Culture news This is Tom Cruise’s worst film! After more than 40 years of career, the star of Top Gun must not be very proud of this abysmal rating
In a career marked by success, each actor knows his share of cinematic disappointments. This 1980s production, starring Tom Cruise, is his worst film with disastrous critical reviews!
Since his resounding success in “Top Gun“In 1986, Tom Cruise rose through the ranks to become one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars. With films such as “Risky Business” and “Mission Impossible,” the actor proved his versatility in his roles even before his meteoric rise to stardom. However, behind every successful career, every actor has his share of disappointing films behind him. For Cruise, Roger Donaldson’s “Cocktail” remains his biggest failure, at least according to Rotten Tomatoes, since the film has an abysmal score of… 9%!
Subscribe to Disney+
An outdated product of its time
“Cocktail” has been criticized for its sexist portrayal for humorous purposes and its blatant promotion of rampant consumerism. Besides these problematic themes, the film suffers from a hollow narrative, where even Cruise’s natural charm fails to fill the gaping void. Despite its few qualities, Donaldson’s production is worth watching at least for its hyper-specific appeal to a bygone era, with Tom Cruise playing an excessively attractive bartender who gradually reveals himself to be irredeemable. The film is currently available on the SVOD Disney + platform.
The story follows Brian Flanagan (Cruise), a former military man who arrives in New York with ambitious dreams, but finds himself playing bartender by night and business student by day. Under the tutelage of Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown), Brian learns to juggle and impress customers. However, despite his skills, Brian ends up abandoning his studies to open a chain of bars, a reckless choice encouraged by a somewhat unusual mentor.
A problematic protagonist and a disappointing outcome
Brian’s character reaches his most irritating point in Jamaica, where he meets Jordan (Elizabeth Shue) and exhibits deplorable behavior towards her. Despite his actions, the film tries to present Brian as a protagonist worthy of sympathy, but he instead comes across as an insensitive idiot, incapable of treating women with respect. This approach might have worked if the narrative had positioned Brian as an antagonistic figure, but it didn’t. Despite everything, he remains a protagonist whose actions are difficult to excuse, and the outcome proves as unsatisfying as it is frustrating for spectators.
This page contains affiliate links to certain products that JV has selected for you. Each purchase you make by clicking on one of these links will not cost you more, but the e-merchant will pay us a commission. The prices indicated in the article are those offered by the merchant sites at the time of publication of the article and these prices are likely to vary at the sole discretion of the merchant site without JV being informed.
Learn more.