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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Bottle Shock (2008)

Bottle Shock (2008)

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Released 30-Sep-2009

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Drama Main Menu Audio
Deleted Scenes
Featurette-Chateau Melamont Winery
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2008
Running Time 107:23
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (55:13) Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Randall Miller
Studio
Distributor
Freestyle Releasing
Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Chris Pine
Alan Rickman
Bill Pullman
Rachael Taylor
Freddy Rodríguez
Dennis Farina
Eliza Dushku
Case Amaray Variant
RPI ? Music Mark Adler


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.40:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement Yes
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The Judgement of Paris was a blind competitive tasting, held just outside of Paris in 1976, in which some of the most highly regarded French wine experts controversially ranked a series of Californian wines significantly ahead of comparable French drops. The Judgement sparked a fundamental shift in the popular thinking about wine. Seemingly overnight, there was no longer unquestioned blanket acceptance among the general public that French wines were the best and the market became much more willing to embrace wines from all over the world, particularly California.

    Bottle Shock is an ensemble dramedy that loosely tells the story of the Californian wine industry in the lead up to the Judgement of Paris by presenting a heavily fictionalised tale of the then-struggling family owned Chateau Montelena winery and the efforts of Stephen Spurrier (Alan Rickman at his snootiest) to attract Californian competitors for the Judgement of Paris.

    The key players in this ensemble are:

    Both the script and direction of Bottle Shock are clumsy at best, and downright disjointed and illogical at worst. I'd like to put the faults in the story down to a desire to keep true to history, although this is purportedly far from the case as some of the key figures depicted in the film have gone to lengths to point out how little of the story has any basis on fact.

    Further hampering enjoyment of the film is Bill Pullman's leading character, Jim Barrett. The story is constructed in such a way that the emotion of the story all hinges on his successes, but the man is so self-centred and pretentious that he is absolutely impossible to like. I would have much rather see the character die penniless in a ditch than have a mere moment of success.

    Excellent performances from the cast, most notably Chris Pine, make up for these faults to a large degree and the solid ensemble carry the film to the best of their abilities. Ultimately, the film is enjoyable enough to pass an evening but could have been so much more under skilled hands.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which appears to be an open matte of the theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture looks to have been fairly crudely telesynced from a print in good condition. The image is fairly soft and features noticeable edge enhancement throughout. The colour palette is unevenly washed out and many of the colours look a little brighter than they should be should be, with blacks looking like dark greys and whiter areas lacking contrast.

    There are no obvious compression issues in the video. One or two tiny flecks of dust are noticeable, but there are no substantial film artefacts in the video.

    The film features English subtitles for the hearing impaired. Based on the portion I sampled, they appear to be reasonably well timed and accurate.

    This is a RSDL disc, though the layer change is not noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) and 2.0 (224 Kbps) tracks as well as an English Descriptive Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital (224 Kbps) track.

    The mix is a little flat and muddy, and consequently the dialogue occasionally requires particular attention to follow, but it is well synchronised to the video.

    The film features a reasonably effective, but wholly forgetable, orchestral score from composer Mark Adler.

    The surrounds are put to modest use, mainly by subtle environmental effects, although the mix is fairly front-heavy. The subwoofer lies dormant for the bulk of the film, underutilised even by the standard you would generally expect from this kind of dramedy.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    Eventually, the disc opens to a static menu featuring background audio, but only after an annoying anti-piracy clip (which can be skipped) and 7:26 minutes of trailers. Very frustrating.

Deleted scenes (3:51)

    A handful of deleted scenes, most of which look like they'd have been cut for timing reasons more than anything else, each with a bit of text putting them in context with where in the film they belong. Presented in a a squashed-looking aspect close to 2.40:1.

Chateau Montelena Featurette (10:41)

    A mildly interesting infomercial for the Chateau Montelena winery in California, around whose exploits the film centers, as of the present day. The featurette tells some interesting history, but comes across as a sales pitch more than anything else.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The US Region 1 edition of the film is presented in the correct aspect ratio and features an additional making of featurette. A clear winner for Region 1.

Summary

    A pretentious, clumsily made ensemble dramedy about the coming of age of the Californian wine industry, saved to an extent by some quality performances.

    The film has been given a mediocre video transfer and a slightly muddy audio transfer. The disc has only a couple of forgetable extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Adam Gould (Totally Biolicious!)
Friday, July 31, 2009
Review Equipment
DVDSony Playstation 3, using HDMI output
Display Samsung 116cm LA46M81BD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderPioneer VSX2016AVS. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX2016AVS
Speakers150W DTX front speakers, 100W centre and 4 surround/rear speakers, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub

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