Variety
Wine lovers won't just sip but guzzle a lot of this down, and the same effect that sun-dappled days and sex in California had on "Sideways" operates here.
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Bottle Shock
The story of the early days of California wine making featuring the now infamous, blind Paris wine tasting of 1976 that has come to be known as the 'Judgment of Paris'.
For connoisseur Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman), there's no finer art than French wine, despite rumours that the new California Wine Country could soon rival it. Positive the small Napa wineries are no match for establish French vintages, Spurrier challenges the Americans to a blind tasting. But when he finds the valley full of ambitious and talented novice vintners like Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) and his son Bo (Chris Pine, Star Trek), he realises his publicity stunt may back-fire and change the wine industry forever.
2008Rating: M, contains low level offensive language110 minsUSAEnglish, French, German
ComedyDramaTrue Story & Biography
- Director:
- Randall Miller ('Nobel Son')
- Writer:
- Jody SavinRoss SchwartzLannette PabonRandall Miller
- Cast:
- Alan RickmanBill PullmanChris PineRachel Taylor
Bottle Shock / Reviews
Total Film
Tepid dregs of feel-good uplift come peppered with endless tracking shots of California scenery.
Full reviewThe New York Times
Bottle Shock is unable to figure out what kind of movie it wants to be, and flops around between madcap comedy and rousing drama. To borrow a wine-snob term of art, it lacks structure.
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Roger Ebert
Bottle Shock is more than the story. It is also about people who love their work, care about it with passion and talk about it with knowledge.
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Otago Daily Times
Writer-director Randall Miller has been gifted true tailor-made tension (it's based on a real events), but spoils it with miscued romantic schmaltz, cheesy '70s details and an odd comment on immigration.
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Newshub
The film is let down with some wayward plot lines, mostly involving characters that are never fully developed and as a result should never have existed.
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Los Angeles Times
The soul of the grape, that thing that elevates a wine to greatness, proves here as elusive on screen as in the bottle.
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Hollywood Reporter
This intelligent, affectionate, beautifully acted movie gives crowd-pleasers a good name.
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