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Episode 105: Cocktail featuring Bryan Quinby
113 Plays1 month ago
Bryan Quinby, host of Guys: A Podcast About Guys, is in the studio and they’ve mixed up something very tasty with Cocktail (1988). This Roger Donaldson directed film was a hit at the time and an early win for lead Tom Cruise, but critics were not fans. It’s not hard to see both sides as it’s charismatic, energetic, sexy and having nothing but a good time while also being angry, doing too much, not explaining itself and occasionally getting pretty weird. Still, Bryan Brown has charms aplenty and Elizabeth Shue is also there along with Gina Gershon. Come for the drinks, stay for the stories and cheer every time Tom Cruise gets punched for good reason. It’s just a good time and you can have one too, so tune in!
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Transcript
Introductions and Character Comparisons
00:00:27
Speaker
That you would, that you could And you know that you should Yes, you know that you should
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. It's the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this movie's so bad, why do you like it so much?
00:00:51
Speaker
We're your hosts. Now, I'm obviously ah very intense and very driven and possibly a little bit evil, so I'm obviously the Brian Flanagan of the show. I'm Chris Anderson. That's a good description of Brian Flanagan.
00:01:06
Speaker
Yeah. And of Chris Anderson. Sure. Absolutely. And of course, we've got Greg Bossy. You're obviously ah beautiful and talented and everybody loves you. So you've got to be the the Jordan Mooney of the show. That is not what I expected. And I will take it. It's called Mooney, not Monet.
00:01:25
Speaker
Absolutely. And of course we have my lovely wife, Anna Anderson. You're the most charming of us. You're the handsomest. You're obviously the most ah wise and the best with words. And also you do struggle with suicidal ideation. So you're obviously the Doug Coughlin of the show.
00:01:50
Speaker
Thank you. hi How are you doing my dove?
Guest Introduction: Brian Quimby
00:01:54
Speaker
I'm doing okay. Okay. Well, okay is okay. I'm very excited because we have a very special guest with us here today. You might know him as the host of Guys, the podcast about guys. You might know him from the POD cast, even.
00:02:10
Speaker
You might even know him from the Groveport Mafia. But today he's here as a father and a guy whose success we would very much like to leech off of. So he must be the Mr. Monet of the show. It's Brian Quimby.
00:02:28
Speaker
I don't know if you want to go my direction. well Well, hey, you're someone we all very much admire on the show. Anna and I never miss an episode of Guys.
00:02:38
Speaker
It took a long time, though. You really want to do it the fast way. Yeah. 15 years away. Yeah, yeah. We're much more on that that Brian Flanagan path to riches than whatever Mr. Mooney had to do to make his money. That's our goal.
00:02:56
Speaker
Reading books like the 10-Minute Podcaster. Yes. Yes. I like this book. That was good shit. for Yeah. i i ah like I like this movie because it has like an old...
00:03:11
Speaker
You know, like when I was a kid, I watched it and I wanted to be a bartender. Absolutely. and ah But I also Tom Cruise, when he's like trying to be like a happy guy, like in this or in the color of money, it's so fucking off putting. Yeah. Yeah. He's an alien. He just doesn't know it. Even back then where it's like, one of the most famous guy in the world. But shit, he is. He doesn't know how to look like he's having a good time. No, he looks way too intense about everything. And I think he probably is that.
00:03:45
Speaker
That would make sense. In their real life. So he thinks that's how people are. Well, listeners, we're talking about the movie
Summary of 'Cocktail'
00:03:52
Speaker
Cocktail. If you haven't seen the movie Cocktail and you can't guess what it's about, here's a brief summary to hold in your mind.
00:04:08
Speaker
A handsome, evil young man moves back home to New York City with nothing but a pocket full of dreams. Dreams of fame, fortune, and romance. And he's going to chase those dreams the only way he can, by becoming the best damn bartender that ever lived.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's correct. I mean, I left out of the most important relationship that he has with his best friend. But other than that, yeah I think that's... No, think that's the crux of it. That's the premise.
00:04:43
Speaker
But it goes places from there that i truly I truly did not expect. This movie surprised me a lot. Yeah, lots of fun surprises in Cocktail. Something not so fun. It's true.
00:04:57
Speaker
But ah Brian, i asked you on the show and we talked about maybe doing Moonraker because you've been doing a lot of bonds. But then I listened to your episode about cocktail guys and heard that you like cocktail and cocktails, a big movie for
Personal Stories with 'Cocktail'
00:05:10
Speaker
me and Greg. i was like, this is a golden opportunity.
00:05:13
Speaker
Do you remember, like, what what's your oldest memory of cocktail? I mean, I was eight when it came out in the movie theater. So I probably saw it.
00:05:24
Speaker
i For some reason, I have this thing in my mind of my mom being like, oh, you got to watch this movie, Cocktail. She liked movies. well Actually, I can't picture her ever watching a movie, but she I think I was visiting her.
00:05:38
Speaker
i was visiting her in Kansas. And she was like, you got to check this out. We watch it. She's also quite an alcoholic. So that's probably not the best movie. That is a big part of the charm of comedy. But I remember watching it and just being like, it's just one of those things where you're like, that's what doing being bar. Because you've never been in a bar. Right.
00:06:01
Speaker
You're like, that's what being a bartender is like. That sounds awesome. I'd love to do that. Yeah. This movie takes place in an order. Like, An alternate universe on par with like MCU movies and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. it's Completely world that it's like roadhouse in a way. Absolutely. Mm hmm.
00:06:22
Speaker
Where there's this celebrity bouncer and you've got here the celebrity bartender. And there are celebrity bartenders. When I was in high school, I remember ESPN2 would run the bartending thing. The bartending Olympics. Yeah. yeah i for I think it's called bar sport for some reason. but There's a couple names. There's various names. yeah Greg has done a lot of research into that. i'm very excited to get to it. yeah But it it is also just like...
00:06:52
Speaker
Like, Oh, you got to go to Jamaica to make it big in the bartending business because that is like the fucking place to stack money. yeah. You're making money hand over fist in Jamaica. Yeah. And then you come back to New York on the off season and and yeah you work in New York and it's just like, this such a like it there can't be 12 guys on the planet that live this life. like I can't imagine that there are... there I'm sure there's a guy...
00:07:23
Speaker
That's like the top bartender in the fucking world. And he travels to other places and he bartends for a while and then moves on to the next town. And it's big, exciting thing, but there can't be, there can't be a lot of them. I know there can't be, I can't imagine there's five of them, but you know, and those five guys are all just actually consultants who were once good bartenders. Right. Right. They're working for, yeah. Yeah. For John Taffer or the, um,
00:07:52
Speaker
Oh, what's that giant beverage? Mont-something group. A beverage group. yeah no No, they make seeds. Right. yeah but i yeah I would love to see it, though. It would be... I've lived in Columbus my whole life. I've lived downtown for like 15... For actually like over 20 years. And I've never seen a bar like that.
00:08:19
Speaker
i will I would know If that bar existed in my town. Absolutely. You would have gone at some point at some point.
00:08:30
Speaker
So I guess it's probably like you moved to New York. You do your flipping bottles bar thing and maybe you make it. Maybe you don't. But the top of the game really does seem to be working with John Taffer, which sounds like hell. yeah But it it's like the and NBA, except you could find just a working class job as a normal bartender as well. But this makes it seem like, yeah, some bartender is going to be like plucked from the masses and become the LeBron of bartending. And not one of these drinks. Look, I'll bet you none of these drinks taste good.
00:09:04
Speaker
You know what I mean? Because he was just dumping shit. Like, I've never seen, like, somebody poor. like they only do one. That's the one problem with this movie.
00:09:15
Speaker
There's only one small scene of him saying... you got to learn to do the long pour. And then he does this. yes Yeah. There was not enough like karate. Yeah. The actual training. Yeah. Yep.
00:09:28
Speaker
We go from zero to flare very quickly. Yes. Well, like you see him like, One night he's having trouble. And then I suppose like five weeks later, he's like kind of picking it up. And then like a couple weeks after that, it's him and he's fine. It plays with time really strangely. Very, very strange. I don't know how long period of time I wish like every now and then they'd show a calendar or something.
00:09:59
Speaker
Well, you know that. You know that it's a long time since he's seen him in Jamaica. Yes. When he goes to Jamaica, you know it's been like months. But I defy you to tell me how long it is from the time he gets, how long in in the world it is by the time he gets to the New York and gets his job at TGI Fridays
Significance of 'Cocktail' and Tom Cruise
00:10:25
Speaker
and then goes to Jamaica.
00:10:27
Speaker
Impossible to know how long that is. Yeah. Absolutely Well, Greg, do you remember the first time you saw Cocktail? Yes. So first off, Cocktail entered my life because my sister had a huge crush on Tom Cruise. And she under desperately wanted to see this movie. And she was not old enough to see this movie. So it was like one of these like, you want to let me see Cocktail? And it was like seeing the poster in a movie theater and just being like, that's the thing she wants to see. This is the thing everyone's watching this weekend.
00:10:58
Speaker
What is this thing? And then kind of forgetting about it. And then when i first started getting into bad movies, then you were like, we should watch cocktail. And I was like, yes, actually, i would love to know what it was my sister was so desperate to see back then.
00:11:12
Speaker
ah And we watched it and it was like. It's astonishing to me. It's entertaining. I was like wildly blown away by the thing. since would say this is definitely my favorite bad movie of all time. Like this is my number one.
00:11:28
Speaker
Wow. Okay. and I feel like, so there are three movies that I would say, like you have like your movies, the ones you found, the ones no one knows about or whatever. There are three movies that I think are kind of a part of me.
00:11:42
Speaker
One is Xanadu because I knew the music before Xanadu. And so seeing it come to life is incredible. There's a third one, which we won't discuss yet until it comes up, but I'm sure it will. And this is cocktail is this one. And when I like cocktails, a movie, there's movies. You're like you, if we were dating, you'd have to show someone this so they could understand me. If you know me long enough, I will show you this movie. Like, it's like a level of relationship status for everybody with me. I've watched, I don't know how many times I have seen it. I've lost count. Yeah.
00:12:16
Speaker
And also, like, I become kind of a different person when I watch it, which I didn't understand until I had one birthday. My birthday is in January. It's very cold. It's very shortly after, like, Christmas.
00:12:31
Speaker
people don't always come to my birthdays. So sometimes I'm like announcing big things to get people excited and sometimes it's like, i'm just doing a thing and whoever shows up, whatever. So did one birthday, watched it with a friend, or friend's like, just come over, we'll watch cocktail My Projector. i was like, perfect, let's do it. Nobody came except for my friend Natalie and she brought three female friends who are all strangers to me, which was fine. But I was just like, I was like, I just hope that they don't think that I like, like cocktail.
00:13:00
Speaker
I hope they understand that I like in removing myself from it and not espousing anything that cocktail is saying. And so afterward, I told her, I was like, I'm just kind of surprised you brought them. She's like, I told them they had to see it because I don't like cocktail, but I like watching cocktail with you because I do a lot of like shouting.
