Cocktail (1988 film)#Soundtrack

Cocky Brian Flanagan, recently discharged from the army, heads home to New York City, hoping to land a high-powered business job. He fails and instead works as a bartender while attending business school.

Doug Coughlin, an older and experienced bartender, takes Brian under his wing and teaches him flair bartending. Doug shares his idea for a nationwide chain of bars called Cocktails & Dreams. Brian drops out of business school, and they become popular bartenders at a trendy nightclub.

Their flairing act attracts Coral, a wealthy photographer, and she and Brian start dating. Doug bets Brian that the relationship will not last and, unbeknownst to Brian, seduces Coral. When Brian finds out, he and Doug fight and dissolve their partnership.

Two years later, Brian is working at a beachside bar in Jamaica, hoping to save enough money for his own establishment. He meets artist Jordan Mooney and they begin a passionate relationship. Doug shows up, married to the wealthy, flirtatious and much younger Kerry, and bets Brian that he cannot attract Bonnie, a wealthy older woman. Brian accepts his challenge and wins Bonnie over. Jordan is devastated when she spots Brian and Bonnie drunkenly walking to Bonnie's hotel room. The next morning, Brian regrets the fling and seeks out Jordan, only to find she returned to the United States.

Brian returns to New York with Bonnie, hoping her influence will help get him the corporate job. He soon feels marginalized and resents her lifestyle. While attending an art exhibit, Brian has an altercation with the artist in front of Bonnie's friends, leading them to break up.

Brian tries to reconcile with Jordan, who angrily refuses. When calmer, she reveals she is pregnant with his child and does not want him in her life, not wanting to be hurt again. Brian tries again to talk to Jordan, but a neighbor says she moved into her parents’ upscale Park Avenue apartment. Jordan's father, Richard, tries to pay Brian off, but he refuses. Jordan explains that she hid her family's wealth because she wanted him to love her for herself. To prove how little he cares about money, he tears up her father's check and leaves.

Brian finds Doug on his yacht and believes he has finally achieved the financial success they both sought. However, Doug tells him that when his business began to fail, he invested all of Kerry's money in commodities and lost her entire wealth.

When Brian takes Kerry back to her apartment, she says she is bored with marriage and tries to seduce him, but he rebuffs her. He goes to Doug's boat and finds him dead from suicide. Kerry later mails Brian a letter that Doug left him, explaining that his life was a fraud.

Distraught, but determined to win Jordan over, Brian tries to visit her, but is stopped by security who have been instructed by Jordan's father not to admit him. He fights his way up to the apartment, tells Jordan about Doug's death, and says he does not want to make the same mistake by being too proud to ask for help. He says his Uncle Pat has given him a loan to start his own bar and confidently predicts that he will be successful.

Jordan hesitates, but Brian declares he loves her and wants to marry her. She agrees to take him back, but Richard interferes, leading to scuffle with a security guard. As they leave, Richard threatens that they are on their own, which Brians says he prefers.

Brian and Jordan marry. Brian achieves his goal of opening his own bar, Flanagan's Cocktails & Dreams, with dreams of nation-wide franchises. At the grand opening, Jordan whispers that she is expecting twins. To celebrate, and to his Uncle's dismay, he proclaims that drinks are on the house.

{{cast listing|

• Tom Cruise as Brian Flanagan
• Bryan Brown as Doug Coughlin
• Elisabeth Shue as Jordan Mooney
• Lisa Banes as Bonnie
• Laurence Luckinbill as Richard Mooney
• Kelly Lynch as Kerry Coughlin
• Gina Gershon as Coral
• Ron Dean as Uncle Pat
• Ellen Foley as Eleanor
• Gerry Bamman as Tourist
• Larry Block as Bar Owner
• Paul Benedict as Finance Teacher
• Kenneth John McGregor as Sculptor

}}

The film was based on Heywood Gould's semi-autobiographical{{cite web |first=Derek |last=Brown |title=Cocktail at 25: Heywood Gould on Tom Cruise, flair, and barman poets |url=http://tablematters.com/2013/07/05/cocktails-and-dreams/ |website=Table Matters |date=5 July 2013 | access-date=20 August 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820074802/http://tablematters.com/2013/07/05/cocktails-and-dreams/ | archive-date=20 August 2017 | url-status=dead}} novel published in 1984. Gould had worked as a bartender in New York from 1969 to 1981 to support his writing career. Gould said he "met a lot of interesting people behind the bar and very rarely was it someone who started out wanting to be a bartender. They all had ambitions, some smoldering and some completely forgotten or suppressed."{{cite news |first=Nina |last=Metz |title=Toss up a bottle for the author of 'Cocktail' |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/03/21/toss-up-a-bottle-for-the-author-of-cocktail/ |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=21 March 2013 |access-date=August 20, 2017 |archive-date=August 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820185022/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-21/entertainment/ct-mov-0322-chicago-closeup-20130322_1_tom-cruise-cocktail-moral-compass |url-status=live }}

Gould says the lead character "is a composite of a lot of people I met, including myself in those days. I was in my late 30s, and I was drinking pretty good, and I was starting to feel like I was missing the boat. The character in the book is an older guy who has been around and starting to feel that he's pretty washed-up."

