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Roger Donaldson
July 29, 1988
Unfortunately “Cocktail” focuses too much on pleasing the viewer that it fails to be realistic. The bar scenes where Brian (Tom Cruise) and Doug (Bryan Brown) flip bottles for four minutes just to make one drink would signify a failing bar business in New York. Instead, they are cheered on by customers tipping off how phony the movie gets. But that’s not to say the juggling of drinks isn’t aesthetically pleasing, it’s just about finding the right balance between profit and circus stunts.
Brian is a young ex-serviceman who has big dreams of becoming rich. He moves to New York in hopes of joining any known companies that will put him on the fast track to wealth, but without a college degree, Brian is cuffed. Naturally, he enrolls in college to major in business and does bartending on the side to help pay the tuition. Doug works at the bar with Brian and is more or less his mentor. He advises Brian to look out for the rich chicks because it is by far the easiest way to money. Sooner or later Brian figures that he will have a better shot in the bar industry, and joins Doug full-time in hopes to save money for their own tavern. Unfortunately when the two can’t settle a dispute over a girl, their plans to open up a bar dissolve quickly.
The movie takes place in a couple bars and multiple bedrooms, which is made possible by the fact that everyone is oblivious to AIDS. Even then it would be hard to believe that female millionaires would choose to marry a bartender “just to piss off their parents.” It really is sad how much potential the movie would have had if Roger Donaldson had focused on accurately portraying Brian as a money hungry bartender. The story seemed to be spot on but the way it was executed was done so poorly. So how could everything bad in the movie be summed up? Brian’s line from the movie “Flat beer from rusty pipes,” works well.
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