[3]

Cocktail is everything awful about calculated ’80s studio film making. It’s as if Touchstone Pictures said, ‘Hey, we have Tom Cruise and a killer soundtrack — quick! Someone write a script!” And that script (based on a book by the screenwriter) throws in everything and the kitchen sink in a desperate attempt to recapture the success of Dirty Dancing, Top Gun, and An Officer and a Gentleman — it’s a class struggle story, a buddy picture, a romance, an escapist dream, and a tragedy all rolled into one. Tom Cruise plays a returning soldier desperate to make his millions in Manhattan but ends up having to settle with bartending. Bryan Brown plays his mentor, friend, and sometimes adversary. They both end up moving to Jamaica for a while, where girls (including Elisabeth Shue) waltz in for romantic subplots. Then it’s back to New York, where both men’s poor decision making lead to a surprisingly dreary third act. Once Shue tells Cruise she’s pregnant and her rich father (Laurence Luckinbill) forbids their ever seeing each other again, you start to wonder just how many other movies Cocktail is going to try to be. It’s a hot mess of a movie that reeks of calculated marketing. The only redeeming feature is Cruise and Brown’s synchronized bartending scene.