Universal bought the film rights and Gould wrote the script, changing it from his novel. He says the studio put the project in turnaround "because I wasn't making the character likable enough." Disney picked up the project "and I went through the same process with them. I would fight them at every turn, and there was a huge battle over making the lead younger, which I eventually did."

Gould later admitted that the people who wanted him to make changes "were correct. They wanted movie characters. Characters who were upbeat and who were going to have a happy ending and a possible future in their lives. That's what you want for a big commercial Hollywood movie. So I tried to walk that thin line between giving them what they wanted and not completely betraying the whole arena of saloons in general."

Tom Cruise expressed interest in playing the role, which helped get it financed. Rob Lowe auditioned for the role of Brian Flanagan.

"There were a lot of bartenders around like Tom Cruise, younger guys who came on and were doing this for a while—and then 10 years later, still doing it," said Gould. "It wasn't as if I was betraying the character. It was a matter of making the character more idealistic, more hopeful—he's got his life ahead of him. He turns on the charm, without the cynical bitter edge of the older guys."

Bryan Brown later said the original script "was one of the very best screenplays I had ever read. Very dark... about the cult of celebrity and everything about it.... Tom Cruise is a very sweet man, he was then and still is. But when Tom came in, the movie had to change. The studio made the changes to protect the star and it became a much slighter movie because of it."{{cite web |url=http://www.houseofparadox.com.au/filmblog/film-an-interview-with-bryan-brown.html |title=Film: AN INTERVIEW WITH BRYAN BROWN |access-date=5 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317020458/http://www.houseofparadox.com.au/filmblog/film-an-interview-with-bryan-brown.html|archive-date=17 March 2018|url-status=dead}}

Bryan Brown was cast on the strength of his performance in F/X.{{cite web |url=http://www.moviefanatic.com/2012/06/cocktail-exclusive-director-roger-donaldson-on-blu-ray-debut/#ixzz2aMnSBgDf |title=Cocktail Exclusive: Director Roger Donaldson on Blu-Ray Debut |work=Movie Fanatic |date=5 June 2012 |access-date=5 April 2018 |archive-date=August 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820074608/http://www.moviefanatic.com/2012/06/cocktail-exclusive-director-roger-donaldson-on-blu-ray-debut/#ixzz2aMnSBgDf |url-status=live }}

Gould says the tricks involving throwing bottles was not in the book, but something he showed Cruise and Bryan Brown. They used it and it became a prominent feature of the film.

During the love scene between Coral and Brian, when Cruise grabbed Gershon's stomach she accidentally struck him in the nose with her knee.{{cite web | url=https://people.com/tom-cruise-almost-got-broken-nose-filming-cocktail-gina-gershon-8692342 | title=Tom Cruise Almost Got a Broken Nose While Filming 'Cocktail' Love Scene, Says Gina Gershon: 'I Kneed Him' }}

The film used various locations along the North Shore of Jamaica, featuring such real-life locations as the Jamaica Inn, Dunn's River Falls, Dragon Bay Beach and the Sandals Royal Plantation.

A music score was originally done by Maurice Jarre. A new score was added at the last minute.{{cite web |url=http://www.filmzene.net/read.php?u=interju_j_peter_robinson_english.html |title=Filmzene.net – J. Peter Robinson: Between East and West (interview) |website=www.filmzene.net |access-date=5 April 2018 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728172621/http://www.filmzene.net/read.php?u=interju_j_peter_robinson_english.html |url-status=dead }}

Kelly Lynch later said the film "was actually a really complicated story about the '80s and power and money, and it was really re-edited where they completely lost my character's backstory—her low self-esteem, who her father was, why she was this person that she was—but it was obviously a really successful movie, if not as good as it could've been." She claimed Disney reshot "about a third of the film... and turned it into flipping the bottles and this and that.... But we had a really great time. And Tom was so much fun, just a ball to work with, both on and off camera."{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/article/kelly-lynch-on-imagic-cityi-john-hughes-and-playin-86567 |title=Kelly Lynch on Magic City, John Hughes, and playing a drag king |first=Will |last=Harris |website=The A.V. Club |date=October 15, 2012 |access-date=5 April 2018 |archive-date=August 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819090941/http://www.avclub.com/article/kelly-lynch-on-imagic-cityi-john-hughes-and-playin-86567 |url-status=live }}

