Tag: movie cocktails

Action/Adventure/Heist · Children's

Hook

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Image: Hook, 1991

Because Tiki bars seem to be shifting more and more toward the pirate end of the spectrum, it seems like a great opportunity to revisit one of my favorite fictional pirates, Captain Hook. If you were born between the years 1980-1984, you might love Steven Spielberg’s Hook (Disc/Download) as much as I do. And if you missed the boat (or pirate ship in this case), worry not. This movie suggests you’re never too old to fly to Neverland.

In the grand tradition of 1990s high concept films, Hook approaches the Peter Pan story in a very clever way. Peter Banning (Robin Williams) is now a grown adult, living a horrible existence as a stressed-out attorney. He misses his kids’ events, neglects his wife, and never has any fun. Ever. He doesn’t remember that he decided to abandon Neverland when he was twelve years old, having fallen for Wendy Darling’s granddaughter. He doesn’t even remember that his name used to be Peter Pan! When Peter returns to Wendy’s house at Christmas, his old nemesis Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) kidnaps his kids, forcing Peter to confront the truth about his origin story. In journeying to Neverland to rescue his children, Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys remind Peter that happy thoughts have the power to make him fly, and that joy and love are the most important things in life, not money.

Hook is a great movie to watch with a Tiki beverage because it really leans into the island escape fantasy. There are mermaids, beaches, jungles, and pirate ships galore, along with a truly epic coconut food fight. While watching Hook, I recommend drinking a Bangarang!

Bangarang!

1 oz Silver Rum (I used Planteray 3 Stars)

1 oz Dark Rum (I used Myers Dark Rum)

¼ oz Pot-Stilled Jamaican Rum (I used Smith & Cross)

½ oz Falernum

1 ½ oz Pineapple Juice

¾ oz Lime Juice

¾ oz Coconut Cream

2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

2 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters

Suggested Garnish: orchid + dried lime wheel + edible glitter

Combine all ingredients except garnishes in a blender or drink mixer with 1 cup crushed ice. Flash blend for about 5-10 seconds, then pour entire contents into barrel mug. Garnish with an orchid and dried lime wheel, then sprinkle a little edible glitter (hello, Pixie Dust!).

Nelson’s Demise Barrel Mug by Dave “Squid” Cohen

I won’t go into too much detail about the cast because it’s epic and must be seen to be believed. But I will say that Bob Hoskins as Smee has me wishing I were a pirate wench, and Dante Basco as Lost Boy leader Rufio is still the stuff of geriatric millennials’ dreams. Revisiting a favorite childhood movie is always special because it’s a reminder that parts of you never grow up. Inside every adult, there’s still a kid who dreams of flying off to the second star to the right, straight on ‘til morning. Cheers!

Comedies

Back to the Beach

LizLocke2 Comments
Image: Beach to the Beach, 1987

Some movies get burned into your brain at such a young age that decades later, you can still remember flashes of dialogue and music. Back to the Beach (Disc/Download) is one such movie for me, forming a core 1980s childhood imprint as well as a lifelong love of 1960s kitsch.

My gateway into loving this movie was undoubtedly Pee-wee Herman’s cameo. Back in the eighties, I adored Pee-wee, and Pee-wee on a surfboard, doing the “Surfin’ Bird” was extremely exciting. The recent documentary Pee-wee as Himself unlocked a lot of memories, making me gasp with recognition at the Tiki idol near the door of his playhouse, Miss Yvonne’s retro A-line dresses, and all that large-scale terrazzo. Somehow, I’ve styled my life like Pee-wee’s without even realizing it! But it doesn’t stop there. Back to the Beach is an important part of the Liz Locke lore because it also incorporates my love of 1960s surf culture and teen beach movies. Frankie and Annette bring their helmet hair and cheeky dialogue into the 1980s, reprising old characters as they attempt to save their marriage, save their daughter (played by Lori Loughlin, or as I know her, “Aunt Becky”), and save the beach from a group of leather-clad punks. Somehow, this spoof of the beach movies works even better than the originals because it never takes itself seriously. We’re supposed to laugh at Annette singing “Jamaica Ska”, all those silly rear projections, and Frankie Avalon’s obsession with his hair. And boy, do I laugh.

Another thing I love about this movie is the incorporation of Tiki. It’s kind of amazing, considering Tiki was largely out of fashion by the 1980s, yet there was still a subculture of cool Los Angeles creatives who embraced it. Annette gets tempted by something called a Stunned Mullet, and while I’m not sure what’s in it, the mystery gives us freedom to make it up as we go along. Kind of like the plot of this movie!

