MartinHafer "There is hardly a word that is true in the script and many, many pure inventions as far as I am concerned"....Steven SpurrierSteven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) is one of the main characters in this film and the real life Spurrier thought the film was almost complete fiction. Likewise, the character Gustavo Brambila did not even work in Napa until AFTER the famed tasting in France. I also am pretty sure the one-bottle FAA limit scene never could have happened, as I carried LOTS of wine/beer in carry-ons before the recent changes due to worries about terrorism. And then there was the law office that just happened to have a spare sword lying about...so, at least from a historical standpoint, "Bottle Shock" is not a good film. And, as a retired history teacher, I was dismayed that so many instances of artistic license occurred with the movie. "Bottle Shock" was adored by many when it came out and I got around to watching it today. I was NOT as enamored with it and apart from the historical inaccuracies, I thought the characters were pretty much ALL annoying and poorly written (especially Pullman's). I can only assume that many of the folks who adored the film did so out of a sense of nostalgia for the time period and the wines. As for me, I've been on wine tours in many regions in the world (including Napa and Sonoma) but that just wasn't enough to make the film work for me. The only things that really worked were the music and cinematography. Otherwise, I just wasn't enthralled.

SnoopyStyle It's 1976 Calistoga, California. Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) is desperate to scrap up the money to perfect his chardonnay. His son Bo (Chris Pine) is a lot less patient. Sam Fulton (Rachael Taylor) surprises everybody as the new intern. Gustavo Brambila (Freddy Rodríguez) is the foreman trying to make his own wine, and Bo's best friend. In Paris, sommelier Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) has a failing wine shop. He is challenged by his next door neighbor American Maurice Cantavale (Dennis Farina) to go taste some Californian wine. He goes to find some Californian wines to challenge the french ones in a blind taste test. He has a roadside breakdown and Jim Barrett coincidentally rescues him. He is amazed at Jim's wine and the rest of the area wines.This is a nice charming true story. Alan Rickman has a friendly snotty attitude. He's snobby without being arrogant. I think that's the key. He's actually likable. As for the romantic triangle, I like the hot girl not picking the handsome leading man but then she changes her mind. It's balanced out by an angry Bill Pullman. He provides the little bit of drama in the movie.

tieman64 Randall Miller's "Bottle Shock" is a pretty good comedy about a 1976 competition in which European vineyards were pitted against Californian wine estates. Lightweight, amiable and based on a true story (whose facts it plays loose with), the film stars Bill Pullman as a troubled vintner, Chris Pine as his air-headed son, and Alan Rickman as his customarily morose self.A populist version of "Sideways", "Bottle Shock" pits American egos versus French snobbery. Bizarrely for such a quasi-nationalistic film, it sports a subplot in which a "Mexican" wine maker bashes white Americans for not valuing either land or the art of fermentation. Our heroes, two American underdogs, eventually prove him wrong; they produce wine so pure that it's white rather than red! And our "Mexican"? He's slowly and unceremoniously jettisoned from the film. And the French? They're schooled in the art of real wine-making. USA! USA! USA! "Bottle Shock" stars Eliza Dushku in a small but cute role as a local bar owner. Elsewhere Chris Pine is funny as a Californian beach bum, and the film is awash with grandiose helicopter shots, all of which glide across unending acres of sparkling, Californian plantations. The film was bashed by film critics, but never pretends to be anything other than a middle finger to connoisseurs.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Mondovino", "Corked" and "This Earth is Mine".

FilmRap We finally caught up with this movie that we had been wanting to see since we missed it at the local movie theaters. As new Californians the pride we have in California wines is nothing compared to the passion that Napa valley vintners had in their local wines which 35 years ago were hardly recognized world wide as compared to French wines.This movie, which is based a true story, centers on Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) a Brit living in Paris who had a wine store there and his pal and confidant (Dennis Farina). Spurrier decided that he would stimulate interest in buying wine by showing that in the 1976 bicentennial anniversary year, the upstart Americans still could not make wine, which could hold a candle to the established French products. He travels to America and meets Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) owner, but deeply in debt, of the Montelena Château and his son Bo (Chris Pine) as well as a group of other California vintners. He convinces 12 of them to give him two bottles each to enter into a French wine tasting event in which the wine would be blindly judged. The California group knew that "if one wins, they all would win." As they say, the rest is history. There are a few subplots which include Sam (Rachel Taylor) the beautiful graduate student wine intern, Bo, Barrett's son who gets boxed around by his father and Gustavo (Freddy Rodriquez), the Mexican-American farm hand who is owner of a small wine maker operation with his father (Miquel Sandoval). The movie also stars the beautiful green California grape yards, the spirited Napa Valley Wine growers and the very French wine guys in Paris. There is the expectable dramatic blind wine tasting contest in Paris which has subsequently come to be known as Judgment in Paris. There were no big surprises although you do come away from the movie feeling good and also having learned an important history lesson about a product many people love and revere. (2008) ***