00:13:20
Speaker
And I say things, i'm just it's a lot of like, this is our main character. Remember, this is the protagonist. They're having unprotected sex in the waterfall.
00:13:31
Speaker
Again, this is our main character. It's just a lot of that. And this time I was shouting out, you deserve that. Also this, also about cocktail, in my opinion, i know that like,
00:13:46
Speaker
A lot of people who like bad movies, like the, they're like Tubi style movies. Like that kind of like really ultra low budget yeah stuff. that I have like such a fondness for big budget. I do, too. Huge movies that came out. And then you look at like Rotten Tomatoes. This movie had fucking 11 percent. Yeah. not that bad, first of all. But second, it's just like those big movies to me.
00:14:17
Speaker
are like so, i because they look good. and yeah Yeah. Yeah. They're yeah they're more approachable. yeah yeah Yeah. Everybody in it's relatively good. And, you know, it's a bunch of, you know, sometimes like very talented people. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I like. Yeah. And you're just like how did all of you get together? And this is what you made.
00:14:39
Speaker
Yeah. This was the thing. What what happened? This is where we landed. Yeah, I remember watching a Cocktail with you, Greg, ah when we lived together. and But my history with Cocktail probably was like when I was a little kid for Christmas one year, I asked for or like just some Beach Boys music. I was like seven years old. I was like yeah I like the Beach Boys. And so somebody got me the Cocktail soundtrack on audio cassette.
00:15:07
Speaker
And so I listened to that soundtrack a bunch of times when I was a real little kid, which I think explains a lot of my taste in music and how weird it is. Soundtrack's pretty odd. Yeah.
00:15:20
Speaker
It's all like boomer party pop. You know what I mean? Like what you were parting to if you were 40 in the 80s, I want to say. But also with a lot of island vibes.
00:15:32
Speaker
There's the island stuff, but it is like that really bad white guy blues music. like Yeah. You know what I'm talking yeah I don't want to say an artist that I think because listen I'll just say an artist Stevie Ray Vaughan like that kind of guy that like does this like mainstream version of the blues or whatever he's dead but yeah yeah I think he can take the the hit yeah Yeah, like guys like that that kind of... In the movie, fuck, I cannot... Ghost World.
00:16:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah. oh Yeah, Blues Hammer. Yeah, Blues Hammer. One of the funniest scenes in ever. Yes. I love that movie. um The other thing that I have to tie me to cocktail is I was a bartender for like three months when I was in college.
00:16:22
Speaker
And ah like, I remember... I went to bartending school and I was expecting to learn flair bartending, but it's all just memorizing recipes. That's all it is. right yeah And they're all the same recipe. It's all an ounce of something, a quarter ounce of something else. And the rest is mixer. That's every drink.
00:16:41
Speaker
but my bartending school teacher told me this one joke, uh, that he really loved. And he said, what was it? Uh, so there was ah an experiment where they were testing people's dogs and they want to see if dogs took on the personalities of their owners. So they got together uh,
00:16:59
Speaker
like an architect's dog, a chef's dog, and they got a bartender's dog and the, uh, the architect's dog, he built a little tower out of the bones that they gave him. And then he ate the bones and the chef's dog. He arranged the bones neatly on the plate with a little sprig of parsley. And then he ate the bones and the bartender's dog chopped up the bones and snorted them. And then fuck the other two dogs.
Bartending Experiences and Expectations
00:17:24
Speaker
And everybody at that bartending school loved Cocktail. Cocktail is one of those movies like Backtraft is for firefighters, like Hackers is for hackers. You know, it's one of those movies that makes your job look like the coolest, most important thing in the world.
00:17:38
Speaker
That doesn't exist for my job. so What about ah talk radio or pump up the volume? Don't take vengeance. Well, now, yes, I love those movies both.
00:17:50
Speaker
Okay. I don't, there, there is a big difference between being on the radio and podcasting. Radio doesn't exist anymore. I watched a recent, I don't remember the title of it, but does it was a recent Norwegian horror movie. And even a Norwegian movie had like their podcaster character. He was a paranormal podcaster and he was like a shithead that everybody, And I'm like, okay, it's just worldwide. My wife really wanted to see that movie Vengeance when it came out with BJ Novak and Ashton Kutcher. Okay. It's just, listen, I'm glad she liked it and had a good time. But like when you're listening to a when you're watching a movie about podcasters, they're always like, every every line Every couple lines are like, this would be really good for my podcast, which in my experience, and I've hung out with a lot of podcasters, is not a thing that happens. That's, I think, true. I think that is a false stereotype. They do it every time.
00:19:00
Speaker
Anna, do you remember your background with Cocktail? Was this your first time with Cocktail? ah Yeah, yeah. wow I watched it yesterday for the first time. Yeah, I only knew it by reputation as the you know the Tom Cruise bartending movie. And like I said, it surprised me quite lot. There's a lot more than bartending that happens. It's strange how old bartending there is. yeah Both wrote down and exclaimed out loud, what is going on? Several times. Well, first, yes, you can make a good living bartending, but the thing that it really takes is marrying a rich lady that you met at the bar. yeah yeah Seems like that really does feel like a ladder in the movie. That's like necessary. That's the final level.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Because both of them do it and it works out great for both of them. Well, until it doesn't. in their own way. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you guys want to hear about ah the making of cocktail?
00:20:00
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Let's get this rig rolling.
00:20:20
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker
So Cocktail was released on July 29th, 1988. Your director is Roger Donaldson, who is our latest member of the Two-Timers Club.
00:20:59
Speaker
Along with ah M. Night Shyamalan and Christiane Duguay. Congratulations. You were the third director to make it to the Two-Timers. What did they do before this? ah Dante's Peak.
Development History of 'Cocktail'
00:21:10
Speaker
ah Yes. Check out our episode about Dante's Peak. Real good time, that one. So we got two taglines for cocktail.
00:21:21
Speaker
Number one. When he pours, he rains. m That's awesome. It's pretty sick.
00:21:33
Speaker
I'll give him that one.
00:21:37
Speaker
Number two. They thought he was good. They were wrong. He was the best. Sure. I feel like that's every Tom Cruise movie.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah. That's also basically the character that he plays. The guy that's the best at what he's doing. It's also just a classic joke. It's like, I don't like it. I love it. You know, it's the same structure.
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's like the the construction that is an AI tell these days. Mm-hmm.
00:22:09
Speaker
ah So Cocktail started out as a semi-autobiographical novel written by a writer named Haywood Gould. ah Gould would also write the screenplay for Cocktail as well as a screenplay for the movie Boys from Brazil and Fort Apache the Bronx.
00:22:28
Speaker
Huh. Yeah, just an interesting writer. ah Cocktail comes out, the book, comes out in 1984, and it quickly gets optioned by Universal Studios, who then hired Gould to adopt his own novel into a screenplay.
Casting Choices
00:22:43
Speaker
Unfortunately, his screenplay wasn't exactly what they wanted, so they sat on the shelf for a couple of years until Disney picked up the option.
00:22:50
Speaker
And they were able to convince Gould to make a couple changes to make it more marketable. What he had was much darker and their character was older. He was like in his thirty s and And I think it ah did not have a happy ending. That would make things make more sense, I think.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah, Disney with touchstone features who ended up putting it out, they said make this ah main character younger and make it a little bit more upbeat. Let's make it a winning love story.
00:23:20
Speaker
he So for directing, Disney hired on Roger Donaldson as director who broke big in New Zealand and had recently started making a name for himself in the States. ah He just made the movie No Way Out, a sort of military neo-noir starring Kevin Costner, and it turned a nice little profit. I'd never seen it.
00:23:42
Speaker
And just a guy that you could expect to sort of competently make a mid-sized drama for adults. Like, hey, man, you know how to make a movie. Make this movie. If you want to know more about Roger Donaldson, listen to episode 88 about Dante's Peak featuring Courtney Collins. Great episode. Great.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah. ah Long story short. ah Yeah. He made a splash in his own country. Big fish in a small pond. Comes to America. Starts making a movie every other year.
00:24:11
Speaker
Nice job if you can get it. the The casting of the ah but the main bartender, the guy makes a little more sense knowing that he's from New Zealand.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that they cast ah Brian bri Brown. Yeah, i just I looked him up and he's like, this is the only one of the only movies I've seen that he was he's done. Yeah.
00:24:33
Speaker
Yeah, and he's so good in this. You should see FX and FX2. Oh, I did see that. I think I saw FX when I was a kid and really liked it. yeah But i I don't think I saw FX2. I'm going to have to watch that now. FX2 is much worse and a lot more fun as far as I'm concerned. I just look at their stuff and I was like, man, I haven't seen anything. It must be, I guess the Poseidon adventure from 2005. I probably ended up seeing that at some point.
00:24:59
Speaker
But, oh, Steve Guttenberg. That's Steve Guttenberg and Rutger Hauer in the same movie. Okay. Now you've got my attention. Yeah.
00:25:11
Speaker
Uh, so, uh, with the director and the writer in place, they had to start assembling the cast. Rob Lowe was initially in talks for the lead role of Brian Flanagan. And it makes sense. He has that same sort of intensity that Tom Cruise has, but he's also like, if you can get Tom Cruise, why would you get Rob Lowe?
00:25:29
Speaker
you know? Yeah. Tom Cruise was already a huge star at this point. His last two movies were the color of money and top gun, which brought in a combined $400 million dollars at the box office.
00:25:41
Speaker
i listen i was making fun of the color of money earlier i still like it it's just it's fantastic yeah tom cruise just when he's like being cool it's like yeah well and but in that movie too he's being cool next to paul newman being cool and like no nobody can stand up to that paul newman's so cool in the color of money it's crazy that tom cruise can't look cool like it's just impossible like of all the things that he can do that's not one of them no and the color of money makes him look like they were just like he they treat him like he's like 14 in it through the whole movie but i love that movie i think it's fun and did tom cruise because it's very obvious that tom cruise learned how to flip the bar shit
00:26:33
Speaker
yeah Did he learn how to play pool for the color of money, I wonder? I wouldn't put it past him. He seems dedicated. This is his first big I do my own stunts.
00:26:47
Speaker
So ah once I got Tom Cruise locked in, ah Doug Coghlan, they thought maybe we could bring back Paul Newman, team these two guys up again for... But Newman, a little bit too old for this role. I think having a guy in his 60s being like, I'm going to land a rich lady. You'd be like, this is weird. Yeah.
00:27:07
Speaker
ah Another option that was discussed was Robin Williams, who would have been so weird. That would have been so bad. That wouldn't be good. The two of them on screen together, you'd be like, Jesus Christ. There'd just be constantly shit happening in front of you. be overwhelming.
00:27:28
Speaker
Now, ultimately, the role did go to Brian Brown, who's an Australian actor ah who first hit it big in the States with the TV series The Thorn Birds, which is something that I've always heard of, but I know nothing about and I don't know anyone who's ever seen it.