Stunned Mullet

2 oz Vodka

4 oz Pineapple Juice

1 oz Coconut Cream

1 oz Macadamia Nut Liqueur

1/4 oz Lime Juice

Pineapple, Cherry, Umbrella (suggested garnish)

Combine vodka, pineapple juice, coconut cream, macadamia nut liqueur, and lime juice in a blender and add 2 cups of crushed ice. Blend until slushy, then pour into a coconut Tiki mug. Garnish with pineapple, cherry, and umbrella.

It’s interesting how Back to the Beach is both a time capsule of the 1980s as well as the 1960s, existing now as a retro joke within a retro joke. I don’t know which particular era Pee-wee calls home, but I like to think he’s timeless, surfing through our memories like the Big Kahuna he’ll always be. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Beach Blanket Bingo

LizLocke1 Comment
Image: Beach Blanket Bingo, 1965

Despite an enduring love of Gidget, 1960s swimwear, and rear projection scenes, the Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello beach movies somehow never made it to the top of my watch list. Luckily, this cinema oversight has been corrected this week with the fifth “Beach” movie in the series, Beach Blanket Bingo (Disc/Download).

Like Ryan Gosling’s Ken, as far as I can determine, Frankie Avalon’s job in the 1960s was “beach”. What a gig! There were many gorgeous girls prancing around him in bikinis, but none as charming as Annette. She had oodles of charisma, along with an unflappable comb-over hairstyle that could survive wind, waves, and even a skydiving helmet. I love the mermaid side character in BBB, with Lorelai acting as a precursor to Daryl Hannah’s “Madison” in Splash. It’s a shame the romance between the mermaid and her beachbum lover Bonehead gets interrupted time and again with the antics of a middle-aged motorcycle gang masquerading as adolescents. Honestly, if this movie had been nothing more than mermaid rescues and drinks at the local bar with Frankie and Annette singing their hits, I would have been a happy viewer. Who needs skydiving and lame kidnapping plots when you have “beach”???

Although the sexcapades of these teenagers seem pretty chaste by today’s standards, there’s a surprising amount of double entendre and suggested nudity. We’re left to imagine what may have happened during Bonehead’s date with the mermaid, which results in the loss of her dress by the end of the night. For this reason, it seems like a great time to mix up the classic eighties resort drink, a Sex on the Beach.

Sex on the Beach

1 ½ oz Vodka

½ oz Peach Schnapps

½ oz Chambord

1 ½ oz Orange Juice

1 ½ oz Cranberry Juice

Add the vodka, peach schnapps, Chambord, and cranberry juice to a hurricane glass. Fill with ice. Top with orange juice, and garnish with a cherry and cocktail umbrella.

Like other 1960s teen movies, the cameos in this are incredible. Paul Lynde as the scheming music manager, Don Rickles as the nightclub owner, and even Buster Keaton as an aging pervert! The plot doesn’t make sense, but it doesn’t need to. As long as you’re okay with a film based entirely around shimmying teens and retro bikinis, you’ll do just fine. Cheers!

Classic Films · Dramas

The Sandpiper

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Image: The Sandpiper, 1965

Summer is in full swing, which means I’m in the mood for for melodrama at the beach. Vincente Minnelli’s The Sandpiper (Disc/Download) is a perfect choice because it features two people who defined the word “drama” in the 1960s: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Having abandoned their spouses to hook up with one another during the filming of Cleopatra, Burton and Taylor were already a married couple by the time they made The Sandpiper. However, that didn’t stop them from capitalizing on their reputation as scandal-plagued adulterers. They were among the most photographed celebrities of the 1960s, so whether The Sandpiper was a good movie or a bad one was of no consequence; it was always going to make money. Thankfully, the film has a lot to offer, such as beautiful Big Sur scenery, Elizabeth Taylor’s enviable beach house, forbidden love, and even Charles Bronson playing a hippie sculptor. Taylor’s character of a single mom who is single by choice was a bold stance for the time period, and even though her son is included in a long list of movie children I loathe, I enjoy the film’s feminist leanings. Liz can be an artist or a mother or whatever the hell she wants to be; men are of no consequence to her ambitions.

For all you lovers of melodrama, rest assured there is a wonderfully taboo romance between this bohemian mom and the married Episcopalian priest in charge of her son’s new boarding school. Richard Burton was the quintessential “Hot Priest” before Fleabag coined the term, so let’s celebrate him with this spicy spritz perfect for summer on the California coast. While watching The Sandpiper, I recommend drinking a Hot Priest cocktail.

Hot Priest

1 Jalapeño pepper, sliced into rounds

4 oz Rosé wine

½ oz Lime juice

2 oz Sparkling Water

In the bottom of a wine glass, muddle 1 jalapeño slice (omit if you don’t want it extra-spicy). Add ice, then pour in the Rosé and lime juice. Top with sparkling water, and garnish with 2-3 jalapeno slices.

