The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I was only mildly interested in watching this documentary and turned it on expecting very little. After all, I rarely ever drink French wines and just don't have much interest in them. However, I soon realized that in many ways the film isn't really about wines at all- -it's all a metaphor for the sudden and very dramatic rise in the Chinese economy and their subsequent buying power. It also, in many ways, is much like the entrance of Americans into the world economy in the 20th century--when some folks were more interested in spending their money on some hot commodity instead of what is quality. In the film, the Chinese elite seem too interested in specific famous labels as opposed to actually DRINKING the wines-- and as a result of folks stockpiling the wines and paying top dollar, the wine prices on the 'best' wines are astronomical and no one can afford to drink them! All in all, a fascinating film that really gets you to think.

Solid documentary showing both the highs, and the lows of the impact a China can have on any industry, as the moods of their people shift from one object of status to another. Very fair to both sides, and this movie kept the dialog clear, and open. There are some amazing interviews that really show how much China has opened up to so many new things. We are shown very nicely how the people have come from such oppression to this relative freedom, and new levels of power, that are similar to what other countries have been through during most of the last half of the 20th century, though on a much grander scale. Slow at times, I did Enjoy the over all tale, and the lessons being taught are not heavy handed or really all that surprising. I recommend this to wine people, and world travelers alike, but there is much to be enjoyed by the average person as you get to see some sights from all over the world set in beautiful time lapsed film work. All I say is just wait till India joins the games.

You might think the movie is about wine but it's not. It's about the transformation of China and it uses the dusty old traditional wineries of France to highlight just what is going on. The Chinese became obsessed with fine vintage wines, in particular the Rothchild Lafite Bordeaux wines. You don't have to be a wine lover to enjoy the movie. The one quote I will always remember, that the Chinese have endured the cultural revolution which is like going to hell and coming back alive. They have endured living like peasants for decades and now that they are not, they want to live it up like a sir. The picture of China that is presented in the film is one that is super modern, trendy, and really fast paced. Money is everywhere. But this is a double edged sword, as you will find out in the movie. They could have swapped Lafite for BMW's or iPhones, but the Lafite is an excellent symbol of fine old stuffy European tradition coming head on to the Chinese economic juggernaut. This movies picks a single story to convey the seismic shift in economic pull that has happened in the last decade.

This is a documentary for wine lovers. Beer drinkers need not apply.The film is tastefully done, great photography, beautiful soundtrack. Needs to be watched with a glass of red wine in hand, as it really whets your appetite.Should it go deeper into the subject? Should it explain that the great French Wine Blight did NOT make the 1855 classification obsolete, because the vines were grafted to Chilean roots (resistant to the phylloxera) imported hastily in thousands, to save them (not only in France, but in other parts of Europe too)?Maybe. That would have made for a slightly longer film, perhaps more thrilling (Will the vines be completely lost? Who could save them? Wait! Up in the sky: it's a bird... it's a plane... No, it's super-vine! Actually, it was "la super viña", from Chile).But it would have been a different film, missing the elegant balance of this one.Perhaps this film's success will spur a sequel: "Red Obsession 2 - Attack of the insects from Hell". It will need a different soundtrack (by Hans Zimmer?) and a different narrator; Russell Crowe is too mellow for that!