Pretty people in posh surroundings make for very superficial and sometimes even eye-rolling drama in Roger Donaldson’s Cocktail. Tom Cruise rode to the top of the box-office heap with shallow, rather cornball dramas such as this (compared to this, his Top Gun from two years previous was Hamlet), but even with its flashy emptiness, Cocktail shows the actor giving it his all, and that should count for something.
Cocktail (Blu-ray)
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Studio: Touchstone
Year: 1988
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 104 minutes
Rating: R
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish, French
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: A-B-C
MSRP: $ 20.00
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Review Date: June 28,2012
The Film
2.5/5
Fresh out of the army, Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise) returns to New York ready to take the city by storm, but his lack of a college degree limits his job prospects despite his willingness to learn and an enthusiastic moxie for spinning ideas. With a bartending job all he can land, he comes under the tutelage of experienced Aussie barman Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown) who shows him the ropes and turns the eager beaver into New York’s flashiest showman. After Doug weds wealthy socialite (Kelly Lynch), Brian finds himself in Jamaica trying his own scheme to make his fortune, but love comes calling in the person of Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue). A misunderstanding ends their hot affair, and Brian returns to the Big Apple with his own wealthy patroness (Lisa Banes) but with memories of Jordan invading his every thought.
Heywood Gould’s screenplay adapted from his own story leaves no metropolitan cliché unturned. There’s love and heartbreak, adultery, pregnancy, and suicide all springing willy-nilly at the viewer to keep the plot churning melodramatically but none of it explored with any depth or real emotional impact. Director Roger Donaldson stages several flashy bartender routines that are the visual showpieces of the movie and has some fun early on with a montage of rejections as Brian searches for a job in Manhattan. (Those who have spent time looking for jobs even in today’s jittery economy can still relate to this moment in the film.) But by the film’s midpoint when things have soured between the two lovers (after another gorgeous montage of the pretty pair indulging in all of the splendors the Caribbean can offer), the film turns into a series of hopeless soap opera moments that play almost like comedy in their predictability and stale familiarity. When tragedy strikes, it’s of limited interest due to faulty character writing, and the film’s conclusion is so banal as to be almost insulting to the viewer.
Tom Cruise does act his heart out in the movie, making the small dramatic moments seem bigger than they deserve with his total commitment to the part. He also mixes a whale of a drink. Bryan Brown’s character is the most ill-treated in the film, varying from friend to jerk and back with almost the blink of an eye. Elisabeth Shue plays the clichés of her poor little rich girl role as best she can, but there’s nothing fresh here. Gina Gershon gets a spotlight moment as a flirty bar patron who sends the pulses of both bartenders racing while Ron Dean as Brian’s Uncle Pat has the movie’s most ingratiating role as a down-to-earth businessman who offers sage advice. Laurence Luckinbill plays the angry father of Shue’s Jordan with one-note simplicity.
Video Quality
4.5/5
The film’s 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio is faithfully reproduced in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Color is nicely saturated and very appealing while flesh tones are always realistically represented. Sharpness is very good with only an occasional shot that doesn’t seem well matched to the ones surrounding it. Black levels are good but not superb. The film has been divided into 10 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix makes sterling use of its generous array of pop tunes that are spread effectively into the front and rear channels. There’s a bit of surround ambiance in the various bar scenes as the patrons get high from the bartenders’ extended drink-pouring routines, but more could have been done with this. Dialogue has been professionally recorded and has been relegated to the center channel.
Special Features
0/5
There are no bonus features with this barebones release.
There are promo trailers for John Carter and The Odd Life of Timothy Green.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average)
Like the people it portrays, the Blu-ray release of Cocktail looks and sounds beautiful. The drama is rather juvenile, and there’s very little of interest here unless one is a fan of the film’s stars. But if one likes the movie, this high definition transfer will not disappoint.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
