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Cocktail

Play trailer 2:21 Poster for Cocktail R,  1988,  1h 44m,  Romance/ Comedy/ Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Cocktail: Trailer 1 Cocktail: Trailer 1 Now Playing View more videos
Watchlist 11% 46 Reviews Tomatometer 58% 100,000+ Ratings Popcornmeter
11% Tomatometer 46 Reviews 58% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
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).
Cocktail

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.

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Critics Reviews

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Peter Travers People Magazine Feb 26, 2019
As if realizing that his star hasn't smiled for 15 minutes, Donaldson tacks on a goody-goody ending that would shame the Care Bears. How to sum up what went wrong? Cruise has a line in the movie: "Flat beer from rusty pipes." Go to Full Review
Richard Corliss TIME Magazine May 21, 2013
Cocktail is a bottle of rotgut in a Dom Perignon box. Go to Full Review
Sheila Benson Los Angeles Times May 21, 2013
The 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. Go to Full Review
Eddie Harrison film-authority.com Mar 19, 2026
3/5
...the unquestioning attitude of the film to the central character's arrested development in terms of women is less than impressive… Go to Full Review
Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Nov 4, 2025
1.5/4
A Razzie Award winner for Worst Picture (over Burt Reynolds' non-nominated Rent-a-Cop? Please.) and Worst Screenplay (more deserving). Go to Full Review
Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) Jun 22, 2022
Cruise was never been a bad actor, but this film about a flaming sex symbol has elevated him to definitive stardom. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Mar 11, 2019 ï¿ 1/2"timo filme
Theodore S Feb 24, 2019 Even if the script is not that good Tom Cruise does a phenomenal acting job in this cliche romantic movie.
Draco R Oct 14, 2018 Best movie I've seen yet. Tom Cruise at this age was a whole meal. The story-line was great and the entire movie was carried out well to be a classic! 5%? That only means 95% amazing! See more
Poe M Oct 10, 2018 Cocktail reminds me of the days films were innocent and were made to entertain an audience weary of their real-life concerns. If nothing else it is a reminder of the type of films the late 80s churned out. Tom Cruise, at the height of his superstardom plays a bartender who is coached by Bryan Brown in the big apple and then relocates to Jamaica. This is a good one time watch (preferably with a drink) and the locations and characters are innocent enough to be enamored with. If you have nothing to do on a lazy afternoon you can slip a disc of Cocktail in your player and get lost in not too heavy handed nostalgia. See more
Luke R Sep 17, 2018 can be a diplomatic.. Cocktail Cocktail is a plot driven romantic drama about a guy going the distance with no bars held in order to achieve fame and success in a snap. It's various acts itself are filtered out with its own theme and frankly none of them blends in, none of them makes sense. The songs are uplifting with a sizzling theme that oozes smoothness but has poor cinematography, amateur camera work and dull editing. Those cheap dialogues, shallow monologues, cheesy moves and weaving of unnecessary sequences that reeks commercial cinema in order to lure the audience in, gives away the tone of the feature within first few minutes. The bartending skills that Cruise adapts, his euphoric energy and all the lyrical songs performed makes it entertaining for the first act. And as it ages on screen, it makes less and less sense with its banal ideology to a point where the viewers finds itself waiting for the closure of the makers. It is a tale that expects you to keep your hands up and feel surrendered all the time in order to have a time of your life just like the characters are having, but if whatsoever sense kicks in even the smartest of all character, it is pretty Layman in this world. Cruise's energy is what fuels this teenager flick where his enthusiastic chants like "positive, positive thinking.." is genuinely hopeful to us, it's a completely different thing that it is shattered into bits latter. Neither the structure nor earthiness that it aspires to foliate onto screen is worthy enough to brew the sincerity out of this "patch up and move on" characters. Cruise humming few songs, Coughlin's law and its ludicrous intensed last act that actually makes fun of itself and draws in most of the laughs are the high points of the feature. Cocktail is set in a world of "black and white" figurines, it neither is nor can be a diplomatic. See more
Han R Aug 30, 2018 Cocktail is a decent movie- nothing special but a nice little diversion. If nothing else a reminder of the type of films the late 80s churned out. Tom Cruise, at the height of his superstardom plays a bartender who is coached by Bryan Brown in the big apple and then relocates to Jamaica. This is a good one time watch (preferably with a drink) and the locations and characters are innocent enough to be enamored with. If you have nothing to do on a lazy afternoon you can slip a disc of Cocktail in your player and get lost in not too heavy handed nostalgia. See more
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Cocktail

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis 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).
Director
Roger Donaldson
Producer
Robert W. Cort, Ted Field
Screenwriter
Heywood Gould
Distributor
Touchstone Pictures
Production Co
Touchstone Pictures, Interscope Communications
Rating
R
Genre
Romance, Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 29, 1988, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$77.3M
Runtime
1h 44m
Sound Mix
Surround, Stereo
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