It’s hard to imagine any movie couple surpassing the unique chemistry of Liz and Dick in The Sandpiper, not only because of their physical attractiveness, but because the audience gets to feel like they’re witnessing something secret. We’re brought into their relationship for the length of two hours, and it’s gorgeous and complicated and doomed. But oh, when it was good, it was amazing. Cheers!

Comedies

Barbie

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Image: Barbie, 2023

A new summer cocktail book has reignited my love of all things Barbie. Ginny Landt’s The Official Barbie Cocktail Book has so many wonderful (and wonderfully pink!) cocktails and mocktails that it inspired me to revisit a recent favorite, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (Disc/Download).

Arriving in 2023 like a blast of color after the dark years of the pandemic, Barbie offered reassurance that we’d be okay. Cinema and imagination would survive. I don’t know what I expected from a movie about my favorite childhood toy, but Barbie was everything I didn’t know I wanted: fantasy, adventure, comedy, musical, feminist rallying cry, and Slim Aarons fever dream, wrapped in existential crisis. Being a woman is complicated, so it’s only natural the dolls who were made to represent us experience the same anxieties and societal pressures. The film’s message gets a little muddied by the end, but ultimately, I think it’s about treating everyone with dignity and respect, no matter their gender. Also: never let yourself be put in a box.

When this movie came out two years ago, I had no idea that by 2025 I’d be living in the Mojo Dojo Casa House timeline. Incompetent men have taken over, smart women have lost their power, and we all have to pretend to be interested in The Godfather and golf. It’s for this reason that I chose to make Ginny Landt’s “Movie Night” recipe because unlike a lot of the other cocktails in her book, it’s dark in color. Nevertheless, it’s bubbly and refreshing, because even in the land of “brewski beers”, there are pockets of joy. While watching Barbie, I recommend drinking a Movie Night cocktail.

Movie Night (adapted from The Official Barbie Cocktail Book)

1 ½ oz Gold Rum (I used Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum)

¾ oz Coffee Liqueur

½ oz Lime Juice

7 oz Coke

Add ice to a Collins glass. Pour rum, coffee liqueur, lime juice, and Coke on top. Garnish with popcorn.

Watching Barbie is always a delight because of the sets, costumes, and the mere presence of Ryan Gosling as Ken. No actor has ever made me laugh as hard as Gosling when he starts to play Matchbox Twenty’s “Push”, and in that moment, he is definitely Kenough. Kudos to the Disney Channel for preparing him for the role of a lifetime. If you need a break from our bleak human timeline and current events, then join me—Ordinary Barbie and my flattering top—on a trip to Barbie Land. Maybe, if enough people visit, we’ll be inspired to make it a reality someday. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

The Girl Can’t Help It

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Image: The Girl Can’t Help It, 1956

If you haven’t watched My Mom Jayne yet, STOP what you’re doing and go watch Mariska Hargitay’s stunning documentary right now!!! Then, after you’ve finished crying a river, check out one of Jayne Mansfield’s best performances in Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It (Disc).

Taken as a whole, the movie feels like a parody of itself. The producers knew Jayne was constantly compared to Marilyn Monroe in the press, so they got The Seven Year Itch’s Tom Ewell to play yet another schlub who miraculously catches the eye of a woman waaaaaay out of his league. The movie uses Jayne’s physique and exaggerated costumes to hilarious effect, with big chunks of ice melting as she walks down the street, and milk boiling over in the milkman’s hands. She swings those hips like Jessica Rabbit, as though her upper and lower halves aren’t even connected to the same body. Mansfield’s mob girlfriend character Jerri Jordan is reluctantly trying to break into the music business, which gives Tashlin an excuse to feature a ton of R&B artists from the time period. Acts such as Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Platters, and Eddie Cochran pop up in nightclubs and on television, and it’s wild to see the real people behind the voices I’ve come to know so well in my vinyl collection. But the greatest treat of all is Julie London, who plays “the one who got away”, appearing like a ghost to Tom Ewell’s agent character. Having owned Julie is her Name for many years, losing it, then somehow gaining it back from my deceased uncle’s estate, I feel like Julie’s ghost won’t leave me alone either.

Because boobs (and milk) are such a running gag in this movie, I had to do a cream-based drink. The cherry flavor is sweet like Jerri, and it feels like a frothy confection in a glass—a cocktail version of Jayne’s final pastel evening gown. While watching The Girl Can’t Help It, I recommend drinking a Cherry Jordan.