Cocktail earned $78.2 million at the North American box office, and $93.3 million international to a total of $171.5 million worldwide, almost nine times its $20 million budget, and ranking as the eighth highest-grossing film of 1988 worldwide.{{cite web |title=Cocktail (1988) |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=cocktail.htm |website=Box Office Mojo |access-date=12 November 2011 |archive-date=July 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712130206/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=cocktail.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=Roger Rabbit' Hops to Box-Office Top; 'Coming to America' Hits 2nd |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=5 January 1989 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-05-ca-271-story.html |access-date=26 October 2010 |first=Nina J. |last=Easton |archive-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804235944/http://articles.latimes.com/1989-01-05/entertainment/ca-271_1_box-office-information |url-status=live }}

Despite its box office success, Cocktail received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 9% of 45 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "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."{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1004420-cocktail/ |title=Cocktail |work=Rotten Tomatoes |publisher=Fandango |access-date=22 June 2022 |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122080454/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1004420-cocktail |url-status=live }} On Metacritic, the film has a 12 out of 100 score based on 14 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike".{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/cocktail |title=Cocktail |work=Metacritic |publisher=CBS Interactive |access-date=27 September 2019 |archive-date=July 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717113710/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/cocktail |url-status=live }} Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.{{Cite web |date=20 December 2018 |title=Cinemascore :: Movie Title Search |url=https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/|access-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date=20 December 2018 }}

Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave a negative review, calling it "an upscale, utterly brainless variation on those efficient old B-movies of the 1930s and 40s about the lives, loves and skills of coal miners, sand hogs, and telephone linemen, among others."{{cite news |date=29 July 1988|last=Canby |first=Vincent |title=Movie Review – Cocktail |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/29/movies/review-film-mixing-and-matching-in-the-singles-bar-life.html |newspaper=The New York Times |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525093201/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/29/movies/review-film-mixing-and-matching-in-the-singles-bar-life.html |archive-date=2015-05-25 |access-date=1 April 2022 }} Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was also critical, explaining that "the more you think about what really happens in Cocktail, the more you realize how empty and fabricated it really is."{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=Cocktail :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cocktail-1988 |newspaper=The Chicago Sun-Times |access-date=17 April 2021 |date=29 July 1988 |archive-date=October 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013152507/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cocktail-1988 |url-status=live }}

"I was not happy with the final product," said Gould. "It got so savaged by the critics ... I was accused of betraying my own work, which is stupid. So I was pretty devastated. I literally couldn't get out of bed for a day. The good thing about that experience is that it toughened me up."

In 1992, Cruise said the film "was not a crowning jewel" in his career.{{cite magazine |title=Tom Cruise |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/tom-cruise-19920528 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=May 1992 |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-date=August 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820074632/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/tom-cruise-19920528 |url-status=live }}

The official soundtrack single, The Beach Boys' "Kokomo", was commercially successful and topped the charts in the United States, Australia and Japan. The song was nominated for a Grammy and a Golden Globe.

Cocktail won two Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay while Cruise was nominated as Worst Actor and Donaldson as Worst Director.{{cite web |last=Wilson |first=John |title=The Razzie Awards – 1988 Archive |url=http://razzies.com/asp/content/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=28 |publisher=Golden Raspberry Award |access-date=14 February 2013 |date=23 August 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716225829/http://razzies.com/asp/content/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=28|archive-date=16 July 2012|url-status=dead}} The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made".{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=John |title=The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst |year=2005 |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |isbn=978-0-446-69334-9}} The film was also nominated for Worst Picture at the 1988 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards but lost to Caddyshack II.{{Cite web|url=http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1988/1988st.htm|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070816011837/http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1988/1988st.htm|archive-date = August 16, 2007|title = Awards}}

Additionally, Cruise's other film in 1988 was his co-starring role in the Best Picture-winning film Rain Man, alongside Dustin Hoffman. In doing so, he became the first (and as of 2024, only) actor to star in a Worst Picture Razzie winner and Best Picture Oscar winner in the same year.

