After being discharged from the Army, Brian Flanagan moves back to Queens and takes a job in a bar run by Doug Coughlin, who teaches Brian the fine art of bar-tending. Brian quickly becomes a patron favorite with his flashy drink-mixing style, and Brian adopts his mentor's cynical philosophy on life and goes for the money.
Cruise is beguiling with his smile and his swagger, but the script doesn't take us anywhere fresh when it leaves the barroom.
– Gene Siskel,
Chicago Tribune,
21 May 2013
rotten:
Very, very stupid.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
21 May 2013
rotten:
It may not be a megaton bomb, but Cocktail is definitely of the Molotov type.
– Carrie Rickey,
Philadelphia Inquirer,
21 May 2013
rotten:
The pairing of old-hand Brown and young-hand Cruise may have been meant to remind us of Cruise and Paul Newman; if so, think of this as The Color of Counterfeit Money.
– Sheila Benson,
Los Angeles Times,
21 May 2013
rotten:
Cocktail is a bottle of rotgut in a Dom Perignon box.