Cocktail
Short description
Brian Flanagan leaves the Army with ambitions of a business career in New York, but without a degree or an opening in the corporate world he takes work as a bartender to support himself. Under the guidance of Douglas Coughlin, the bar's experienced owner, Brian learns the trade and turns drink-mixing into a performance that makes him a favourite with Manhattan's nightlife crowd. Doug's hard-edged views on money and life take hold, and Brian comes to see the bar as a route to quick profit and his own establishment.
Brian's plans lead him to Jamaica, where he tends bar and meets Jordan Mooney, a young American artist on holiday with a friend. Their involvement pushes him to reconsider the outlook he has adopted. Tom Cruise plays Brian, with Bryan Brown as Doug, Elisabeth Shue as Jordan, and Lisa Banes, Kelly Lynch and Gina Gershon in supporting roles. Roger Donaldson directed from a screenplay by Heywood Gould; it was the third of the fifteen features Donaldson has directed in chronological order, following No Way Out in 1987 and preceding Cadillac Man in 1990.
Released in July 1988, Cocktail cost about 20 million dollars and returned roughly 172 million worldwide, a strong commercial result. Audience response has been moderate: on IMDb it holds 5.9/10 from around 98,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1/10 from about 1,673 votes. A critics' rating of 4.4/10 from 46 reviews places professional opinion well below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The world-famous restaurant TGI Friday's made its first appearance in this film.
- Tom Cruise knew that Gina Gershon was ticklish, so he tickled her so vigorously during the bedroom scene that they both fell out of bed. That take made it into the film.
- Screenwriter Haywood Gould wrote a book and screenplay based on his experience working as a bartender in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he was just starting to write.
- Tom Cruise's bartending skills were taught to him at a special Bartending School in Toronto, Canada. At one point, the instructor assigned to the actor refused to teach him to juggle bottles and glasses, because the training took place in a real bar, and there was a risk of breaking dishes and facing a lawsuit for damages. The actor was provided with prop plastic tableware on set. It took many takes to film all these scenes.
- Filming of the movie began on October 26, 1987.
Similar movies
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Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
