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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 692
Released: February 3, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.61 |
| Used Price: $4.75 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
ONE SMALL AMERICAN WINERY & ITS WORKERS ARE ABOUT TO SHOW THE EXALTED FRENCH THAT THE WORLD'S FINEST WINES WILL NOW COME FROM THE OTHER RED, WHITE & BLUE. BASED ON AN INSPIRING TRUE STORY.
Description of Bottle Shock:
"Bottle shock" describes what can happen to wine as it travels from place to place. Set in 1976, Randall Miller's widescreen docudrama concerns the real-life showdown between California's wineries and their French counterparts. Napa Valley's Jim Barrett (Lost Highway's Bill Pullman) has been plugging away for years with minimal success. A former attorney, Barrett runs Chateau Montelena with his wayward son, Bo (Chris Pine, the Star Trek prequel's Captain Kirk), who would rather do anything than assist his stern father. Bo's co-workers include Gustavo (Six Feet Under's Freddy Rodríguez) and Sam (Transformers' Rachael Taylor), who long to produce the perfect chardonnay. Naturally, the young men compete for the favors of the beautiful blonde (the movie's least interesting angle). Across the Atlantic, Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) struggles to keep his Parisian wine shop going (cheapskate American Dennis Farina is his only regular customer). Then Spurrier conceives a contest to attract customers; surely, his beloved French growers will put those upstart Yanks in their place. He flies to Napa to look around, and persuades the Barretts to compete. Miller and his wife, screenwriter Jody Savin, previously worked with Pullman and Rickman on Nobel Son, but decided to release Bottle Shock first. Though comparisons to Sideways will be inevitable, the filmmakers take more of a historical look at California wine country. The "Judgment of Paris" changed the face of the business forever, and they've found a lively way to recount the tale. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Beyond Bottle Shock
Sideways | 
Juno
| 
Little Miss Sunshine |
Stills from Bottle Shock (Click for larger image) Bottle Shock Reviews:
Didn't quite hate it.. 
2009-12-26 - What a disappointment. Alan Rickman is a fine actor but his cliche' of a snobby British man living in Paris who has trouble selling his wines might have worked. Unfortunately, we then get to know the rest of the cast including a terrible 70's parody of Chris Pine in a weave, yes, a weave (I guess being the big up and coming bad boy had him in demand too much for him to take a few months to actually grow his hair out) pretending very broadly at being the prodigal son to a rather stoic Bill Pullman. The British wine expert goes to Napa Valley California to see if his moocher pal, played by Dennis Farina, is right about the growing quality of California wines.
There's more to this trip, not the least of which is that this is very loosely based on an actual event where the wines gathered in Napa are brought to France to compete in a blind taste test against French wine and some of the Napa brands are selected as superior.
Great premise, right? After all we have the Doobie Bros. providing the soundtrack, the incredible Napa Valley setting, the great and always (and still again) wasted Freddy Rodriguez actually looks like he's getting the girl as well as proving what a great vintner his character's become.....
....and still, this hatchet job, waste of a film manages to curdle my cheese so many times it had to become laughable in order for me to finish it. And not humorously so, just so bad and predictable that I spent over half the film broadcasting what was going to happen next (the accuracy not so hard to manage with laughs all around).
Freddy manages to get this film the one star it deserves and the setting nudges it up another star but I'm being much too nice to this movie because the negatives really wipe those stars out. Then, I remember the premise, and the idea of what film could have been and I slap those two stars back up. I'm a sap, but in this case it's very hard to pretend that I don't want to lambast this entire effort.
Horrible distortion of a good story poorly witten and horribly acted 
2009-12-13 - This is highly fictionalized account of a fascinating story. Very little about the story other than the outcome of the tasting is even close to the truth. Do yourself a favor curl up in a good reading chair with George Taber's non-fiction account Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine. A much richer and more interesting account of how a group of bohemian 50's and 60's intellectuals lit the match on outstanding wines from around the globe.
See the movie if you want a light bit of fluff that's pure fiction. The plot lines don't make sense, the acting is second rate and the sex is fleeting and gratuitous.
Bottle Shock 
2009-12-06 - Terrific movie ... visited Napa and Somoma so I really appreciated the story. I loved Alan Rickman in Love Actually and as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies ... his role in this movie is really cool.
great movie and great transaction.... 
2009-11-28 - This was a great transaction. I recieved a great movie for a great price! thank you for making this so easy...
todd
Great!!
2009-11-24 - An uplifting film. The local people of Napa/Calistoga, will encourage you to watch, before visiting the 'Chateau Montelena' winery.