00:27:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I have to. I actually know him. i actually know him from ah Breaker Morant. He's one of the lieutenants in that film.
00:27:58
Speaker
But I haven't seen that since I was a kid. That was the kind of movie I watched with my when was a kid. The Thorn Birds was like ah a punchline when I was growing up, as in like a super serious, dramatic thing.
00:28:11
Speaker
Is what know about it. Yeah, I think that reputation just made everybody under like our age and younger just be like, for I don't care. I'm not interested in that at all. I mean, i think like I sometimes think about it about watching old TV movies because Mike mike Hale from from your Kickstarter sucks. He has a Plex and he has so many made-for-TV movies on it. That makes me kind of interested. I just don't think I can sell it to my wife to watch bad made for TV movies.
00:28:46
Speaker
I've seen one or two that I'll shoot you some recommendations that I found one called ah the park is mine where Tommy Lee Jones sets up landmines throughout grant central park in New York city and says ah he's going to hold the central park hostage until the government pays out to POWs or something. Wow. It's really intense.
00:29:10
Speaker
Yeah. that I mean, those movies were so crazy. Like, the fact that they don't do that anymore is, well, I mean, fuck, ah pretty much every movie is like that now. It's a made-for-TV movie. But, like, the the listen, we got Tommy Lee Jones to run around in a park for a few weeks.
00:29:30
Speaker
We watched this with commercials. And he he crushes it. You know what movie I'm obsessed with? I don't know if you guys have ever heard of it. And there's so little information on it on the internet. It's called Million Dollar Mystery. Okay.
00:29:46
Speaker
gonna write that down. It's this movie that was made by the Glad Trash Bag Company. okay. It was tied to a contest where you would win a million dollars if you found where it was like where it was. It was like a mystery riddle TV show. Okay. That sounds vaguely familiar. Yeah. Yeah. It has Tom Bosley because he was the glad trash bags. Makes perfect sense. But like I've read so many reviews of it and I think it really sucks but it has that it's a mad mad mad world like vibe to it and I've always keep thinking about watching it again because it burrowed itself in my brain when I was a kid when it I think when it happened I don't know don't quote me on that because I might when I was five
00:30:41
Speaker
All right. We are going to put you on the schedule six months from now. We're going be talking about million dollar mystery. I will fill out in all your answers on million dollar mystery. Yeah, it's a really weird one. Oh, 87. So I was eight years old when it came out. And I just remember thinking like, oh, man, we just have to watch this.
00:30:59
Speaker
And then we can we can win the money. I don't even know if anybody ever ended up winning the money. But it's its Rotten Tomatoes score is like a one, i think. o it Probably a lot of people upset they didn't find the money.
00:31:14
Speaker
And all of its nominations are for Razzies. All right. Sounds right up around. Okay. okay Okay. ah but but bu but but ah Okay. Of course, Cruz and Brown, they were massive stars. But the real star of cocktail is, of course, flair bartending.
00:31:32
Speaker
Flair bartending, for those who aren't familiar, is when the bartender tosses the bottle and the glasses and the shakers around, doing a bunch of juggling tricks, kind of like if a hibachi restaurant was a bar.
00:31:45
Speaker
And then Cruz and Brown, they were taught flair bartending by John J.B. Bandy, the winner of the first ever national flair bartending competition, the Bar Olympics in 1986. He didn't want them juggling glass bottles on set. He thought it was too dangerous. So most of the bottles you see in the movie are actually plastic.
00:32:07
Speaker
Also, allegedly, there are a lot of outtakes of them just dropping bottles and like throwing them at each other. I'm sure. Tom Cruise flies in fighter jets now for his movies. And they were like, you can't, you gotta, you can't. not out um Our insurance guys won't.
00:32:24
Speaker
Greg, you just bought the Blu-ray. If there's a bunch of outtakes on there of them just dropping bottles, please. lift I will let you know, but I'm going to say right now, it looks like it's just language options, which is, ah but here we are.
00:32:40
Speaker
Well, now, ah in any case, audiences ate it up. They loved Cocktail. Cocktail made $171 million on its $20 million dollars budget. But the critics did not agree.
00:32:53
Speaker
Both Siskel and Ebert put Cocktail on their worst films of 1988 list, and it won two Razzie Awards, one for worst picture, one for worst screenplay. Yeah, those are both deserved.
00:33:05
Speaker
Worst screenplay, I think, is fair. This screenplay is a mess. Oh, yeah. Again, I don't know the time. It should it should have worse ah time thing. Yeah, like right. Again, I don't know how long this lasts. That's one of the things that sticks in my but mind.
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah, it feels sort of endless. Like you're just always in cocktail and it makes it feel made the movie feel endless. So normally I like to look at the genres, movies that came out in this same genre this year, but there's no real genre for cocktail. Yeah, it's its own thing.
00:33:38
Speaker
So I just pulled up the top 10 at the box office, 1988. What else was everybody seeing? Sure. Number one, you got Rain Man. So Tom Cruise has two in the top 10. Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
Big year for Tom Cruise. Number two, you got Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Absolute classic. Yeah. Yeah. Number three, Coming to America.
00:34:01
Speaker
How about that? I think my favorite Eddie Murphy, if I had to choose. Number four, Beverly Hills cop, to be honest, but yeah, no understandable. Very valid choice.
00:34:13
Speaker
ah Number four, also showing love America's love affair with Australia. You got crocodile Dundee too. I don't think you have Brian Brown in this without crocodile Dundee. I think Australia was in the air.
00:34:26
Speaker
It was yeah crazy. i was ah I was a kid around then and everything was Australia. Even Yahoo serious. I yeah got his movie because everybody was like, we need more Australian stuff. We need Australian content.
00:34:39
Speaker
she would Yeah. Every kid loved boomerangs back then. every yeah Australia was so fascinating. wonder I wonder why. Why? research that movie it was because or is it just crocodile dundee exactly it was crocodile dundee that was it it wasn't i don't think it was there was like a real reason for it other than people saw it and they were like god damn these australians are crazy was the oz was the ozploitation um like fad still happening at that point
00:35:12
Speaker
I mean, Mad Max 2 would probably be coming or 3. Yeah, we would still be in between 2 and 3, I think at this point. Yeah. And I think Mad Max probably made some inroads and things like that. Yeah, definitely.
00:35:24
Speaker
But and I love Crocodile Dundee 2. I would love to talk about Crocodile Dundee 2 someday because Crocodile Dundee 1 is like a fish out of water. But 2 is he's back in the water. Yeah, yeah. He's back in in the water.
00:35:37
Speaker
And everybody's all fish. He's like Batman in the Batcave when he's in Australia. Like the bad guys try to fuck with him. me Like big mistake. Yeah. It is very funny when a guy is like when when the movie is just like if these Australians came over to New York, they wouldn't know what the fuck to do. ah Number five, you got twins.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yeah. Classic. um I love that movie. Number six, you got Rambo three. Okay. I love that movie. It was apparently at the time, the most expensive movie ever made. Yep. I'm a huge Rambo head. I, me and my wife watched all the Rambos and, and fucking, I love that the, the, the non woke one. I mean, that's fair.
00:36:24
Speaker
Yeah. The first one's like woke. And then, uh, that Then like the second one is just like, we're going to get revenge on these Vietnamese for the Vietnam War. Yeah. And it's like, that's what I'm like, this fucking rocks.
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah. It's true. They get better when it's not about just a guy with PTSD getting hassled by the cops. Yeah. yeah And one thing you'll notice about Rambo is at the beginning of all the movies after Rambo First Blood, the first one, at the beginning of the movie, he generally, I believe, has a job. And the job is always hitting something with a hammer. Except for me or my wife. yeah Even like his skill set in life is just hitting things with a hammer.
00:37:12
Speaker
yeah he knows what he does best right seven you got fish called wanda eight you got cocktail nine you got big o ten surprisingly last place you got diehard oh i thought you're gonna say bambi because i saw my parents took us to the movies one day and i hate listen I did not like Disney movies growing up at all.
00:37:39
Speaker
Like I hated them. Like I had a revulsion to them. And my dad took us, my parents went the movies. They saw a fish called Wanda, a movie that I really wanted to watch because the commercials made it look wacky. Yeah. And then they sent us to watch fucking Bambi.
00:37:56
Speaker
And I was like, don't even watch stupid deer movie. i was Being mad, like, because I hated movies where all the characters were animals, which might have, you know, some bearing on how insane I am about animals. But, ah yeah. No, there's nobody to relate to.
00:38:14
Speaker
I'm not an animal fan. Well, just remember being so mad because she's sitting in the theater. My parents are sitting in the theater watching a wacky movie where a guy eats a fish. And then I'm stuck watching fucking Bambi. Yeah.
00:38:28
Speaker
What a... All right, we got to get into this plot of cocktail. All right. All right. Ready? Act two. Here we go.
00:38:52
Speaker
Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
00:39:04
Speaker
Plot bumper, plot bumper.
00:39:17
Speaker
So we open on a military police vehicle chasing down a Greyhound bus as neon blue credits play. The MPs flag down the bus and a young Brian Flanagan played by a young Tom Cruise, fresh out of the army, hops on board.
00:39:34
Speaker
He rides the subway out to Queens to stop by Pat's place, his uncle's bar. He tells his uncle that he's going to be rich But Pat warns him that it's not going to be as easy as he thinks.
00:39:49
Speaker
But also, he does own an apartment off of the Vernon Jackson stop. And I saw recently that an apartment in that neighborhood does go for about $5,000 a month. Yeah. so All right. does have a nice little asset that he's got in his pocket. I will also say there's never been a more unnecessary scene than the opening scene of this movie. Absolutely. You're just trying to even figure out, but you're you're trying to figure out, like, are they cops? Yeah. What's going on here? Yeah. Like, this is what they're doing is wildly illegal. Right? Right. Incredibly dangerous. Typically, you would just wait for the next bus. Yeah, yeah it's fine. Yeah, you just wait 40 minutes or whatever. Now, this is like ice guy behavior.
00:40:37
Speaker
yeah Right. They pretend to be cops and then they pull over a fucking greyhound. That's fucking crazy thing to do. And it really starts you out like... the fuck is going on with these people like every from that scene on you're like what the fuck is wrong with everybody in this movie it really has this like very 80s morality like it is very like reagan conservative like the fact that flanagan's only dream is like i just want to be rich i want to go to new york where i'm going to be rich that's all that i want and all that i care about you yeah that's our hero that's great that is very so go go
00:41:13
Speaker
Yeah. ah So Flanagan, he starts applying for jobs around Wall Street and then around Madison Avenue and just any place where a smart, ambitious young man could make a name for himself.
00:41:27
Speaker
They all tell him he needs a college degree and he needs relevant work experience. It's weird to me that he would get so many interviews if they all agree that he has nothing relevant to give to any of the companies he's going to.
