Cocktail

Brian (Tom Cruise (The Firm, Eyes Wide Shut)) just got out of the military and heads back to his hometown of NYC.  Since no one will hire him in any sort of business/financial position he takes a job as a bartender.  Coughlin (Bryan Brown (F/X, Gorillas in the Mist)) is the wise old tapster that takes Brian under his wing.  His spouts his own code, called Coughlin’s Law, and always knows just the right thing to say, whether you want to hear it or not.  The two shoot to stardom and become the hottest mixologists in town because of the boisterous and flashy way they make drinks.  But eventually Brian and Coughlin have a fight and split up.  Brian moves to Jamaica where he continues bartending and meets Jordan (Elisabeth Shue (Adventures in Babysitting, Hollow Man)).  They sorta have a thing but then split up, then Brian gets in with this filthy rich chick, but then they fall out, and then Brian tries to get back together with Jordan, and he runs into Coughlin who got married to some other filthy rich chick and blah blah blah.

There’s so much story and things change so rapidly that it’s actually pretty entertaining.  I mean you got Tom in full Cruise Control where he’s bouncing off the fucking walls half the time and the other half he’s intensely melancholy and/or pissed.  The Coughlin character is good because he’s such an asshole but it curiously takes a while for that to be totally apparent.  You see even though he’s the clever sage he’s really pretty pathetic and it was interesting to discover this by the end of the film.

This one tends to make a lot of “Worst Movies of All Time” lists but I don’t quite get it.  Ok, Cocktail isn’t a good picture really.  The constant rising and falling that Brian endures both emotionally and monetarily is kinda comical (but I don’t think it was meant to be), and the idea of chronicling the life and times of a world famous barkeep is just downright silly (although it’s definitely something I can get behind, like the similar world famous bouncer concept used in Roadhouse).  Also one of the messages of the picture is that you can act like an asshole, hurt everyone that loves you and everything will turn out alright.  That’s kinda fucked up.

But I have to say that the fast paced plot, the bouncy attitude and glimpse into the world of high stakes NYC bartending made for a fun watch.  The same director that would eventually bring you Species and Dante’s Peak (Roger Donaldson) serves up a glass full of ale that kinda tastes bad but you just can’t stop drinking it.  Cheers.