Five of the Best Cocktail Movies

Let us just start by saying, the list thing has run its course. Jonah Peretti and Ben Smith may be the face of digital journalism, but every one of their signature listicles together don't carry the weight of a single issue of Life Magazine or National Geographic. Product placement is nothing new, and the sheer amount of it in the movie E.T. may border on shameless, but no one ever claimed it was journalism. And it was certainly much more subtle and interesting than the fusion of some random number of pop culture references and a moniker oddly reminiscent of male genitalia.

All that aside, some things just beg to be assembled, and rather than share the following mandatory cocktail culture films each in their own post, we thought we would break with tradition and go with the flow.

If you have any favorites of your own not listed here, please share in the comments or @microshiner. Cheers!

1. Casablanca

Foregoing the fact that Casablanca is the best film of all time, its also set in a bar. Half of Bogie's lines are now part of the American lexicon, and Ingrid Bergman, well, enough said.

2. Cocktail

Let's get it out of the way. It's called Cocktail. It has Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue. Watch it.

3. James Bond

Spanning 50 years of film history, James Bond is a cinematic icon. Regardless whether they prefer Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, ask anybody in the world how Bond takes his drink and chances are they will tell you, "shaken, not stirred." Probably with a bad accent. 

4. Sex in the City

Four beautiful women, a couple hundred pairs of Ferragamo's, sex, and a cosmo. What more can you ask for?

5. The Big Lebowski 

Outside of Sex in the City, there are few films about which it can be said that a cocktail played a starring role, but The Big Lebowski is one of them. It is also one of those rare movies (alongside Full Metal Jacket) whose pure genius can be understood simply by reading the screenplay.