despite its box office success, the film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. review aggregator rotten tomatoes reports that 5% of 43 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 3.86/10. the website's critical consensus reads, "there are no surprises in "cocktail", a shallow, dramatically inert romance that squanders tom cruise's talents in what amounts to a naive barkeep's banal fantasy." on metacritic, the film has a 12 out of 100 score based on 14 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike".