"Cocktail" 1988

“Cocktail”

Tom Cruise, post “Top Gun”, pre-couch jumping. This movie also has two of the most annoying songs on its soundtrack that ever existed. It isn’t the movie’s fault. I had a roommate in college that LOVED the Beach Boys. The song “Kokomo” was popular, but she was obsessed with it. Her boyfriend made her a cassette tape with forty-five minutes of “Kokomo” on both sides. So she could listen to it nonstop. It made me crazy. Then “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” was everywhere.

If I watch this movie it just brings all those days that semester of college. My roommate was extremely friendly and I would have to hang out elsewhere while she entertained. Then she would play that damn song until it made my teeth ache. I tried to over play a song, but she would always make hers louder somehow.

But despite the music, there are some good things in this movie. It is definitely melodramatic. Tom Cruise is out acted by almost everyone in the cast, including Brian Brown and Elisabeth Shue.

One thing I never understood was how Tom Cruise’s character didn’t know that Elisabeth Shue’s character was rich. She is in Jamaica and staying in a villa with a private patio. Her friend gets sick on champagne. All the clues are there. And even when he tracks her down in New York, she is living in a loft, not a studio apartment. Even in 1988 a starving artist couldn’t afford a loft in New York City.

Brian Brown is great as a charming mentor who doesn’t mind being a bartender because it makes it easy to be an alcoholic. Elisabeth Shue is good. She had hit it big with “Karate Kid” and “Adventures in Babysitting”. You don’t see her much anymore. But I always liked her.

It has stupid poetry, some bad acting, some good acting and Tom Cruise's hair is always perfect. The bar work is fun and it makes me laugh.

It is a cute ending. Tom battles for the woman he loves, marries her and finds out she is pregnant with twins.

[Flanagan's advice to his unborn child:]
Brian: If Jordan gives birth to a fine Irish son / There will be Cocktails and Dreams for him one day to run / A business that will yield the financial windfall / To be franchised in every suburban shopping mall. / If a daughter arrives to bless our clan / I guess the $hit will finally hit the fan / But this I shall promise thee / I'll never let her marry a guy like me. / Still if our child is the naughtiest of girls or the wildest of young men / I swear I'll be the best dad I can / And never ever get spooked again.