It's always an eye opening experience when you enjoy a film that you know you should hate. Such is the self hatred roller coaster of Cocktail, a very basic and uninspiring premise, also poorly executed, but way too much fun with its camp and cast of characters to incite the usual villagers with torches effect. Yes, the
eighties were an especially grotesque time for cinema, including sex fueled debauchery, consumerism going hand in hand with Reagan economics, and some mind altering soundtracks and scores, all synth, all the time. Cocktail gravitates towards these pitfalls with great ease, but never quite makes it into awful, mostly because of the intriguing cast. The plot itself is nauseating, starting off as a great story of a bartender following his dream of wealth and power. Instead of climbing the ladder, or at least cultivating a "there's more to life than money" mentality, our protagonist becomes ever more unlikable, a lady's man so in your face it's an ugly portrayal. Somehow we bounce between New York City and Jamaica, but not in a timeline that makes any sense, including a romance with Elisabeth Shue's character. It's because Tom Cruise can pull off cocky in almost all roles, and Shue is the obliged girl next door, that this is a cult success. Even though the story, with all the rags to riches mentality, but none of the follow through, is based on Cruise's character, it just isn't juicy enough for the audience. There's so much materialistic buildup from our hero, that his subsequent behavior and that of the other characters is sickening, especially Shue's. Still, anything with Cruise in the eighties includes an eyeful of neon and that quirky grin, which is enough for any woman with an open mind.
July 29, 2010
Top Critic