00:41:40
Speaker
It was a different time, I think. I hope think took a lot of walk-ins back then. That's crazy to me. Let me look at this resume. You're not qualified for this. Get out of here. What a waste of time. It also made it seem like you needed to be super educated to be a finance guy was very weird because they're all some of the dumbest people on the planet.
00:42:03
Speaker
And I think also like you see Tom Cruise in his suit. He goes up to like the secretary at some business and he's like, I'm here to see your HR director. And she's like, Ooh, Tom car Cruise right this way. And that's probably how he's getting where he's getting would be my assumption. And I'm glad they didn't waste time showing it to me. This movie is long enough.
00:42:21
Speaker
It's true. Uh, So after his last interview of the day, he makes his way to the subway. But on his way there, he sees a help wanted sign in the window of a TGI Fridays. The original TGI Fridays, I'm assuming.
00:42:36
Speaker
No, I can confirm it is the original TGI Fridays. Okay. Thank you. I checked. I checked. Beautiful. and So he pops in and he meets the man that will forever change the course of his life.
00:42:48
Speaker
Doug Coughlin, as played by Brian Brown. By far, I'm going to say the best character in the movie. Absolutely. He steals the show. Anytime he's not on screen, you're listening to him. He's got all the best lines. He's the coolest dude. He's got such a weird way of delivering everything. It's as though he's giving a monologue. Like there's never any dialogue between him and anybody else. It's just him being like, I'm going to pontificate for a certain amount of time at my own pace. Pontificate is exactly what I was going to use. Yeah.
00:43:20
Speaker
I would have. hey i He's the type of guy that I cannot fucking stand because just he's got like this whole. Coughlin's law and stuff like that. Yeah. Shut the fuck up, You're a bartender. Yeah. He's the guy that like Reddit guys think they are when they're talking like that.
00:43:40
Speaker
well buty Well, let me tell you. He's like a fragrance guy. Those guys talk like that. Okay. Okay. ah So ah Flanagan asks, I'm going to call them Flanagan and Coghwin. It's really annoying that that's what we have to go with. Is Tom Cruise Irish, by the way? Or are they just like, he's a white guy?
00:44:02
Speaker
don't know. He's mixed. I think he does have some Irish in there. He certainly can't do an Irish accent anytime he tries. He can't do accents in this, which is hilarious to me. No. Yeah. ah ah Can I tell you the worst scene in this movie and which makes it the best is when he does the first poem.
00:44:22
Speaker
Oh, just like when you're watching that, you picture yourself being in that bar and your face will be hot with embarrassment for You know what I mean? But it works out for him. But it also, yeah that's another weird fucking thing. yeah Why is there like another poet there that was able to get him to turn the music off and his poem? I never understand where, I assumed it was theater from the bar saying like, we're going to have poets do stuff, I guess. and yeah There's a spotlight that lands on him. so
00:44:54
Speaker
I think it's like a cultural place. Artists do things. That's how I always read it. You know, just spontaneous art happens. I mean, the thing is, though, when he's done, the audience is like, man, we could really use some more poems. And they start you've never been to a place in your life where people were like, no, a bunch of poems.
00:45:11
Speaker
Especially one that's like three-floor atrium dance club yeah with like this glowing horseshoe bar. They're so drunk. Everybody there is is drinking these supposedly... Well, actually, that's another thing that I want to get to is Like, it seems like if they work there, you don't get a drink. It seems like like four people get a drink.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah. And it them a while to make the drinks. it's like Yeah. They're not producing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's only two bartenders there. and he's like, yeah i just, after he does the poem, he says the bar is open. And it's like the amount of people in that place.
00:45:55
Speaker
It's going to take you two hours. yeah You better hope a lot of them get a beer. yeah dude I mean, i think most of the people on the call have probably watched enough Bar Rescue to instantly point out what is wrong with this bar. Brother, I've seen John Taffer live.
00:46:12
Speaker
Oh, damn. Give us what a tree. It was crazy. It was fucking nuts. Cartoon gorilla. He stood on stage. you can You can actually look it up. It was Americans for Prosperity. i was there with ah Matt Crisman. We watched because it just happened to be in Columbus when he lived in Cincinnati. And he stands on stage. He fucking screams for 15 minutes, just walks off stage and takes off. And the best part is, though, when he leaves...
00:46:43
Speaker
He lets it be known that he's actually leaving to go do bar rescue at Tim Ripper Owens Bar, who is, if don't know, the movie Rockstar is based on Tim Ripper Owens. Okay. Like Judas Priest, Rob Halford's like, I don't want in Judas Priest anymore. I I've seen that episode. Yeah. He's like, don't want to be in Judas Priest anymore. So they hire a guy.
00:47:08
Speaker
that was in a Judas Peace tribute band. And now I think he's replaced another heavy metal guy, if I'm not mistaken. And like morbid, it and I don't want to morbid angel. I don't want to be wrong.
00:47:20
Speaker
Fair enough. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he screamed for 15 minutes though. And then just walked off stage. He probably got paid so much for. fucking money for what a dream it's a conservative convention it was like bobby got money to rule and jeb bush yeah one of the coat brothers gave a speech oh the thing we saw him wow he he told a joke you hear youre this you want to hear something he told a joke nobody laughed not a single person laughed and then he goes
00:47:53
Speaker
ah You should laugh. That's a joke. And it breaks out into into raucous laughter. Oh, God. It makes you understand that, like, man, rich guys have, like, everything.
00:48:06
Speaker
They got all the money. Everybody wants to kiss their ass. So, like, you can tell a bad joke and then tell people to laugh and they're paid to see you. Tell them to laugh and they'll just laugh.
00:48:17
Speaker
and Like, I don't think any of them were doing it ironically. i don't think it I think it was more of a, if we don't laugh, because you could barely understand what he was saying.
00:48:28
Speaker
Because he's old. Old as fuck. And I think everybody was like, if we don't laugh, it'll make him feel bad. So they laughed. And I was just like, that's one of the most mind-blowing experiences ever.
00:48:40
Speaker
ever for me like live show experience. the life That sounds like a very intense day. We smoked a bunch of blunts. Me and Matt smoked. That would help.
00:48:51
Speaker
You ever do like ah Black and Mild where you take all of the tobacco out and you just stuff it with a pen? Stuff the weed in it with a pen. Okay. it's It's like a quarter ounce of weed. And we were just smoking on that all fucking day. And I thought the Secret Service were going to kill me. But anyway, we have to talk about cockpits. Cocktail. Okay. You got me on the show. I was going to say, you told me the format before the show. I was like, I fucked that up. I will fuck that up. It's all right. It's all right. This way, you know, Brian heads are eating good.
00:49:26
Speaker
I'm going to butter you up a little bit for a second. I think honestly, you are one of the best storytellers in podcasting. So you coming on here and telling us some stories. Fantastic. I love it Thank you.
00:49:38
Speaker
Hey, I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true, but also I need to say a lot more about cocktail. So ah Flanagan asked Coughlin for a job. ah Coughlin makes himself a red eye, a beer cocktail, which is made with lager, tomato juice, a raw egg and garnished with two aspirin.
00:49:55
Speaker
Coughlin agrees to give him a shot. That night, Flanagan gets completely slammed. He does not keep up, but he also doesn't quit. So that's good enough for Coughlin to offer him a permanent job at TGI Fridays.
00:50:10
Speaker
But Flanagan, he doesn't give up on his dreams. Funny to say that in 2026, by the way, he finally earned himself a job at TGI i Fridays.
00:50:21
Speaker
Well, what was funny is I remember when I went back to New York and I was looking for more bartending work, every place was like, you need to have New York bar experience. Every bar job I saw was like, you need to have been a bar back for at least six months if you want to be applied to be a bartender here. So the fact that he was able to walk in and get this job is actually quite fortunate. No, it doesn't actually line up with reality.
00:50:46
Speaker
So Coughlin teaches him the fine art of bartending by night, but he attends City College Business School by day. Coughlin tells him that business school is for suckers. If he wants to make it rich, bartending is how to do it.
00:50:58
Speaker
You'll just find a beautiful babe and she'll be a millionaire. And he says, ah the bartender is the aristocrat of the working class. which is sort of like the central thesis of the movie.
00:51:11
Speaker
And was definitely one of those lines that always stuck with me and was how bartenders think of themselves when we were all in that bartending school, I think. is is Is it kind of, I used to want to go to bartending school too. The wildest thing about this is I don't even drink. I haven't drank since like I was 26 years old, but I am sort of fascinated by somebody going to bartending school.
00:51:35
Speaker
it's It's really stupid. It's just memorizing flashcards with recipes. Or at least that's like, I'm going to say 70% of it. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool though. Hey, my wife makes cocktails and she's pretty good at it. And I keep telling her to quit her job and just get a job at a bar making cocktails because it sounds cool. Yeah.
00:51:55
Speaker
She's afraid to quit her job. Coward. Yeah.
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the hours are terrible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. True. i got That's the problem, right? Is, like, I want her to quit. I would like her to be able to quit her job, obviously. And. you know, guys is doing really well. But like, I also don't want her to get another job where she can't just leave at the drop of a dime and go travel and stuff. Yeah. And I'm like, bartender's not going to work out in that department. No, you got to show for your shifts or you lose your job as a bartender, period.
00:52:32
Speaker
oh So ah Flanagan, he continues to fall behind in school. And after a professor makes fun of him for a paper where he writes a proposal for a bar franchise, essentially making this movie kind of a biography about the creator of TGI Fridays by accident somehow. ah So he ends up dropping out of school to focus on bartending full time.
00:52:53
Speaker
And that's fine for the movie because because every time you went to a classroom scene that was him being bored in class, the problem with that was that was always incredibly boring.
00:53:08
Speaker
Yes. And the the professor was boring and mean. No, he's incredibly mean. Brutal. Yeah, they they that that is definitely like a conservative guy's idea a college professor. yeah A guy that couldn't hack it in the real world.
00:53:27
Speaker
So ah after a night out drinking, Flanagan and Coughlin agree to become business partners, planning to save up their open bar, their own bar called Cocktails and Dreams.
00:53:38
Speaker
Kind of corny, but they're corny guys. They're romantics. Mm hmm. They should kiss. It's weird that they don't. It's weird. No, it's weird. This is basically a romance between them. But also there's a girl.
00:53:51
Speaker
But we're not even there yet. And that's how you can tell that the love story is not actually important. ah that night the two of them get approached by the owner of a new bar that just opened downtown called the cell block. That's the one with the three floors and the glowing horseshoe. It's also prison themed. Maybe as a metaphor because they're an opticon themed. Yeah. Yeah.
00:54:13
Speaker
But then we smash cut to them in the cell block. It's massive. It's jam packed. ah But the best bartenders in the world are there reciting improvised poems and throwing bottles around.
00:54:25
Speaker
Everyone loves it, even if it would take them at least two hours to get a drink. They don't batch make any cocktails. they're always doing all this shit. Every drink takes a good five minutes. They're like dancing. Yeah. They're like, yeah they're dancing to get you your drink. But if there's 200 people in a fucking bar, i would be just think if if i was the third person in line, I'd be like, come cut it the fuck out. yeah Can we just make the drinks? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. We fucking saw it.
