A classic Cruise film, where Cruise is still an actor more than the archetypal movie star. Cruise plays Brian Flanagan, a greedy youngster just back from the Army, eager to make big money fast in Manhattan. He cannot get a job in advertising or finance for lack of education and he ends up working in a fancy bar. I do not understand why savvy bartender Doug (Brown) would give the job to a guy who does not know how to make a cocktail, but this is one of those stupid plot devices one should not focus on.
Doug and Brian make a dynamic bar-tending duo, very popular with customers, but their professional idyll is shattered by a femme fatale, for no other reason than to move the plot forward.
Three years later we find Brian bar-tending in Jamaica, saving money to open his own bar, when Doug reappears with his rich bride. How and why Doug found Brian is another question better left unanswered. Brian is busy romancing Jordan, a "poor" artist who happens to be able to afford an exclusive cottage and extended Caribbean holidays (again, better left unanswered).
Doug challenges Brian to seduce a rich woman to follow in his footsteps of kept man and cocky Brian obliges. Unfortunately Jordan sees him and is heartbroken. We're supposed to believe that a week of happy frolicking on the beach adds up to a great love story - or maybe they frolicked way longer, but again, how long was Jordan's holiday?
The third act takes place in New York, where Jordan ran back and Brian followed with rich lover Bonnie. There the movie looses steam, heading to an extremely predictable ending.
One good point of the plot is to show that people can enjoy a good life working a job they love. One bad point is that the cybernetic revolution taking place at the time is completing ignored as a source of wealth. The Brians of the time still followed the credo of "greed is good" of the finance world, while the real revolution took place elsewhere
A great soundtrack adds a lot to the plot, which is pretty flawed and filled with holes. Nowadays, it is fashionable to revile the 80s as the decade of greed, shoulders pads and awful haircuts. However, those who lived through it, probably had fun and Cocktail is a classic summer movie, to be enjoyed without reflecting too much - even if only one third actually takes place in summery locations.
Doug and Brian make a dynamic bar-tending duo, very popular with customers, but their professional idyll is shattered by a femme fatale, for no other reason than to move the plot forward.
Three years later we find Brian bar-tending in Jamaica, saving money to open his own bar, when Doug reappears with his rich bride. How and why Doug found Brian is another question better left unanswered. Brian is busy romancing Jordan, a "poor" artist who happens to be able to afford an exclusive cottage and extended Caribbean holidays (again, better left unanswered).
Doug challenges Brian to seduce a rich woman to follow in his footsteps of kept man and cocky Brian obliges. Unfortunately Jordan sees him and is heartbroken. We're supposed to believe that a week of happy frolicking on the beach adds up to a great love story - or maybe they frolicked way longer, but again, how long was Jordan's holiday?
The third act takes place in New York, where Jordan ran back and Brian followed with rich lover Bonnie. There the movie looses steam, heading to an extremely predictable ending.
One good point of the plot is to show that people can enjoy a good life working a job they love. One bad point is that the cybernetic revolution taking place at the time is completing ignored as a source of wealth. The Brians of the time still followed the credo of "greed is good" of the finance world, while the real revolution took place elsewhere
A great soundtrack adds a lot to the plot, which is pretty flawed and filled with holes. Nowadays, it is fashionable to revile the 80s as the decade of greed, shoulders pads and awful haircuts. However, those who lived through it, probably had fun and Cocktail is a classic summer movie, to be enjoyed without reflecting too much - even if only one third actually takes place in summery locations.