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      Cocktail

      1988, Romance/Comedy, 1h 44m

      45 Reviews 100,000+ Ratings

      What to know

      Critics Consensus

      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. Read critic reviews

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      Cocktail  Photos

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      Movie Info

      Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise) wants a high-paying marketing job, but needs a business degree first. Working as a bartender to pay for college, Flanagan is mentored by his veteran boss, Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown). Together, their showy tricks and charisma command large crowds and tip payments -- until Flanagan and the cynical Coughlin have a falling out. Flanagan moves to Jamaica to raise enough money to open his own bar, where he falls in love with artist Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue).

      • Rating: R

      • Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama

      • Original Language: English

      • Director: Roger Donaldson

      • Producer: Robert W. Cort, Ted Field

      • Writer: Heywood Gould

      • Release Date (Theaters):  original

      • Release Date (Streaming):

      • Box Office (Gross USA): $77.3M

      • Runtime:

      • Distributor: Touchstone Pictures

      • Production Co: Touchstone Pictures, Interscope Communications

      • Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

      Cast & Crew

      Tom Cruise
      Bryan Brown
      Elisabeth Shue
      Kelly Lynch
      Ron Dean
      Ted Field
      John Mellencamp
      J. Peter Robinson
      Dean Semler
      Neil Travis
      Mel Bourne
      Dan Davis
      Hilton Rosemarin
      Ellen Mirojnick
      Heywood Gould

      News & Interviews for Cocktail

      Critic Reviews for Cocktail

      Audience Reviews for Cocktail

      • Sep 25, 2016

        A classic that helped launch Tom Cruise's career. I have never seen this before but I really enjoyed it and I can see why many others also enjoyed it.

        Super Reviewer
      • Dec 20, 2015

        So hilariously bad I can't even explain it. There aren't words to describe how awful this is, but I think it's at least deliberately awful...there's no way anyone could've thought this wasn't going to be terrible while they were making it.

        Stephen S Super Reviewer
      • Oct 12, 2013

        This is actually one of my favourite Tom Cruise films.

        Super Reviewer
      • Sep 21, 2012

        What has Mr Cruise done to blokes over the years huh. He made us all wanna join the military so we could play with fighter jets and have a cool nickname, play/hustle nine-ball for a living, be a NASCAR driver...but at one point he also made all men wanna become bartenders. The image...behind a slick neon lit bar, fast money and easy sex, who would say no?. 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.

        Super Reviewer

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