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88Bottle 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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This intelligent, affectionate, beautifully acted movie gives crowd-pleasers a good name.
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75It's a winner. And not just for oenophiles. Director Randall Miller, who co-wrote the script with his wife Jody Savin, keeps the plot brimming with spirit and wit.
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75Beautifully shot by Michael J. Ozier, the dominating taste in Bottle Shock is Rickman's beautiful performance as a snob - a snob who is secretly open to being delightfully surprised.
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75A charming comedy-drama that's surprising true to the events that inspired it.
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75It's the kind of feel-good movie whose resolution is evident from the start, being based as it is on a true story. But that doesn't make the journey any less interesting.
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75Low budget, self-distributed, awkwardly charming, it's the kind of midrange Hollywood entertainment that's supposed to be extinct in this modern age. It makes you want to support your local vintner and your local moviemaker.
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70Just around the halfway point, something unexpected happens -- the movie actually gets good. You can chalk that up to the delightful Alan Rickman.
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70Wine 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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70Whatta movie: booze, unhappy French people, Alan Rickman and really cool pickup trucks.
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67Bottle Shock never quite connects. And considering the more recent transformation of Napa, the movie's triumphant ending rings a bit false.
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60I found myself in a tug-of-war between enjoying Bottle Shock as entertaining fluff, and thinking that there might be a more serious, gritty, complicated story lurking behind the grab-ass soap opera.
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60So why did I feel such affection for this scruffy, hokey little movie? Maybe it's the same logic that applies to wine-drinking itself: Sure, a great claret would be ideal, but an OK rosé is better than washing down your dinner with water.
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58Trouble is, it's too rambling and digressive to feel focused, yet too calculating to feel as observational and natural as a good Altman flick.
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50Wine may be sunlight held together by water, as Galileo said, but Bottle Shock is held together only by Alan Rickman.
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50Bottle Shock often feels out of place on the big screen, but it would probably play a lot better as a weekly half-hour TV show.
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50A great story - and a true one, more or less - Bottle Shock nonetheless fails to deliver much in the way of entertainment.
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For all of its intermittent, crowd-pleasing charm, oenophiles (and cinephiles, for that matter) might be better off putting their money toward a good bottle of Robert Mondavi.
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50Bottle Shock wastes that intriguing bit of history and some seductive Napa Valley settings on a bland script that's part period piece, part underdog fable.
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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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50Bottle 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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50Light-bodied comedy.
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40Unfortunately, Miller never finds the right balance, so while there are some sweet notes, the pileup of clichés ultimately leaves a slightly acrid aftertaste.
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The movie should have been more like Rickman: sparkling and light, with just a hint of acid. Instead, it's a huge gulp of vinegar.
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30Stuff the cork back in: This wine movie was sold before its time.
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This schlocky period piece doesn't do the pioneering Northern Californians justice. The script is overwritten to the point of parody.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 18
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Mixed: 4 out of 18
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Negative: 5 out of 18
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MarkC.10
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PaulL.2
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CarlitoD.6Starts slow and ends corny but everything in between is nice. Don't expect greatness and you'll not be disappointed.