jlhurtado Reviews

Bottle Shock (2008)

An Inspiring, Delicious, Heart Warming Movie of Wine and Dreams

[9/10 · 10 August 2008]

In 1976 the world of wine had mainly just one country on the map: France.

Quietly Californians had been making pretty good wine that no one, especially the French noticed. Until a British gentleman and oenophile, Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) made a competition that changed the world of wine forever.

Entertaining, inspiring, shot on location in the Napa Valley and France, this is a delightful movie, with solid acting, beautiful cinematography and all around sparkling goodness.

Although the script has one flaw, it is for the most part very solid and the acting and directing are top notch. Bill Pullman (wine maker), Alan Rickman, and Dennis Farina (delightful American in Paris) deliver solid performances. Relatively new actors Chris Pine (son of wine maker), Rachael Taylor (love interest) and especially Freddy Rodriguez (Mexican wine maker) round up this outstanding cast.

Randall Miller, the director. has to be commended not only for creating an endearing and lovingly original movie, but doing so in a small budget, and even more taking his creation himself to several cities, after no distributor stepped out, even though the movie had rave reviews in Sundance 2008.

The movie has opened in several theaters in North America, Toronto has been fortunate enough to get it, and I hope a major studio changes it's mind and takes this one world wide, but not to worry the director is finding eager movie theaters anyway.

Enjoyable from beginning to end, a true story that deserved a movie, got one! Go watch it.

Joseph Hurtado from Toronto

There Will Be Blood (2007)

A negative, sad, and truly dark Epic

[3/10 · 3 February 2008]

If you want to sit and look an OK documentary about the oil industry, and the greedy men who were behind it, then perhaps this is a good movie for you.

However, the movie is long, boring on occasion, and even worse, the whole story is very sad, the ending borderline depressive, and there is nothing to get out of this movie, except see a documentary you could probably rent elsewhere.

So why all the raving reviews you ask. Clearly written by people who like dramas, epics, and truly pathetic endings.

The few positive points of this movie: it's an epic, but boring. The documentary part is well done, but incomplete, you only get part of the story behind the early oil business, and yes the acting is very good.

However at over 2 hours 40 minutes, which feel like 3 in a theatre, it's a miracle you can stand it.

Do yourself a favor, and at the most rent this one, or rent my Left Foot if you admire the genius of Daniel Day-Lewis, otherwise save your money.