Cocktail (1988)

What a beautiful movie!

The Worst Film Ever

Such a frustrating disappointment

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I never saw this back in the 80s or ever until now. I thought this was supposed to be good. But I guess people just want to watch Tom Cruise do whatever in his early heydays: Pour some drinks. Drive a race car. Fly a jet. Invest money. Be a lawyer. Get dressed up in uniform. It doesn't matter. People headed to the theaters.Cocktail is about two footloose and fancy-free bartenders have dreams of striking it rich with starting their own bar business and with, of course, the ladies. When the reality and true love hit how much sh_t will hit the fan or how many hearts will be broken and when will actual morals set in? There is double-crossing, sunny Jamaica scenes, damaged friendships and hearts. How will Cruise spin lemons into lemonade this time? This had a very thin as well as telegraphed story arc and bad cinematography. Overall, Cruise is more the movie than the story. I expected better from it.

Have you seen "American Psycho?" There is a character in there that raves about the depth he feels are in vapid New Wave 80s music...it reminds me of people that like Cocktail.It was just a vapid film from start to finish. Eye candy with Shue and Lynch's bathing suit...but really that was just to add the cherry on top of everything that was bad about the 80s.The 80s is the decade that people look back on and think...at least the comedies were good. The comedies are a format that allows for vapid mindlessness."Let's make a drama about a bar tender that makes it celebrity big?" What? No! You want a movie about a bar...watch "Tree's Lounge." This is like, even bar tenders can become rich and famous and live the 80s dream...it doesn't work. "Wall Street" works when you're making movies about the 80s dream. "The Secret of My Success" works because it's a comedy and you aren't supposed to take it seriously. "Quicksilver" works because it has Kevin Bacon in it and that whole "you too can be a scumbag" thing is left far to the side."Cocktail" is really the story about a corporate bartender at 80s nightclubs...yeah, it has all the taste the plot implies.Pass on it...but buy the soundtrack if you can.

"Cocktail" is like one of those easy listening radio stations. It just works as background, it's fine as long as you don't pay too much attention. There's no real story, so if you tune out for ten minutes it doesn't matter at all. It's just scene after scene of Tom Cruise making cocktails, occasionally interrupted with a redundant love interest. It's a highly repetitive movie that goes absolutely nowhere, though Cruise's performance is a real saving grace. He carries the movie even though he has nothing to carry and makes this thing better than it deserves to be. He breathes life into his underwritten character and at least makes these scenes somewhat entertaining. It's still just a movie that devotes 90% of its running time to guys standing behind a bar taking orders, the fact that Cruise somehow makes that...palatable is already an impressive feat. Not impressive enough to recommend this though.

This is one of those movies that I should like but I don't. It's a film I really wanted to like/enjoy but it did not thrill me at all. I have NOTHING bad to say about this movie - it just was not my personal taste in movies.I mean, I like Tom Cruise (he's a great actor). I like Elisabeth Shue, I like music they used for this movie, I would love to go to Jamaica and it's a nice story. Why don't I like this film? I still cannot put my finger on it. I do not hate this movie but it's not a film that I enjoyed watching. This is another movie I will have to rate in the middle of the road.5/10