Cocktail Blu-ray Review
I'll Tumbler for Ya
Reviewed by Michael Reuben, June 8, 2012
It was Doug Pratt of
The DVD-Laserdisc Newsletter who proposed the theory that
Cocktail is a musical in disguise, and it
makes a lot of sense. The film has a score composed of reliably catchy tunes, many of them Eighties classics that instantly evoke a specific time and
mood. The two male leads, Flanagan and Coughlin, engage in elaborately choreographed dance routines
disguised as bartending. The characters and their motivations are drawn in the kind of bold,
broad strokes favored by a musical "book" (that's the narrative between the songs), and there are
plenty of lyrics, which happen to be spoken instead of sung. Throw in one of those whirlwind
romances between star-crossed lovers on which musicals seem to thrive (with the requisite
obstacles that have to be surmounted before the curtain falls), and you're good to go.
Cocktail was a commercial success for star Tom Cruise and director Roger Donaldson, and it
remains a guilty pleasure for many despite a critical drubbing and the distinction of winning the
1988 Razzie Award for Worst Picture. Cruise was nominated for Worst Actor (losing to
Sylvester Stallone in
Rambo III). Ironically, that same year Cruise drew critical plaudits for his performance opposite Dustin Hoffman in
Rain Man, proving once again that acceptance by the
motion picture establishment depends as much upon the vehicle as the quality of the work.
How would
Cocktail be received if it were made today? Much better, I suspect, for several
reasons. For one thing, this type of film now has a name, and critics are always more comfortable
when they can pigeonhole a work. The complex relationship between Flanagan and Coughlin
makes
Cocktail an early form of "bromance", albeit one with a darkly twisted underside—which
is the second reason why the film would be better received if it were made today. Studio
executives and marketing departments would be so concerned about audience response to the
dark center of this apparently light-hearted material that they'd push (and push
hard) to tone
down its meaner elements. They'd certainly want an ending in which the two buddies are once
again behind the bar, best friends forever, bantering and tossing bottles before an adoring
crowd, just like the old days. Filmmakers who resisted such pressure and emerged with a film
like the one we actually have (I really don't think I'm giving anything away here) would look like
men of integrity stubbornly clinging to their artistic vision, and the crowd would adore them for
it.
The Eighties are generally regarded as the era when corporate overlords reasserted control over
the runaway auteurs of the previous decade, and creativity was squelched in favor of mass
appeal. Then again, maybe some of the rebellious Seventies spirit managed to hang on longer
than anyone realized at the time, like a cinematic counterinsurgency. An age supposedly devoted
to self-indulgence and the single-minded pursuit of wealth spawned a film where the most
obnoxious and contemptible characters are those who do just that. The character in
Cocktail with the most bitter downward trajectory
is the one who spent a lifetime chasing after the idle rich and
discovers at the end that the pursuit leaves you with nothing.
Brian Flanagan (Cruise), a blue-collar kid from Queens (and now an orphan), returns home from
army service with dreams of making it big in Manhattan. Declining his Uncle Pat's (Ron Dean)
offer of manual labor in the old neighborhood, Brian proceeds to get turned down for every office
job in the city, because he doesn't have a college degree. He ends up tending bar for Doug
Coughlin (Bryan Brown) in a night spot on the tony Upper East Side, which, though just a few
miles from his uncle's place, might as well be another world. (Trivia note: The general location
on First Avenue is historically accurate, because in the Eighties the region was littered with one
fabulous night spot after another. The T.G.I. Friday's used for the exterior of Coughin's bar
wasn't one of them.)
Coughlin is a charmingly dissipated rogue, who's just clever enough to pass off cynicism as
wisdom. He takes a shine to Brian, in whom he obviously sees a version of his younger self, and
having never amounted to much in life, he drills it into Brian that he won't either. Many of the
plot turns in
Cocktail are driven by Coughlin's reaction whenever he sees Brian on the verge of
achieving something that Coughlin no longer can (or never could).
For a time, though, the pair operate in sync, developing a kind of bartender duet that keeps
customers lined up three and four deep to watch them juggle bottles, glasses, straws and other
paraphernalia, while they wink, grin and banter with each other and the crowd. Before long,
they've been snapped up by the owner of the latest hot club, where Brian jumps on the bar and
spouts poetry to adoring patrons (alternating with the world's first "yuppie" poet—a dated
reference if ever there was one).
When the partnership busts up—nominally over Brian's photographer girlfriend, Coral (Gina
Gershon), but really over Coughlin's jealousy—Brian decamps to Jamaica, where he can live
cheaply and save money toward opening his own bar. After three years he meets The Right Girl,
whose name is Jordan (Elisabeth Shue, at her most gloriously golden) and falls madly in love.
With the precision of a music cue, Coughlin appears, having struck it rich by marrying money.
Her name is Kerry, and she's played by Kelly Lynch with such a pitch-perfect sense of the
emotional dissociation of the idle rich that it's easy to overlook the quality of the performance (it
takes skill to play both present
and detached at the same time). Once again, Coughlin gets jealous and manages to insert himself
between Brian and Jordan by flinging another woman (Lisa Banes)
at his old partner. Jordan flees home to New York broken-hearted. Brian follows, but as the kept
man of his new acquaintance, who owns her own business. It's his last attempt at emulating
Coughlin, and it becomes the alcoholic's equivalent of hitting bottom.
There's never any doubt that Brian will win back Jordan, but that road involves several turns that
I'll leave unspoiled for the first-time viewer (though they're not hard to see rounding the corner).
Jordan's father (Laurence Luckinbill) is the closest thing to a traditional villain the film has to
offer, and he's made entirely of cardboard.
Brian Flanagan is both a successor to
Top Gun's Maverick and a precursor to
Jerry Maguire's eponymous hero. All three
characters have to get knocked off their perches, learn humility, and gain an appreciation for sincerity over hustle and substance over flash. One can
debate Tom Cruise's acting ability ad infinitum (I happen to think he's proven his talent repeatedly), but his
star power when playing these kinds of roles is beyond question. They always work for him, and
Cocktail is no exception. Razzies be damned.
Cocktail Blu-ray, Video Quality
After the disappointment of
The Color of Money
, I was relieved to find that Disney's 1080p,
AVC-encoded Blu-ray of
Cocktail provides a decent representation of Dean Semler's colorful
cinematography. The opening sequence, which depicts Brian Flanagan's trip by bus and subway
into Manhattan and Queens, reflects the added graininess associated with optically superimposed
titles, but as soon as director Donaldson's credit passes (when Brian emerges from the subway),
the frame clears into a nicely detailed, if soft and not eye-popping, image with fine, natural grain,
acceptable blacks with minimal crushing and acceptable shadow detail. Colors are varied and
often vivid, although the palette in New York tends run toward dark tones accented by pastels; it
isn't until the film reaches Jamaica that brighter, saturated hues become more frequent.
Considering the lack of features, it's interesting that Disney put this 104-minute film on a BD-50,
but the result is a complete lack of compression artifacts. Despite the softness of the image,
there's certainly no indication of high frequency filtering or artificial sharpening.
