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.
Acting
Bryan Brown's Doug steals every scene with bitter charisma.
Sound
That Beach Boys 'Kokomo' sequence is pure serotonin poison.
Production
Jamaica scenes look like a Sandals commercial directed by fever dream.
Director
Roger Donaldson
Tom Cruise
Brian Flanagan
Bryan Brown
Douglas "Doug" Coughlin
Elisabeth Shue
Jordan Mooney
Lisa Banes
Bonnie
Kelly Lynch
Kerry Coughlin
Gina Gershon
Coral
Ron Dean
Uncle Pat
Ellen Foley
Eleanor
Chris Owens
Soldier
Louis Ferreira
Soldier
James Eckhouse
Tourist
Laurence Luckinbill
Richard Mooney
Paul Benedict
Finance Teacher
Robert Donley
Eddie
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film inspired a real flair bartending boom; competitions still reference Cruise's bottle-juggling today.
Screenwriter Heywood Gould later admitted he wrote it as a dark character study, not the glossy romance the studio demanded.
US