00:54:54
Speaker
Give me a drink. If you have those guys in like the center and then you have other bars around the edge of the room that are actually making drinks for people, then this would be a business that makes sense. But they don't It be also strength because it would be like a performance. Like...
00:55:10
Speaker
Yeah. like like a state Like these guys, you can get a drink from them, but it's going to take 85 hours. You can go to one of the side bars and get something because that's even still a strange concept to have two bartenders that don't pour drinks for people. Well, those two guys, you can order a drink from them, but their drinks are a hundred bucks a pop.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yeah. smart Now that's a good job right there. Now you figured it out. I'll do that. I'll learn how to flip bottles around for a hundred dollars a drink. Hell yeah. Now, uh, Flanagan, he meets a beautiful young photographer named Coral played by Gina Gershon. And, ah while he's at work and the two of them end up having some pretty goofy sex where he tickles her and she falls off the bed back at her big fancy brownstone.
00:55:58
Speaker
The least sexy sex scene you'll ever see. It's goofy. It's very silly, but at least they both seem to be happy. Yeah, I do appreciate that it's one of the few sex scenes where I've seen where like both parties seem to be enjoying themselves.
00:56:13
Speaker
you know Instead of it being this like weird, serious moment, or it's just like she hates it and he's into it. It's just like, yeah, they both seem to really like what they're doing. I don't really get it, but I could see why they'd be laughing. They're having tickle fights.
00:56:27
Speaker
You can't figure out what's happening under the sheet. No, I don't think anything is. What's going under there? And then all a sudden his head pops out of the bottom. So what I think they were doing was 69. That would make sense. That classic cinematic sex. Yeah, yeah, I've said in the past on my show.
00:56:43
Speaker
When you're a fucking teenager, 69, it seems like you're going to be doing 69 all the time. Yeah. It's going to be like, once you go 69, you can't go back. Why wouldn't I 69? Because you would hear about it and you'd be like, well, I guess all the adults are 69ing all the time. That's got to be the best one.
00:57:03
Speaker
That's the latest one I've heard of. Yeah. So, uh, Let's see. Flanagan thinks she might be the one, but Coughlin has his doubts. After all, Coral is barely even wealthy.
00:57:15
Speaker
She only owns one brownstone. So Coughlin lets Flanagan know that ah she's going to be in someone else's bed by the end of the week. And indeed, she is in Coughlin's bed by the end of the week. And when Flanagan finds out, he's pissed. Don't forget that ah Flanagan is Tom Cruise. ah So he decks Coughlin right in the middle of the cell block.
00:57:38
Speaker
And Coughlin threatens him with a busted bottle, telling him to scram. Flanagan does scram. And then we cut to Jamaica three years later. And we're only halfway through the Threw me like you would not believe.
00:57:55
Speaker
Yeah. And we're not. We're not halfway through the movie. We're at 38 minutes at this point.
00:58:03
Speaker
It's such a wild thing to happen at yeah that very close to the halfway point. Yes. And he's not bartending like the good way in Jamaica. He's just in Jamaica pouring drinks for people. What was that all about? Three years later, it's like, we don't flip the bottles anymore. You know, I just pour you a drink. I think actually don't sell you the drink you fucking ordered. I tell you what you want. Which I saw that happens like when he's trying to score with that rich lady. And she's like, I'll have a vodka tonic. And he's like, no, you won't. You'll have this thing where I dump a bunch of juice.
00:58:37
Speaker
Yeah. Sex on the beach. I mean, all these guys are drinking sex on the beach. Yeah, essentially. They just call it something else and switch out a juice. So Flanagan is working at a little resort bar.
00:58:52
Speaker
He has kind of a weird tan. His tan looks very strange to me, and but he seems to be thriving. A beautiful young woman runs up to his bar and says she needs his help. Her friend just passed out.
00:59:05
Speaker
And, you know, so action bartender Flanagan, he leaps over the bar. He rushes out there to help the gal who just drank too much champagne in the sun.
00:59:16
Speaker
Flanagan continues to charm the helpful friend who's named Jordan and is played by another new member of the two timers club. Elizabeth shoe, who was also in Piranha 3D. Yes.
00:59:32
Speaker
And the two of them, they load her into an ambulance. The next day, Jordan comes back to the bar and orders every barman's favorite drink to make, a bottle of beer.
00:59:43
Speaker
As soon as she orders a bottle of beer, Flanagan's like, this might be the one, actually. Yeah. Oh, she likes beer. All right. I don't need to get out a bunch of ice and shakers, and i can just get my bottle opener, and I don't even have to wash a glass. This is the dream. hanging out with one of my guy friends. what yeah You're not like the other girls.
01:00:06
Speaker
ah So she literally says that she's not like other women. It's true. she And she's not. She's possibly the one.
01:00:17
Speaker
But she's not the only customer ah because who should walk through the door? But his best frenemy, Doug Coughlin. du Dun, dun, dun.
01:00:29
Speaker
Coughlin has now married the rich, beautiful woman he's always dreamed of. Carrie played by Kelly Lynch, who's perpetually wearing string bikinis. It seems both our boys have met their special someone. Everything's going great. Yeah.
01:00:43
Speaker
Well, I would say that one of them, you don't know if they're rich. So it's true. Really? It's but it's true. That may be right. That may be right.
01:00:56
Speaker
Yeah. In the bartending world, you got to have a rich lady. That's the final level. Otherwise, what are you doing this for? You're just wasting your time. It's like getting a PhD.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Like there this is your top level. It's like, yeah, you can bartend all day and all night. You're not a pro till you marry a rich lady. Yeah. You're still in the minors. ah Now, ah da tota tota they both go on a double date to a reggae club.
01:01:24
Speaker
And then ah Jordan Flanagan go on a series of island dates, riding horses, doing stuff like that. She draws his portrait. It's terrible. It's so bad. It's really bad. It's so bad.
01:01:36
Speaker
It's definitely going to be the image for the episode. ah And then he complains that he has yet to come up with a million dollar business. You know, something like Aglitz, which they call flugel blinders because they don't know what Aglitz are. Oh, I hate that scene.
01:01:53
Speaker
That is rough. Something in the late 80s. In the late 80s, people were briefly obsessed with what aglets were called. It was a gag that always popped up.
01:02:05
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. And then presumably people just learned what they were called and moved on. But i i that's honestly one of the most 80s things that's happened in a movie in a while.
01:02:19
Speaker
Yeah. Very of its era. ah And then ah the two of them, they go make love under a waterfall. And then they also make love under a campfire. It's classic two location lovemaking that we see in a lot of our bad movies. Yeah. You can't have sex in the water.
01:02:36
Speaker
Like, yeah, it's not going to work. that That might have been, you know, that's one of those movie things where you're like. oh man, when I get older, I'm going to have sex in the water. And then you get little older and you might be having sex in the water. you're like, this doesn't work at all. this is oh yeah yeah I'm going to hurt myself. thing good yeah We're slipping.
01:02:57
Speaker
let's go in the house in 69. Yeah, like grownups. We're eating amoeba in this water. yeah there's you got chlorine going places it shouldn't.
01:03:10
Speaker
And then ah the next day, Coughlin shows up at Flanagan's bar and he bets him 50 bucks that he can't bed this rich lady that just walked in. Obviously, Flanagan came back down from a bet.
01:03:23
Speaker
So he turns on the charm. And the next thing you know, these two are headed home together. Unfortunately, Jordan sees them together. So heartbroken, she flies home without even saying goodbye. Yeah. Yeah. This is honestly kind of a baffling decision to me.
01:03:38
Speaker
Yes. Man can't turn down a bat. Don't know that? And also she mentioned kids in previous scene. I guess so. I guess so. I guess I wasn't realizing the problem with that.
01:03:51
Speaker
That might be one of those bad screenplay things where it's like, ah, kind of heals, like turns him into a bad guy. Yeah. You know what I mean? In a way, it's like it takes away from his good guy-ness. It's also weird because she's like, and our kids were whatever, and he's like, kids, huh?
01:04:07
Speaker
It's not like kids, eh? Or like there's no real expression that he's like upset about it. Yeah, there's no Yeah, it's not like, well, I don't know if I want to. Or like, wow, that's going a little fast. It's just like kids, huh?
01:04:18
Speaker
And then we cut. he He doesn't say like, well, you know. And also like when you're sitting somewhere and and you're talking to somebody that you're involved with and they're like, Someday we'll have kids. Doesn't mean that it's going to happen. Yeah. Right. Just talk. Yeah. yeah That's the end of the discussion. It's also been like maybe four days.
01:04:40
Speaker
Yeah. There's a little time. There's a little leeway to figure some of this out, but he's also stupid and angry. He's so stupid. And yeah she is literally on vacation. You what mean? Like this yeah can't be the first vacationing woman that he has palled around with for a week.
01:04:58
Speaker
And possibly even fallen in love with for a week. He's been down there for three years.
01:05:05
Speaker
But, uh, let's see. Now, fortunately for Flanagan, Bonnie, the rich lady is completely dignotized and wants to take him home to New York.
01:05:16
Speaker
He ex excitedly tells his friend Coughlin that he did, in fact, sleep with that rich lady. So that's $50 you owe me right there. Boom. And... He will, in fact, not be coming back to New York with Coughlin, but he will be coming back to New York with her, and she's going to set him up.
01:05:35
Speaker
So then Coughlin bets him a bottle of Louis Trey's that Flanagan will be working at his bar by St. Paddy's Day. And for any guys listeners out there, Louis Trey's is essentially the Pappy Van Winkle of Brandy, is my understanding. Pappy.
01:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's buttery brandy. Yeah, it's but got a smooth butteriness. yeah it's It's also crazy to me that he could avoid so many terrible things in his life if he just went, I'm not going to take that bet.
01:06:04
Speaker
Yeah, he needs to learn to break. It's literally just a series of bets that destroy his life, more or less. You know, it's like in ah Back to the Future where he was like, nobody calls me chicken. Like, this guy has such an obvious button that you can just press yeah and he'll just do whatever you want. And you meet a guy like Coughlin and he's like, cool, I can make this guy do whatever I want. He's awesome.
01:06:27
Speaker
Now, ah once Flanagan gets to New York with Bonnie, it's not all it's cracked up to be. She doesn't get him a job that she promised. and She treats him like a manservant at this big art opening that they go to.
01:06:41
Speaker
Wah, wah, wah. She treats him like a kept man, which is what he is. Yeah, you knew what this was. but Lots of great fellas out there would be lucky to get with Bonnie.
01:06:53
Speaker
he There are bartenders all over New York that would love to be with Bonnie. Absolutely. He's different than other bartenders. He's Tom Cruise. Yeah.
01:07:05
Speaker
He's eviler in a way, which for bartenders is saying something. Yeah.