{{Infobox album

| name = Cocktail (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

| type = soundtrack

| artist = various artists

| cover =

| alt =

| released = {{start date|1988|8|2}}

| recorded =

| studio =

| genre = {{hlist|Pop|rock}}

| length = 35:27

| label = Elektra

| producer =

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title =

| next_year =

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite web |last=Ruhlmann |first=William |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/cocktail-mw0000196665 |title=Cocktail – Original Soundtrack |website=AllMusic |access-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728172701/https://www.allmusic.com/album/cocktail-mw0000196665 |url-status=live }}

}}

{{track listing

| headline = Cocktail soundtrack

| extra_column = Artist

| title1 = Wild Again

| extra1 = Starship

| length1 = 4:43

| title2 = Powerful Stuff

| extra2 = The Fabulous Thunderbirds

| length2 = 4:48

| title3 = Since When

| extra3 = Robbie Nevil

| length3 = 4:02

| title4 = Don't Worry, Be Happy

| extra4 = Bobby McFerrin

| length4 = 4:48

| title5 = Hippy Hippy Shake

| extra5 = The Georgia Satellites

| length5 = 1:45

| title6 = Kokomo

| extra6 = The Beach Boys

| length6 = 3:34

| title7 = Rave On!

| extra7 = John Cougar Mellencamp

| length7 = 3:13

| title8 = All Shook Up

| extra8 = Ry Cooder

| length8 = 3:29

| title9 = Oh, I Love You So

| extra9 = Preston Smith

| length9 = 2:42

| title10 = Tutti Frutti

| extra10 = Little Richard

| length10 = 2:23

}}

Additional tracks featured in the film include:

• "Addicted to Love" – Robert Palmer
• "Shelter of Your Love" – Jimmy Cliff
• "This Magic Moment" – Leroy Gibbons
• "When Will I Be Loved" – The Everly Brothers (uncredited)
• "That Hypnotizin' Boogie" - David Wilcox

Song featured in the UK trailer:

• “You Move Me” - Rick Astley

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-end}}

{{Certification Table Top|caption=Certifications for Cocktail}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Australia|artist=Soundtrack|title=Cocktail|award=Platinum|relyear=1988|number=4|certref=}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Canada|artist=Various Artists|title=Cocktail|award=Diamond|relyear=1988|certyear=1992|date=January 15, 1992}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=France|artist=B.O.F.|title=Cocktail|award=Gold|relyear=1988|certyear=1989|source=infodisc|access-date=6 August 2020}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Hong Kong|artist=Various|title=Cocktail|award=Gold|relyear=1988|certyear=1990|access-date=2 October 2019}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=New Zealand|artist=Various|title=Cocktail OST|award=Platinum|id=1989-03-24|source=newchart|access-date=2024-11-20|relyear=1988}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Spain|type=album|title=Cocktail (B.S.O. De La Pelicula|artist=Varios Interpretes|award=Gold|relyear=1999|certyear=2000|certref={{cite book |author=Fernando Salaverri |title=Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 |edition=1st |date=September 2005 |publisher=Fundación Autor-SGAE |location=Spain |isbn=84-8048-639-2 |page=953}}|access-date=6 August 2020}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Sweden|artist=Various|title=Cocktail OST|award=Gold|relyear=1988|certyear=1989|date=April 10, 1989}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Switzerland|artist=Various|title=Cocktail OST|award=Gold|relyear=1988|certyear=1989}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|artist=Original Soundtrack|title=Cocktail - Ost|award=Gold|relyear=1988|certyear=1989|id=1440-1140-2|date=March 3, 1989|access-date=August 2, 2021}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United States|artist=Soundtrack|title=Cocktail|award=Platinum|number=4|relyear=1988|certyear=1989|date=January 10, 1989|access-date=6 August 2020}}

{{Certification Table Bottom}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikiquote|Cocktail (film)}}

• {{IMDb title|0094889}}
• {{Mojo title|cocktail}}
• {{TCMDb title|25084}}

{{S-start}}

{{Succession box

| title=Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture

| years=9th Golden Raspberry Awards

| before=Leonard Part 6

| after=Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

}}

{{End}}

{{Roger Donaldson}}

{{Heywood Gould}}

{{Navboxes

| title = Awards for Cocktail

| list =

{{Razzie Award for Worst Picture}}

{{Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay 1980–2000}}

}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cocktail (Film)}}

Category:1988 films

Category:1988 comedy-drama films

Category:1988 romantic comedy films

Category:1988 romantic drama films

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:1980s romantic comedy-drama films

Category:American buddy comedy-drama films

Category:American romantic comedy-drama films

Category:Elektra Records soundtracks

Category:Films about bartenders

Category:Films about suicide

Category:Films about social class

Category:Films directed by Roger Donaldson

Category:Films scored by J. Peter Robinson

Category:Films set in Jamaica

Category:Films set in New York City

Category:Films set in drinking establishments

Category:Films set in restaurants

Category:Films shot in Toronto

Category:Golden Raspberry Award–winning films

Category:Interscope Communications films

Category:Touchstone Pictures films

Category:1980s American films

Category:English-language romantic comedy-drama films