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In the 1980s, Tom Cruise was at the top of his game with movies like Risky Business, Top Gun and Rain Man. In 1988, Tom Cruise starred in a film called Cocktail as Brian Flanagan. This lesser known movie is a great movie throwback to watch. Flanagan, a young man just back from a stint in the army, goes to the New York City to make a million but realizes that he is not going to make it on Wall Street after failing to find his own Gordon Gekko. Instead, he finds Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown), a bartender who has his own set of beliefs, which he refers to as the, “Coughlin laws.” He decides he will take the young Flanagan under his wing and shows him the ways of bartending on the Upper East Side known as “The Saloon Capital Of The World,” according to Coughlin.
Money, women and fame is what young Flanagan has in store as his flair bartending talents lead to the high life of being a bartender. Of course this also comes with everything else that occurs when alcohol is present such as love, sex and fights. The movie is set in both New York and the Carribean Islands. From dive bars, to trendy New York nightclubs and island beach bars, you watch Brian Flanagan as he tries to find happiness and open his own bar.
This movie is a must see for anyone who has ever worked in a the restaurant industry, just wants to catch up on their Tom Cruise fix, or wants to listen to that 80’s style music. If you’re too lazy to get it from the library, it is in its entirety on YouTube in 11 parts. This movie will leave you knowing “A bartender is the aristocrat of the working class,” and leave you yearning to be a bartender.
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