01:07:10
Speaker
But they end up breaking up after he gets in a fight with a sculptor. Soon after that. Also, can I say the own that he does on the sculpture is not good? yeah no no First of all, I couldn't figure out where it was going because he goes, how did you get the cockroach to stand still? And then he punches him, right? Yeah. So what was the joke? Like, what was what was the the the over the line? i guess he's saying your art looks like a cockroach. Your art looks like garbage.
01:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, but it was garbage. It was made from garbage. yeah I mean... this This is another one of those moments where it's just like, I'm just happy he's getting punched because he just kind of deserves to be punched. I don't know if they want me to sympathize with him or not. I don't really understand what the movie wants me to do with him as character.
01:07:59
Speaker
And the eighty s and and like I think there it's a really good... like that Modern art was so looked down upon for period. It still is in way. will destroy two pieces of modern art in this film by punching someone into the art, which is a great way to do it.
01:08:18
Speaker
and and But it was like that. Oh, yeah, that stupid thing that's in his house. That was stupid. Yeah. yeah yeah um That looks like blocks. Like, you know what? You stack a bunch of blocks together. But ah that was like a thing was like, it's still you see these conservatives all the time. like This is an art. This is art. And then post a picture of like.
01:08:39
Speaker
you know, a Norman rocket well lady yeah or like a half naked lady statue. It's like, oh, you're masturbating to that, sir. yeah Soon after breaking up with Bonnie, Flanagan goes to the diner where Jordan said she works and tries to explain everything that's going on. He's not going to leave until she lets him apologize.
01:09:02
Speaker
Classic move. Yeah. Worst customers on a planet at that place. Like, fuck off. We have theater tickets. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's mad. Ma'am. Ma'am. Ma'am. you She's been on aggressive fucking. right I guess it's New York. So people are aggressive there.
01:09:22
Speaker
ah He waits for her outside to get off of work so that he can explain. So she invites him over. ah to her loft where she has painted a four foot by six foot landscape painting of the waterfall where the two of them made love. But also she's like, I don't know. Maybe it's another waterfall.
01:09:40
Speaker
Yeah. Who cares? It's called, it's called Mooney, not Monet. It's true. It's which is such a stupid name. ah He tells her that he only slept with that other woman because his drinking buddy dared him to. And she says, get out of my life, you horrible piece of garbage. And also, I'm pregnant.
01:10:04
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. She did want kids. Yeah. Yeah, she said that. She did have unprotected sex on the waterfall. And she might have known right at that sex time, like, oh, shit, yeah you made a kid in me.
01:10:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, you can tell right away. That's what I've heard. Yeah. yeah ah Flanagan, he leaves with his tail tucked between his legs. and He goes to visit his uncle Pat for advice.
01:10:28
Speaker
Okay, and he has not been in the movie for at least an hour at this point. oh yeah I had forgotten that this character existed. And at the beginning, his only advice is like, don't be a bartender, I guess, or you're never going to be successful. His only advice was you'll never be successful in finance, which I guess he was fucking right about. Yeah. Uncle Pat wasn't lying. And he was like, yeah if you're going into the bar business, steal every dollar you can. Every dollar that you see is yours. Grab it.
01:10:56
Speaker
ah But he does say you ought to know better than to come to a bartender for advice. So the next thing we know, Flanagan is tracking down Jordan. She's left her loft and is staying at her father's place, which is a Park Avenue penthouse. What? What? What a surprise.
01:11:16
Speaker
It turns out that Jordan does come from money, which makes sense because her name is Mooney.
01:11:24
Speaker
When Flanagan gets to the Mooney residence, Jordan is out. So her father tells Flanagan that he's a piece of shit and then offers him 10 grand to get out of her life.
01:11:35
Speaker
yeah Can't blame dad for this one. No. listen Yeah, I'm not like ah I'm a dad and my daughter's 21 and I'm not like overly caring. who's I mean, she has a boyfriend, but I'm not like, oh, yeah'all you you stay away from her. But he's right. Everything he says, unfortunately, is. Yeah.
01:11:51
Speaker
He is a piece of shit. Yeah. Yeah. I would be nervous if, but like, if you, if you play, ju if you just think about the relationship between he and Elizabeth shoe, it's like, your daughter, if, if like your daughter came home and told you all this stuff, plus I'm pregnant, you'd be like, well, this guy's kind of a real piece of shit. it seems like a piece of shit because he is a piece of shit. I never take the rich dad's side. yeah but Yeah. Yeah. Right. It's a weird daughter comes home and says, yeah, I, I fucked a bartender in Jamaica and then he broke my heart. were like, I bet that guy's a piece of shit. And you're right. Yeah.
01:12:34
Speaker
Oh, I wonder what she did tell her dad. there's There's not much information in there for you to know. Like, did she tell her dad? I fucked a bartender in the water when I was in Jamaica. He knocked me up and then he ran away with a rich lady. I bet she left out the waterfall. Yeah. butt Yeah, yeah.
01:12:51
Speaker
She probably talked more about tales about how they fucked. Yeah. Yeah. Then we went over by the fireplace and we kept. that And her dad's like, you can't fucking water. you That never works. Yeah. She's like, that's true.
01:13:04
Speaker
That's why we went to the beach.
Dramatic Plot Points and Character Decisions
01:13:06
Speaker
Yeah. That's why we went to the fire. Now, ah Jordan comes back and says she doesn't want to give him a second chance because he's clearly a piece of shit. Everybody has his number.
01:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. So then he tears up Mr. Mooney's $10,000 check and he storms out of there and he heads downtown to find his friend Coughlin, who is now running the fanciest bar you've ever seen.
01:13:29
Speaker
He sneaks in with a bottle of Louis Trey's and Coughlin is incredibly happy to see him because Coughlin is now absolutely miserable. It seems things have not gone to plan.
01:13:42
Speaker
His bar is losing money hand over fist, and he lost all his savings and the commodities market. Carrie doesn't know about any of this. She doesn't know that they're now broke.
01:13:53
Speaker
And then he passes out. He definitely knows. Yeah. Well, she doesn't seem too concerned. Maybe she still has her own money. Yeah, I think she's probably doing it. Okay.
01:14:05
Speaker
She gives him $100,000 a month, I think he said, which is if you can't make something happen with that, I don't know what to fucking tell you. Yeah. Yeah. Frankly, I don't know what you want to make happen. The $100,000 a month is that don't do anything. I'm done. I know. I know. $100,000 a month. like Even today.
01:14:25
Speaker
Even today, you could live a wonderful life on that. And never have to work again. Like, it's just an amount, of but it's very funny that that's what he's getting. Yeah. He's like, that's my nut. That's, that's what I'm bringing to the table. And it's like, so you want to be in business with this guy that can't make a go with a hundred thousand dollars.
01:14:47
Speaker
Yeah. At a bar that is clearly packed with customers who have a lot of money. Rich customers. Yeah. He's sitting at it. For some reason, he doesn't bartend anymore. He just sits at a table. Yeah. It looks like with other rich people. And then he walks outside and he says, order some more drink. I thought that was on a boat, by the way. Like, thought that was a booze cruise.
01:15:12
Speaker
I guess his bar is on the water. He must have a place on the river. Yeah. Oh, okay. well Yeah, it looked like it was around 42nd Street. I think rich people can pull up in their boats to go to a restaurant. great Great investment to be on a boat any he in a state where you can only really do it for half the year. but Yeah. Really smart bar, buddy.
01:15:36
Speaker
Well, it turns out it didn't work out for him. No, it didn't. On top of that, Carrie does seem to want to have sex with old Flanagan and invites him over to the apartment.
01:15:50
Speaker
ah He responds, i can't make it with my best friend's old lady, which was one of the weirdest turns of phrase in the entire movie. It feels...
01:16:02
Speaker
It's my favorite line in the film. Right. I can't make it. an adult if Imagine an adult comes to you and says, I can't make it with that lady over there. You're like, what are you fucking six? Yeah. It's such a six-year-old. It's such a young kid way of saying we can't fuck.
01:16:21
Speaker
But also, like, it does feel like it was something written for a guy who was in his 30s in the 1970s. Do you know what I mean? It is not a guy in his 20s in the 80s.
01:16:33
Speaker
He runs back to Coughlin's boat and he finds...
01:16:39
Speaker
Bummer alarm. Bummer alarm. This next bit is kind of a bummer.
01:16:46
Speaker
Coughlin has slit his own throat with a glass from the bottle of Louis Trey's. ah It's very gory and very shocking and very weird for what I thought was going to be a light romantic comedy about a bartender. this This is undeserved in this film. There's no way you can put this in this film and just be like, this is this is how it goes. it's ah And he like runs his fingers through the blood, which is the craziest thing to me. He's like, is this blood? It's like, obviously it's blood.
01:17:13
Speaker
like I know you're in denial, but like come on. This is bizarre. And he just starts screaming at the top of his lungs. Help me. help me So bizarre.
01:17:27
Speaker
Yeah. Really great scene. Really hilarious. We get a quick shot of funeral. Yeah, probably the most hilarious suicide I've seen on film in a long time. We get a quick shot of the funeral before we get Flanagan coming back to his little queen's apartment and opening up the mail.
01:17:45
Speaker
And in the mail, he finds Coughlin's suicide note, which Carrie forwarded to him. The suicide note says, in essence, I was wrong about literally everything. Don't live your life like me.
01:17:59
Speaker
so then he rushes back to Mr. Mooney's apartment and he tells Jordan that Coughlin is dead and begs her to come with him. Uh, he gets in a fist fight with her doorman. They knock over another modern sculpture.
01:18:12
Speaker
Uh, she leaves with him. They get married and Flanagan finally opens cocktails and dreams with a loan from his uncle. the Oh, and they're going twins. The end. got cut off. They had to get cut off, so he had to borrow the money from his uncle. life yeah Yeah, so he can make it on his own. That's the real American dream to know nobody. It really is.
01:18:34
Speaker
I mean, that's how you make it. Know a guy or have a rich relative. yeah Yeah, who will give you no-interest loan for as long as you need.
01:18:46
Speaker
But final thoughts.
Movie Watchability and Character Analysis
01:18:49
Speaker
Five star readings. We like to do watchability and weirdness here your favorite bad movie podcast. Greg, how watchable and how weirdness did you find this movie? Yeah, so this is a five star for watchability. I think this is something that, at least for me, it's a five star. think it would be a really entertaining bad movie watch. Yeah.
01:19:12
Speaker
This is just a lot of fun despite the fact how terrible everybody is. um and it's it's kind of weird.
01:19:22
Speaker
It's very normal seeming. But if you like examine it at all, it becomes very weird. The only real redeeming quality of the main character is that he's Tom Cruise, which is Yeah, like a whole movie that seems to be about who is going to turn around his life, except that he never does. He just takes a series of bad bets that ruin his life. And then in the end, he's like, I should probably not continue down this path, I guess. So take me back. I'm sorry. And she's like, OK, but I don't really know why
01:19:56
Speaker
They don't seem to like each other. It's more a story about two dudes who should just like be together forever. But instead, the one of them just keeps ruining the other one's life and then his own.
