Cocktail

"When he pours, he reigns."

1988 1h 44m EN

😐

6.1

MID

🥫

11%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.9

IMDB

★6.1TMDB · 1,679🥫11%Rotten Tomatoes●12Metacritic★5.9IMDB · 97,474

RomanceDramaComedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After being discharged from the Army, Brian Flanagan moves back to Queens and takes a job in a bar run by Doug Coughlin, who teaches Brian the fine art of bar-tending. Brian quickly becomes a patron favorite with his flashy drink-mixing style, and Brian adopts his mentor's cynical philosophy on life and goes for the money.

“When he pours, he reigns.”

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Cast

Tom Cruise
Brian Flanagan
Bryan Brown
Douglas "Doug" Coughlin
Elisabeth Shue
Jordan Mooney
Lisa Banes
Bonnie
Kelly Lynch
Kerry Coughlin
Gina Gershon
Coral
Ron Dean
Uncle Pat
Ellen Foley
Eleanor

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Roger Donaldson
Writers: Heywood Gould
Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 8.6× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

38 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Roger Donaldson, shot by Dean Semler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by J. Peter Robinson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Neil Travis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown and Elisabeth Shue carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "When he pours, he reigns.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Roger Donaldson directs. Dean Semler behind the camera. J. Peter Robinson scores. Neil Travis cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 8.6× over at the box office.
238 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese.
4Directed by Roger Donaldson, shot by Dean Semler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by J. Peter Robinson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Neil Travis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown and Elisabeth Shue carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "When he pours, he reigns.".
9IMDB entry: tt0094889 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Dean Semler
Original score: J. Peter Robinson
Editing: Neil Travis
Production design: Mel Bourne
Costume design: Ellen Mirojnick
Makeup / hair: Rick Sharp
Sound: David J. Hudson
Stunt coordinator: Branko Racki
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $20,000,000
Box office: $171,504,781
Return: 858% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Cocktail (1988)
Rotten Tomatoes: 11% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 12/100
IMDB rating: 5.9/10 · 97,474 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

5 wins & 6 nominations total

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture
Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Roger Donaldson

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-06-09
★ 5/10
There was something about Tom Cruise in this film that shows him at his most engaging and fun. His character "Brian" wants to get on in life - but at every turn his limited of education gets in the way. Despondent, he heads to a bar where he encounters "Doug" (Bryan Brown) and next thing we know, he is a cocktail barman. A bit slow to start off with, but soon he has the clientele eating out of his hand as his charm and cheekiness soon show he has a real skill for this job. The first half hour or so are actually quite lively and entertaining. We also get a sense of just how hard - manic, even - it is to be behind the bar in a busy venue - maybe I will show a little more patience next time I have to wait for my Sauvignon Blanc (though probably not!). The bulk of the film, though, is really weak and feeble. He falls in love, cheats, falls out of love, drops the bottle, does he or doesn't he get the girl (Elisabeth Shue)? Then the film is tinged with a little bit of tragedy just in case the fluffiness of it all was making us light-headed. The ending is sort of imposed upon us, and after 100 minutes it took it's time to deliver the obvious. If you don't drink, you'll almost certainly hate it. If you do drink, then you will probably still not rate it much, but at least you will learn how to put fruit juice in a martini!
Wuchak2023-09-10
★ 7/10
Fun 80’s flick starts shallow, gets deeper Bent on financial success, a young ex-soldier (Tom Cruise) becomes an expert bartender in Manhattan while attending college in order to make it on Wall Street. Then a dream surfaces to establish a nightclub in Jamaica. Bryan Brown plays his cynical mentor while Elisabeth Shue and Lisa Banes are on hand as romantic interests. “Cocktail” (1988) is an entertaining Cruise-led 80’s flick that starts energetic, amusing and shallow but, thankfully, fleshes out the characters for something deeper. It’s fun in a snappy way, yet hindered by a feeling of unreality in the first half, which is resolved in the second. Brown is reminiscent of Michael Caine while Shue is in her prime, although her beauty isn’t fully captured as it was in “The Karate Kid” and the later “Leaving Las Vegas” (the fools). Laurence Luckinbill shows up in the last act; he would go on to superbly play Sybok in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” the next year. The ending is fine, but a bar is a bar, a place where people get soused. You can make a good living from it, sure, but does that benefit or deter humanity in the grand scheme of things? The film runs 1 hour, 43 minutes, and was shot in Toronto and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. GRADE: B