Cocktail (film)

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Cocktail
Image:Cocktail 1988.jpg Cocktail movie poster.
Directed by	Roger Donaldson
Produced by	Ted Field Robert W. Cort
Written by	Heywood Gould
Starring	Tom Cruise Bryan Brown Elisabeth Shue
Distributed by	Touchstone Home Video
Release date(s)	July 29, 1988
Running time	103 min
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Cocktail was a hit movie released by Touchstone Pictures in 1988. Cocktail stars Tom Cruise as a talented bartender who finds love while working at a bar in Jamaica.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Soundtrack
4 Taglines
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After leaving the army and moving to New York City, Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise) gets a part time job as a bartender while studying for a business degree (which he needs to get a job in marketing). This starts off tougher than he expected but with some tricks of the trade from his boss Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown), he soon becomes one of the most popular bartenders in town.

Brian and Doug both want their own bars some day, Brian's would be called Cocktails & Dreams.

After getting into a fight with Doug over a girl (Gina Gershon), Brian heads to the Islands to work as a bartender (and to get money to make his own bar) at a resort bar in Jamaica. Here he finds continued success, and a romantic partner in Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue). Jordan is an artist (but it's just a hobby right now) from the city who is also a waitress. Jordan and Brian fall in love, but after Brian takes a bet from Doug to sleep with an older, richer woman (Bonnie, Lisa Banes), Jordan sees. She is heart-broken and takes an overnight plane home to her rich Park Avenue parents.

Brian returns to New York with Bonnie, but the relationship doesn't work out. Brian then attempts to find Jordan and ask for forgiveness.

The movie also stars Laurence Luckinbill (as Richard Mooney), Kelly Lynch (as Kerry Coughlin) and Gina Gershon (as Coral).

[edit] Trivia

Brian and Doug first work together in a T.G.I. Friday's.
The T.G.I Friday's seen in the movie was the first in the chain of restaurants situated at the corner of 1st and 63rd streets in Manhattan.
The movie was filmed in Toronto. The Cell Block bar scenes actually take place in a formerly used jail in the city.
The boxing fight shown on the TV, upon which Doug has a $50 bet, is a heavyweight bout between George Foreman and Ken Norton.
Brian and Doug's bartending skills are referred to as "flair bartending". J.B. Bandy, who was the inaugural T.G.I Friday's World Bartender Champion, trained Tom Cruise & Bryan Brown for the film.
In 2006, comedian Michael J. Nelson, of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame, mocked the film in a downloadable audio commentary track for his RiffTrax service.