as well. This is its dude, it is as good as advertised and then say yes yes 100% I really want to give it a 10. It's not a perfect movie but man. Oh man, is it good? I'm gonna be real though, I have not been able. So like we have a copy of it that you and I share that we can watch on our TVs. And I'm like, I tried to turn on the first 10 minutes of it, and I'm like, this is not working for me on TV, like I need to go back to the During see it.

44:54 And that's why as part of the reason I went and saw it again while it's still out. I wonder how much this is going to suffer from the in-home experience as opposed to the theater experience. But like at the same time, I've seen it three times in the theater and I still think it's a nine and a half. So like, what does that tell you? Yeah, yeah. This is an incredible movie guys. Go watch it. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas. I can't wait to do this again next year. Yeah, dude, I will have to think about what movie we're going to put up there because this is a heck of a start. Art to our annual tradition of celebrating Tom, Cruise miss. All right, we do want to say to all of you and filmin. Whiskey Nation. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Happy New Year. We'll see you again on Monday.

45:36 We won't be gone long but until then I'm Bob book, I'm Reggie and we'll see you next time.