Cocktail (1988)
Average Rating: 3.7/10
Reviews Counted: 40
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 38
There are no surprises in Cocktail, a shallow, dramatically inert romance that squanders Tom Cruise's talents in what amounts to a naive barkeep's banal fantasy.
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 12
There are no surprises in Cocktail, a shallow, dramatically inert romance that squanders Tom Cruise's talents in what amounts to a naive barkeep's banal fantasy.
liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 105,856
Movie Info
Tom Cruise juggles Martini shakers and ice cubes as the materialistic Brian Flanagan, a bartender who drops out of school to search for the perfect "rich chick" who will bankroll him into luxury. Brian meets up with bar veteran Doug Couglin (Bryan Brown) and they put together a dance-duo bar-tending act, taking five minutes to a mix a drink as they dance and toss gin bottles behind the bar to cutting-edge rock music circa 1988. The patrons, instead of demanding the booze, are dazzled by their
Jul 29, 1988 Wide
Aug 13, 2002
Touchstone Pictures
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Tom Cruise
Brian Flanagan -
Bryan Brown
Doug Coughlin -
Elisabeth Shue
Jordan Mooney -
Lisa Banes
Bonnie -
Laurence Luckinbill
Mr. Mooney -
Kelly Lynch
Kerry Coughlin -
Gina Gershon
Coral -
Ron Dean
Uncle Pat -
Ellen Foley
Eleanor -
Gerry Bamman
Tourist -
E. Hampton Beagle
Job Interviewer -
Reathel Bean
Tourist -
Paul Benedict
Finance Teacher -
Larry Block
Bar Owner -
Peter Boyden
Tourist -
Kelly Connell
Yuppie Poet -
Rich Crater
Job Interviewer -
Robert Donley
Eddie -
James Eckhouse
Tourist -
Dianne Heatherington
First Waitress -
Justin Louis
Soldier -
Rosalyn Marshall
Job Interviewer -
Ken McGregor
Sculptor -
Andrea Morse
Dulcy -
Jack Newman
Economics Teacher -
Chris Owens
Soldier -
Jean Pflieger
Job Interviewer -
Liisa Repo-Martell
Young Couple in Deli -
George Sperdakos
English Teacher -
Allan Wasserman
Job Interviewer -
Parker Whitman
Job Interviewer -
Bill Bateman
Job Interviewer -
Jeff Silverman
Job Interviewer -
Lew Saunders
Job Interviewer -
Paul Abbott
Snotty Customer -
Harvey J. Alperin
Job Interviewer -
Gregg Baker
Bouncer -
David Chant
Chinese Porter -
Diane Douglass
Mrs. Rivkin -
Adam Furfaro
Young Couple in Deli -
Leroy Gibbons
Singer -
Robert Greenberg
Job Interviewer -
Luther Hansraj
Ambulance Attendant -
Dan MacDonald
Priest -
Ellen Maguire
Bar Patron -
James Mainprize
Butler -
Arlene Mazerolle
Waitress -
Kim Nelles
Female Artist -
Joseph Zaccone
Bar Patron -
-
-
John Graham
Soldier -
David Crowley
Doorman -
Richard B. Livingsto...
Job Interviewer
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All Critics (40) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (38) | DVD (4)
Cocktail is a bottle of rotgut in a Dom Perignon box.
Top CriticThe pairing of old-hand Brown and young-hand Cruise may have been meant to remind us of Cruise and Paul Newman; if so, think of this as The Color of Counterfeit Money.
It may not be a megaton bomb, but Cocktail is definitely of the Molotov type.
Very, very stupid.
Cruise is beguiling with his smile and his swagger, but the script doesn't take us anywhere fresh when it leaves the barroom.
This vacant, misshapen film is basically an extended beer commercial that presents the world as a ludicrous place populated by sex-and-cash-and-booze-crazed zomboids. Cruise, meanwhile, comes off as a somewhat taller Spuds MacKenzie.
Perhaps the best one can say for this bland concoction mixed by agents and the studio executives is that every bartender in Hollywood wants to be Tom Cruise and that suffices as an ironic subtext.
The philosopher Hannah Arendt once wrote a book about the banality of evil. After seeing Cocktail, I want to write one about the evil of banality.
If they gave you this in a bar, you'd send it back.
With no fewer than 17 of Donaldson's favorite rock songs and a complete lack of dramatic impetus, Cocktail would fare better as an extended-play music video.
If some other drug were treated this way in a movie, lots of outraged people -- including parents and politicians -- would be up in arms. But it's only alcohol, the reasoning seems to go, so it's all harmless fun.
Cruise oozes as much charm as in Top Gun and The Colour of Money, but the mix of bar-acrobatics and Caribbean love isn't anywhere near strong enough to get you drunk.
Cruise's name on the marquee is plenty to insure the success of the film, even if it is lopsided, shallow, and slips the audience a Mickey Finn at the outset.
It's the bartending antics and musical backdrops that make the film entertaining. Without them, "Cocktail" is just another beer gone flat.
A Razzie Award winner for Worst Picture (over Burt Reynolds' non-nominated Rent-a-Cop? Please.) and Worst Screenplay (more deserving).
Stupid vanity film for Cruise at his worst.
Audience Reviews for Cocktail
Super Reviewer
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- Brian Flanagan: It always ends bad, otherwise it wouldn't end.
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Foreign Titles
- Cocktail (1988) (DE)
- Cocktail (1988) (UK)
Well the plot in this ever so 80's flick is a cocktail of drama in itself!. Kicks off as a loose dumb story about a young guy who learns to be a bartender and throws bottles around awful looking swanky yuppie/suit type bars. From there we get cheating, backstabbing and escapism to Jamaica where a soppy love story breaks out.
More backstabbing follows as we proceed to more heartbreak and the involvement with older rich women, much more fun then. Yet more breakup, death of a friend and eventual makeup leading to the obvious happy ending.
A veritable rollercoaster of a plot which is totally uninteresting and rather cringeworthy. Watching Cruise pose and strut around with his wide toothy grin and hair that can't decide to be straight or curly is somewhat painful at times. The bar scenes are really quite crap looking back, I remember how people thought this stuff was sooooo cool (laugh out loud!).
The cast is also another odd cocktail of choice. Aussie Bryan Brown who never really made much of a splash in Hollywood is a bizarre choice. Whilst Shue was never very attractive in my book and hardly sells her character, so dreadfully vanilla and dull!! geez!!. Brown is just totally uncool and annoying whilst Shue is a wet fish. Add to that the constant flow of hyped over acting and mugging by Cruise...oh god it makes you wanna vomit in your Singapore Sling!.
A film for the ladies I think as the only things that interested me was a few female arse shots and the thought of what life would be like as a sex toyboy for a rich middle aged business woman (I would of stuck it out). In places this film is very awkward to watch, bordering on embarrassing. So completely and utterly dated (in a bad way) and serves no purpose other than a history lesson on 80's social gatherings and what people thought was cool employment at the time.
A time when Cruise's ego was sky high alongside his over acting, mind you what's new.