01:20:08
Speaker
ah And is so I'm going to say like three and a half for weird. It's like kind of normal seeming, but at the same time, pretty odd. If you examine. Absolutely.
01:20:19
Speaker
Well, how about you, Anna, in terms of watchability and weirdness? Where did you end up? I will also give this around a three, three and a half for weird. um many The things that happen are not that weird in and of themselves, but the the off-screen motivations, because they're just entirely missing yeah from the characters and the characterizations,
01:20:44
Speaker
people are just kind of lurching from one bad decision to another. And that, that felt very weird to me. don't know if on a formal film level, um it is, it's incredibly watchable. It, it just goes down really smooth ah for, all for all that it lurches. Yeah.
01:21:08
Speaker
So I'll give that, I don't know. I'll give that a four. Yeah. um Yeah, i'm glad i'm glad i ah I'm glad I watched this one finally. yeah all A real weird one. Still thinking about it.
01:21:21
Speaker
It'll stay there for a while. It's a rich meal. ah I gave it a three stars for watchability. It is very intense, but it is also kind of all over the place. It can be kind of hard to clock where you are at any point in the movie. So if you're the kind of person who like...
01:21:38
Speaker
starts to phase out, you might start to phase out a little bit somewhere around when they get to Jamaica for a little while, who knows? Uh, and also there is a very sudden, very graphic suicide, which I think for me, sort of,
01:21:52
Speaker
knocks it down, scoach, uh, for, for weirdness, I gave it four stars. You've got, uh, nuclear levels of charisma between the male leads, but they also just suck. And that's very strange. Yeah.
01:22:05
Speaker
They both, you just two very charming, very kind of shitty guys. And it's also like very, conservative coded in its moral compass in a very eighties way that I think it's just very strange to see a movie from this moral viewpoint.
01:22:22
Speaker
I think it's what dates it more than anything, even more than the aglets. Yeah. Brian out of five stars in terms of watchability and weirdness, what do you think?
01:22:33
Speaker
ah For watchability, I give anything that's under two hours at these days, like a four. i' I'll watch anything for an hour and 40 minutes. For real. And for weirdness. Yeah. That's like ah of a three or a four, you know, where it's like ah the universe. I'm interested enough to understand more of the universe that it takes place in. I would watch a cocktail, too. Oh, for sure. They definitely should do a cocktail, too.
01:22:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. that That concept just blew my mind. Greg, you've got a segment for us. I do. Let's press on. We got a little bit of a tangent.
01:23:14
Speaker
Sure, the movie is the main event. But that's not the case with this segment. No need to be sad or lament.
01:23:27
Speaker
Because we're going on a tangent. Tangent.
01:23:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's the name of this segment. Going on a tangent.
01:23:48
Speaker
Tangent. Tangent.
01:23:57
Speaker
All right, everybody. i would like to talk to you a little bit about TGI
Cultural Impact of TGI Fridays
01:24:03
Speaker
Fridays. Now, its connection to cocktail is interesting, and we will get to that.
01:24:08
Speaker
But when I first watched cocktail, I was like, so this is like kind of about TGI Fridays? And it has led to years of me just, whatever information about TGI Fridays crosses my bow, I'm always picking that up and I'm engaging with that.
01:24:24
Speaker
So we're going to get into the start of TGI Fridays because it has, it is responsible for some things culturally that I don't think people really, really understand here.
01:24:35
Speaker
So TGI Fridays, um, currently has from the information I saw, 380 locations in 35 countries. I think it might be slightly higher than that. At its peak it had 600 locations, which is crazy to me. But the first location ah is started by Alan Stillman. He borrows $5,000 from his mom and ponies up $5,000 of his own money and purchases one of his favorite bars called The Good Tavern on the corner of 63rd and First Avenue in New York City.
01:25:09
Speaker
They're going to open $10,000 to buy that. That's right. um They're going to, he has no experience as a restaurant tour or a bartender. We're going to get into his, when we start talking about the second thing that TGI Fridays is for, we'll talk about his motivations, ah but he opens it. Is that the Upper East Side or? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. ok Okay. So he opens the doors March 15th, 1965. He purchases his fit. One of his favorite bars called the good Tavern.
01:25:35
Speaker
And he turns that into TGI Fridays. So now the first thing we're going to talk about with TGI Fridays that makes cultural waves is its decor and its connection to what is called fern bars.
01:25:46
Speaker
So TGI Fridays ah has a red and white striped awning. oh So let me go back here for one second. A lot of sixty s a lot of people in the 60s are really obsessed with the gay 90s. It's based on the book written by R.V. Cutler called The Gay ninety s So there becomes this kind of people are interested in this concept and bars at this time are very dark, seedy, kind of dingy places that were after prohibition, where like men in trench coats would go to like drink their sorrows away. so they were not really that inviting socially. And then you had very prim and proper like chain places like a Howard Johnson or formal cocktail, you know, like fancy kind of places. They don't have anything kind of in the middle here. So he is influenced by the gay nineties. So he adds wooden floors.
01:26:38
Speaker
They get a lot of bentwood chairs, lot of brass rail accents, and then a lot of art deco designs, stained glass, Tiffany lamps, and then a lot of just shit on the walls, a lot kitsch stuff on the walls. Now I can't tell if TGI Fridays had ferns in 65, but but if you take all of that get rid of the awning and add in ferns what you've got is a fern bar and fern bars were a big thing on the west coast tgi fridays basically is the first proto fern bar uh and then trident in i think the bay area though i didn't write it down is technically the first one to like be a real fern bar and then the bigger one is henry africa's they give us the lemon drop
01:27:24
Speaker
Okay. The fern bars are this fantastic. And fern bars are where people who are going to tiki bars go after tiki bars kind of lost their appeal and they fill in that. But what's weird is they are basically eventually become yuppie bars. So it's weird to see them picking on the cell block as being like kind of this yuppie thing when fern bars are themselves very yuppie ish. And also Fern Bars are going to lead us to our second thing that TGI Fridays is known for, which is Fern Bars are considered singles bars.
01:27:55
Speaker
And TGI Fridays is more or less the first singles bar in existence. Oh boy, single guys. Yeah. So so this is what it is.
01:28:06
Speaker
Well, now you can put them all in one bar. That's better. yeah and then Alan Stillman is having trouble meeting women. At this point, women could have trouble going out socially. It was like they had to be invited on dates or they had to go to cocktail parties that men invited them to. So they don't have anywhere else to go. When was this? I don't think this is 65.
01:28:26
Speaker
Okay. So, and also at this point, we've got the rise of second wave feminism and the birth control pill. So we've got more women looking for something to do independently, but they can't go to the CD bars because it's not exactly safe.
01:28:41
Speaker
It's not exactly welcoming. So he's making something that's welcoming, which is how we get this gay nineties aesthetic. And he is literally trying to meet a woman, which is why he opens TGI Fridays. Okay. Also, allegedly, there's a lot of stewardesses and models that live in the apartments above him. And the statistic I found said that there are nearly 800,000 single people in between 90th Street along First Avenue.
01:29:08
Speaker
So this is a prime location. So yeah technically, the first single bar is Malachy's single bar. or singles bar But sometimes in commerce, the second is the first or at very least the one. And TGI Fridays is the one. TGI Fridays is really, really successful. Really successful. So successful that on Friday nights between the hours of 8 p.m. and 12 a.m., the police have to shut down First Avenue between sixty third and 64th Street. I'm going to try to put into chat here. I don't know if it got posted. I was trying to put a picture that I have of people just milling out in the street. They were the first place, apparently, to put up ropes to control lines and the first place to have a doorman to like keep people out, which is insane to me. Yeah.
01:30:02
Speaker
Huh. And then ah this becomes so popular That he starts, he's like, I have to franchise this because people are starting to copycat me. So the franchising begins in 67. Pretty quick. Very quickly, very quickly. But it's not until later where he starts franchising to like suburban malls. That's going to begin in the Okay.
01:30:27
Speaker
um But by 74 or 75, they definitely have ferns. There is a there's like an article of a reporter going there. His female friends like this is a fern bar. And he's really upset because when he opens up the matchbook, it says, come prepared to meet someone new. But they've also got a kid's menu.
01:30:48
Speaker
And so he's like, am I supposed to pick up a 12 year old? Is that what they're trying to get me to do? But this is because of that, like problem where TGI Fridays are in suburban malls, but they're also single bars at night. So it's starting to have this strange kind of place in society.
01:31:08
Speaker
Um, And eventually in 75, they sell it to the Carlson Group, which is where things really, truly begin to change for TGI Fridays. It becomes more franchise based. And this is where we get our connection to cocktail because it's in 85 or 86 where they start doing the flair bartending is encouraged by the people at the Carlson Group.
01:31:31
Speaker
Also, it doesn't help that Stillman has said have you seen the movie Cocktail? Tom Cruise played me. why do girls want to Why do girls want to date the bartender to this day? I'm not certain that I get it. From what I can tell, the movie iss not actually about Stillman any way, shape or form. But it is shot in the first street.
01:31:50
Speaker
ah location. They do make the reference to franchising to suburban malls, which is hilarious that this guy be like, this will never work. It's like it worked in 1974. So I don't know why you're so down on it at this point.
01:32:04
Speaker
um And also to the bartenders. the bartenders at TGI Fridays he wanted them to be very very good so at the start and eventually I think this continued on to the flair bartending you got to be a bar back for nine months you got to pass tests you got to know how to make 400 drinks down to the ounce you have to have that ship memorized and these bartenders are pulling in 300 500 night which even today i would take, frankly, $300 a day would be a great life.
01:32:40
Speaker
But these guys were getting that in the sixties, which is crazy. ah So the flair bartending begins when they're trying to encourage people to do more, express their personality behind the bar. So they take three bartenders, John JB Bandy, John Mescal and Magic Mike. They go to corporate and they film a video for how to flare bartend. And this is what blows this up. But I don't think flare bartending ever really, like I feel like flare bartending is, like, all in our brains for, like, what bartenders do.
01:33:14
Speaker
But I think it really only existed at TGI Fridays and all of the competitions that were sponsored by TGI Fridays in various other communities. I didn't track that too much because it was really confusing as to who was in control of what or what kind of impact it had on anything in any way, shape, or form.
01:33:32
Speaker
um But as you said, it's John JB Bandy that's going to teach Tom Cruise and Brian Brown how to do the flare bartending. So that's where we get a real strong connection to TGI Fridays. The interior atmosphere TGI Fridays, I think, is relatively accurate for what was going on.
01:33:50
Speaker
um Interesting. And it is insane to me. that if anyone here has ever met anybody in a bar or if their parents met in a bar, if anyone listening to this has parents who met in a bar, that is more or less because TGI Fridays.
01:34:08
Speaker
It's insane to me that TGI Fridays is what gave us modern bar culture. Wow. Yeah. That is interesting to think about. Yes. And so, uh, as they often say, it's, it's TGI Fridays here in my heart all the time. I love TGI Fridays. Not that I've ever gone back to them or eat there or buy any of their potato skins in the grocery store, but thank you for listening to me, everybody.
