User Reviews

Sometimes, when you make a message so heavy-handed and obvious to kids, they have a tendency to do the opposite--just to be oppositional or because the film accidentally makes the bad behavior look pretty cool. I remember an anti-drug ad I loved when I was 4 or 5 years-old. My friends and I thought it was so neat, we acted out the scene where the drug dealer approached kids with drugs--and we got in a LOT of trouble because of this when adults saw us doing this. But we were just being kids and the ad actually encouraged us. This is a lot of what I saw when I watched "There's a Message in Every Bottle". The film is narrated by square adults and the more it preaches, the more many teens probably couldn't wait to try the evils of drinking! Believe me--the more you tell many kids not to do something, the more they want to do it!

The film tries hard to be hip--and it stars VERY ordinary-looking teens who are dressed up in bathing suits, cut-offs and the like as they have lots of fun in the sun...as well as roasting weenies. All the while, the square guy narrates--giving WAY too much technical information and none of it seems to have anything to do with the teens in the film. Then, fortunately, the narration stops and the story begins. After finishing their beach fun and weenies, the group decide to use fake IDs to go drinking--with disastrous results!! Although, while they are drinking, they do seem to be having a heck of a good time! Talk about a mixed message! And, what did the Gemini rocket program have to do with any of this?! Yet, inexplicably, it was inserted into the film--as were fantasy sequences of one becoming a movie star and another becoming a big-game hunter! And, it only gets weirder after this!

Overall, a completely goofy film that couldn't have possibly turned any teens away from the real dangers of drinking. Even with some VERY explicit photos of corpses that you assume died from drunk driving, the film is so bad that it's actually unintentionally funny and worth seeing for its camp value.

By the way, did you notice at the end that the narrator talks about how having a record for underage drinking could prevent you from being able to enlist in the military?! Since this was made at the height of the Vietnam War, that's yet another reason it might have encouraged viewers to drink heavily and TRY to get arrested!!