BOTTLE SHOCK

Don't you love it when it when really interesting and memorable stories are made bland and predictable? Sadly, Bottle Shock (2008) accomplishes this in its telling of the story of the Judgment of Paris or the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. Now, I'm a food/wine/beer junky, so for those of you who don't know the story of the Judgment of Paris, it's a truly fascinating tale. Steven Spurrier, a British wine connoisseur, organized a wine tasting in Paris, France in 1976 in which he asked French wine snobs - I mean, critics - to blindly taste several French and American wines and declare both a best white and red wine. At this time, not only were French wines thought to be untouchable, but American wines were thought to be sub-table wine quality. Therefore you can imagine how earth-shattering it was to the wine world when a panel of French judges declared both an American white and red winners of the tasting. Eventually this would lead to the acceptance of American wines in Europe, as well as a domino effect of wineries opening in South Africa, Australia, and South America. Not only was wine not big in America 35 years ago, but you certainly couldn't go in to your local liquor store and purchase a bottle of Yellowtail. Ok, so now that I've got you hyped up for the amazing story of the film, prepare to be disappointed by what feels like a made for TV film. In typical fashion none of the actors are huge film stars, but you recognize them from something, like Bill Pullman (Independence Day), Chris Pine (Star Trek), Alan Rickman, Freddy Rodriguez, Eliza Dushku and Danny DeVito even has a small cameo. One of the best ways to sum up my feelings about the film is that it has cookie cutter characters and tells the story in cookie cutter format, yet several times the film weirdly veers away from its mold only to jump back into it without explanation. The best example in the film is when the main character's girl interest falls for his best friend instead of for him. Based on how predictable the film had been so far, I was wide-eyed and eager to see what was going to happen next since this turn of events was so unexpected. What happens? The girl falls for the main character 20 minutes later without any mention or conclusion of her affairs with her previous lover. Oh, and the main character and his friend still get along fine. There are several more instances like this throughout the film where plot lines aren't fully explained, and the viewer is left wondering if the filmmaker actually watched a finished cut of his film before declaring it complete. Besides these complaints, the film works its magic to dumb down this particularly interesting story to what should have been a made for TV movie instead of an actual theatrical release. I give this film a 5/10, for the fact that the film has a great quote by Galileo in it.

"Wine is sunlight held together by water."

5/10

BOTTLE SHOCK TRAILER