01:34:32
Speaker
Well, thank you for telling us so much about TGI Fridays. I genuinely feel much smarter on the subject than I did when the episode started. All right. Fantastic. Goal achieved. All right.
01:34:43
Speaker
And that means it's
Fun Game Segment
01:34:44
Speaker
game time. We're going to play a little guess the title.
01:34:56
Speaker
Let me tell you about this brand new game where you guess the movie's name. You just tell me what the title is prove you know about showbiz.
01:35:11
Speaker
Guess the title. Whippa, whippa, whippa, whippa. Guess the title. Gooby, gooby, gooby, gooby. Guess the title. Guess the title.
01:35:21
Speaker
Come on, honey. the title. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:35:34
Speaker
they're doing guess the title with the films of Brian Brown, who obviously played Cogwell. ah don't These are all guessing games, Brian. Don't feel like I know how ah ah into trivia you can get, but this is a guessing game. So you can, this is just going to be what it's going to be.
01:35:52
Speaker
What I'm is I'm going to give you the plot of a film that he was in, and I'm going to give you three titles, and I want you to buzz in and guess the title. You'll bus in by saying your own name. If your opponents get it wrong, you will have the chance to steal.
01:36:05
Speaker
Is everybody ready? Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. All right. Question number one. Killer sharks invade the waters off the Florida coast as co-eds celebrate spring break.
01:36:19
Speaker
Is that college chums? Blood on the beach or spring break shark attack. Brian. b Brian.
01:36:30
Speaker
Spring break shark attack.
01:36:34
Speaker
You're correct. Yeah. Question number two, a successful, but world weary art dealer finds out that her usual masseur has sent a substitute for her regular weekly massage at home.
01:36:48
Speaker
And it turns out that the massage is just the beginning. he oh Is this full body massage, human touch, or the magic fingers?
01:37:02
Speaker
Greg. Anna. Greg? Human touch.
01:37:10
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. It wasn't human touch. Greg or aunt Brian or Anna or Brian. Can you see? um Magic fingers. Yeah.
01:37:23
Speaker
Brian gets the other one. i say the other one.
01:37:28
Speaker
It was full body massage. You're correct, Brian. Oh, I was going to guess that actually. So it's fine. Yeah, absolutely. You can hang back in the cut. That's a valid strategy.
01:37:40
Speaker
I'm winning now. Yeah. Question number three. Corrupt police officers use their trained police dogs to hunt men for sport in this 1998 made-for-TV movie directed by Ken Russell.
01:37:56
Speaker
Wow. Was this Dog Boys, If He Hollers, or Fetch? Brian. Brian. If He Hollers.
01:38:10
Speaker
I'm sorry, Brian. It's probably Fetch. Yeah, great. Anna. Great. Anna, actually, I think. Yeah, I was going to get guess fetch. Oh. Oh, no. I'm glad I didn't say anything.
01:38:25
Speaker
That was Dog Boys, Greg. You get the point. Yes. It didn't seem possible that it would be called Dog Boys to me. It doesn't make any sense. No. Question number four.
01:38:37
Speaker
It's 69 AD and a streetwise hustler named Marcus Didius Falco needs to clear his name in a murder case that has ties to the Roman emperor Vespasian.
01:38:51
Speaker
Was this called blood in the forum age of treason or Falco's dare a Marcus Didius Falco mystery. Anna.
01:39:03
Speaker
Anna. Falco's dare. Yeah.
01:39:08
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. wasn't Falco's dare. Greg? You tricked me. Greg? Blood on the forum?
01:39:17
Speaker
No, it wasn't blood on the forum. Looks like Brian gets the point. get it win. That was when Age of Treason. Age of Treason.
01:39:28
Speaker
Age of Treason. Sorry, plenty game left to play. Question number five. professional hitman Charlie Wolf finds himself in three tales of murder, blackmail, and revenge after a botched contract assignment.
01:39:44
Speaker
Was this triple cross kill me three times or deadly Trinity?
01:39:53
Speaker
Brian, Brian, deadly Trinity.
01:39:58
Speaker
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm going to, I'm going to Greg. Anna. Greg? Kill me three times.
01:40:08
Speaker
Correct. Sometimes you have to kill someone three times. That's the Rasputin or something. Yeah, exactly.
01:40:19
Speaker
Question number six. A classic tale of adventure, family, and the friendship that forms between a young boy and the scrappy one-of-a-kind dog that would grow up to become an Australian legend.
01:40:33
Speaker
oh Is this Red Dog True Blue, Red Dog Walkabout, or Red Dog Good Boy? Anna.
01:40:45
Speaker
Anna? Red Dog Walkabout. No, I'm sorry. wasn't Red Dog. Red Brian. Brian? Red Dog True Blue.
01:40:58
Speaker
That's correct, Brian.
01:41:01
Speaker
Question number seven. Rose loses her marriage and her job when her husband, who is also her boss, has an affair with her assistant and fires her. Now she's really pissed off.
01:41:15
Speaker
Is that square one? All husbands must pay or revenge of the middle-aged woman. Wow. That's lot of good choice. Greg.
01:41:28
Speaker
Greg. All husbands must pay. I like that name, though. I wanted to say it. It's a good title. Anna or Brian?
01:41:40
Speaker
ah Anna, square one.
01:41:47
Speaker
Brian. I don't get points for that. Technically, you do. shouldn't. But in a way, I kind of You do. Question number eight.
01:42:00
Speaker
When a young boy is captured by a grizzly bear, he begins the most incredible journey of a lifetime, full of harrowing danger, breathtaking excitement, and thrilling surprises.
01:42:16
Speaker
Is that walking with bears, man cub, or grizzly falls? Greg. Greg? Man cub. cub.
01:42:31
Speaker
Also a funny name. Brian. Brian? Grizzly Falls. eagle Correct. Yeah.
01:42:41
Speaker
Last one. Question number nine. A cynical Australian ex-Vietnam veteran runs a sleazy bar in the Philippines. His old flame enters his life again asking for help saving her husband, an investigative journalist that's being prosecuted by the junta for discovering too much.
01:43:00
Speaker
Is that Far East? Return of the Viper? Or Dugan?
01:43:11
Speaker
Anna. Anna? Dugan. No, I'm sorry. It wasn't Dugan. The best name of the one. Greg? Greg? Return of the Viper. Man. Man.
01:43:28
Speaker
oh Tough game, right? Yeah. Brian, you get the point. just nice to hear more of Kokomo, frankly.
01:43:41
Speaker
It's a beautiful song. It is. And the good news is, Brian, that means you're our big winner. I love winning.
Memorable Movie Moments and Closing Remarks
01:44:00
Speaker
Oh, it's the Batty Awards.
01:44:09
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:44:25
Speaker
Congratulations to all the nominees!
01:44:32
Speaker
That's right. It's the Batty Awards. Those little awards that make a bad movie what it is. I guess I'm still trying to think of a better way to explain this. We'll get there. We'll get there. Greg, Greg, why don't you just illustrate with an example? do you have a Batty Yeah, I do. So there's a lot of this movie that I remember, but there's always a part that I forget, which is the letter that Douglas Coughlin sends to him afterward. And every time that this one part comes up, it always perplexes me and delights me. So Tom Cruise opens it and you hear it written or you hear it read in the voice of Coughlin like he's reading the letter to Tom Cruise like Tom Cruise is experiencing this in his brain. And like in between two statements Coughlin just chuckles to himself.
01:45:16
Speaker
And it's such a delightful and students. Like, did he write out that he chuckles? Did Tom Cruise picture him chuckling? And that's why it's Chuck. It's just, it perplexes me every time and it delights me always. And I'm so glad that I always forget that it exists because it's such a delight.
01:45:33
Speaker
A fantastic award. Anna, do you have a batty award? ah Yeah, and it was mentioned, but I just want to bring it up again. um It's the the sketch that Jordan draws of Brian. Oh, yeah. Because it's it's so bad, and I love it that it's bad. And I really i really hope that Elizabeth Shue actually drew it.
01:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, I hope so, too. I'm going to give my baddie awards to Coghlan's Laws. I loved it whenever Coghlan would start saying Coghlan's Laws. I've got all four of them written down here. He only says four?
01:46:08
Speaker
There's only four. That's crazy. Coghlan's Law. Coghlan's Law number one. Anything else is always something better. Sure. It's good to mix it up.
01:46:19
Speaker
Coghlan's Law number two. Never show surprise. Never lose your cool.
01:46:25
Speaker
Coughlin's Law, number three, never tell tales about a woman. No matter how far she is, she'll hear you. And number four, Coughlin's Law, bury the dead. They stink up the joint.
01:46:39
Speaker
yeah have got That was about himself. Yeah. Bury me. Another great moment in his letter. I stink. Yeah. Brian, do you have a batty award? It's a weird scene in this movie where they're walking home and they're singing a wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom. I think that's what it is. Chantilly lace. First of all, the dumbest... saw yeah Like, if you saw guys walking down the street singing that. But that's not the part i'm talking about. I'm talking about the part where...
01:47:08
Speaker
Coughlin falls down a fucking flight of steps in a a subway and then they gets up and walks a fall that would kill you. Yeah. like It seemed like such an excuse to get a stunt guy to fall down the stairs because he falls like a stunt guy. Yeah. And then, but after that, he's like, he gets back up, he climbs back up the stairs. And then before it switches to the next scene, he just throws Tom Cruise's character down the stairs. I was like, damn, he could have killed that guy. I thought that was very funny. Yeah. Good old. I'm glad I don't walk around drunk in New York anymore because that, that is the kind of thing that you would find yourself doing if you were drunk enough.
01:47:48
Speaker
Cause you walked everywhere and you were, was drank so much when I was there. easy to do. Brian, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been so great to have you. It's been so nice to meet you.
01:48:02
Speaker
In case there are listeners who don't know about guys and anything else you got going on, please plug anything you want to plug. It's guys, a podcast about guys. Usually, I think if you search guys podcast, my show will come up.
01:48:15
Speaker
And, you know, it's a fun. It's me and Chris James talking about weird guys with a guest every week. But a lot of me and Chris. It's it's a fantastic show. I really can't recommend it enough.
01:48:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's great. listeners come back next week when we're going to be talking about uh grimsby with al baits returning to the show al baits and make sure you find us on ah instagram and blue sky you can find those uh link in the show description to our link tree take you to our discord we're watching movies i think it's got a link to our plex we've got every movie we ever covered on the plex and ah Oh, to take us out, we've got a little bit of the love theme from Cocktail, Shelter of Your Love by ah Jimmy Cliff. I hope you like it. And until next week, ah goodbye.
01:49:12
Speaker
Be good. Goodbye. Bye. is a song that would play whenever they were thinking about making love.
01:49:41
Speaker
Fortunately, the hook is way in there, so I'm just going to. Run for the shelter of your love. Run for the shelter of your love. Run for the shelter.