| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 18, 2011

As a rather strenuous attempt at a feel-good movie, Bottle Shock falls a long way short of the mark.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 10, 2009

It's not in the same league as Sideways but it has a fragrant sense of the beauty of wine and winemaking, not just the drinking.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 3, 2009

Rickman is priceless as the self-parodying wine snob, stealing every scene he is in by continually pulling the rug from under himself.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 27, 2009

In light of all its swooping and swishing helicopter shots of the sun-dappled Napa Valley, [it] might as well have been photographed from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

Full Review | Oct 22, 2008

| Original Score: C+ | Oct 18, 2008

Rickman adds a welcome astringency.

| Aug 22, 2008

Comedy and drama are nicely balanced in this mostly true tale.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 15, 2008

Stuff the cork back in: This wine movie was sold before its time.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 15, 2008

Its heart is so in the right place and its tableau so appealing that it's easy to come away from this sweet, scrappy film with a nice little buzz.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 14, 2008

The movie provides Pullman with a lead role, which is something you can raise a glass to. But as for the rest of it? Sorry, but I'll have a Diet Coke instead.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2008

Bottle Shock isn' bad in any particular way; the acting is fine, the scenery is lovely...But who cares, right -- right.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 11, 2008

The politics of making wine is a great subject for a movie, but this clunker doesn't do it justice; Bottle Shock is broad and coy where it needs to be smart.

| Original Score: D+ | Aug 11, 2008

Irritating in its failures and clumsy in its successes.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 8, 2008

A winning cast and a magnum's worth of subplots make Bottle Shock extremely watchable, perhaps a bit fruity, with grace notes of leather, oak and no ham.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 8, 2008

More enthusiastic than genuinely entertaining.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 8, 2008

The film follows the Rocky/Hoosiers template to the letter, not a single thing here either a surprise or shock. For some this will prove to be a winner despite that fact. For others, it will be nothing more than a shrug-inducing diversion.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 8, 2008

The film is based on fact, but its texture is such that even the true bits feel trumped-up, and the fictional components add only the phoniest sort of conflict.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 7, 2008

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 ros is better than washing down your dinner with water.

| Aug 7, 2008

Bottle Shock is something special: there's magic in it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 7, 2008