I know this was very successful when it came out. But it was never a movie that I had any specific knowledge of. I knew that it had Tom Cruise as a bartender, and that the song Kokomo came from the soundtrack.
It's a better movie than I was expecting. It does have some major weaknesses, but the heart of the movie is about the relationship between mentor and protege, as well as their relationships with money, women, and alcohol. It's easily the most interesting aspect of the movie. Things tend to get campy and dull when we move away from their relationship, and instead focus on the romance between Tom Cruise and Elizabeth Shue. These scenes intend to reframe the movie as a romance, and less about the dark life lessons of the mentor.
The other core problem with the movie is that Tom Cruise's character is bad in nearly every possible way. He's not malevolent, but he's selfish, and he doesn't grasp when he's doing something wrong, or hurting someone. They establish early in the movie that he's actually a very charismatic person, and that he can talk his way around a lot of difficulties. But then, by the end of the movie, he can't explain simple thoughts, or make a reasonably compelling argument.
But they gave it a happy ending, and I suppose it is a uniquely American type of story, given his incredible fixation on becoming a millionaire.
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