Cherry Jordan

1 oz Vodka

1 oz Cherry Heering

½ oz White Crème de Cacao

1 oz Heavy Cream

Maraschino cherry

Combine vodka, Cherry Heering, crème de cacao, and cream in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Shot in glorious DeLuxe Color, The Girl Can’t Help It is a true feast for the eyes. The costumes and sets pop like a Powell & Pressburger picture, as if The Red Shoes had been directed by the guy who drew Looney Tunes. This movie is campy, fun, and surprisingly clever, and it’s the perfect way to celebrate a woman who was all these things, and more. Cheers!

Action/Adventure/Heist

Hackers

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Image credit: Hackers, 1995

I love movies that serve as time capsules of a particular era, so when the opportunity to watch 1995’s Hackers (Disc/Download) came to me, I embraced it wholeheartedly. I assumed the acting would be bad, the special effects laughable, and the technology quaint. But the soundtrack and style…now that would be worth my time. 

Was I right in my assumptions? Yes and no. The actors (with the exception of Fisher Stevens and his unfortunate facial hair) are engaging, in the way that young celebrities juuust before they’ve broken out often are. There’s a star quality to Angelina Jolie even if this particular script doesn’t allow her talents to soar. She’s all red-eyeshadow-and-punk-wardrobe as teen hacker Acid Burn, existing on a separate ethereal plane of coolness. Likewise, Jonny Lee Miller with his roller blades and bleached hair make actual hackers seem a lot sexier than they probably were at the time. And that’s the essence of Hackers: it’s not particularly accurate, either in terms of high school representation or hacker culture, but it captures a fantasy of both. And as with most things, I tend to enjoy the fantasy more than reality. How do you make large data transfers and floppy discs seem exciting? By playing some Electronica and letting Matthew Lillard loose on an unsuspecting audience.

The teens in this movie attempt to hack the “Gibson” supercomputer, which seems like a great opportunity to drink a Gibson cocktail. This version is a little dirty, since everyone seems to be chasing a stolen “garbage file”.  While watching Hackers, I recommend drinking a Dirty Gibson.

Dirty Gibson

2 ½ oz Gin

½ oz Vermouth

1 tsp Onion Brine

Pickled Red Onion (garnish) Note: I made my own pickled onions for this, but they are also sold commercially.

Combine gin, vermouth, and onion brine in a shaker with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into a coupe or martini glass. Garnish with a pickled red onion.

Overall, I enjoyed Hackers. It’s nice to watch a version of hacking where some teenager just wants to broadcast reruns of The Outer Limits instead of stealing all our data and sending it to Russia. Those were the days. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

40 Pounds of Trouble

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Image credit: 40 Pounds of Trouble, 1962

If you’re a Disney Adult who geeks out over the history of the parks, then you’ll definitely want to check out this week’s pick 40 Pounds of Trouble (Disc). With location shooting in both Lake Tahoe and Disneyland, it’s like someone said, “Let’s pick Liz Locke’s two favorite vacation spots and film a movie there!”

 Marking the directorial debut of Norman Jewison, this was the first movie granted permission to film in the park by Walt Disney. Unfortunately, The Enchanted Tiki Room was still a year out from opening, but we still get to see some of the greatest hits like the Storybook Land Canal Boats, the sadly defunct Skyway gondola, and a thrilling ride down the Matterhorn (or as I call it, the Tailbone Destroyer). The plot is thin but sweet, with a Tahoe casino manager (Tony Curtis) thrust into sudden fatherhood after a gambler abandons his little girl at the hotel. When the girl’s dad is found dead in a car crash, Tony knows there’s only one thing to do: give her the most magical day of her life at Disneyland before her world gets destroyed. If there’s one thing everyone knows about Disneyland, it’s this: in the park, the real world and all its problems cease to exist.

Because this is such a fun, frothy comedy, it seems appropriate to enjoy a frothy cocktail with it. This one invokes the color and “snow capped peaks” of The Matterhorn, minus the spinal injuries. While watching 40 Pounds of Trouble, I recommend drinking this Matterhorn Fizz.

Matterhorn Fizz

1 Egg White

1 ¼ oz Empress Gin

½ oz Grand Marnier

½ oz Fresh Lemon Juice

¼ oz Orgeat

2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Soda Water

Combine the egg white, gin, Grand Marnier, lemon juice, orgeat, and bitters in a shaker and shake without ice for 30 seconds. Add a mix of crushed and cubed ice, and shake again for another minute. Strain into a highball glass. Wait about 10 seconds, then top with soda water.

*If necessary, add a few drops of Butterfly Pea extract to achieve the right color.

Although I’ve talked a lot about the Disneyland scenes, the shots of Lake Tahoe are fantastic too. It totally takes me back to swimming in Sand Harbor, one of the prettiest spots in the US (in my opinion). If you need a little respite from the real world this week, take a vacation with Tony’s blue eyes, Suzanne’s vintage dresses, and a charming romp through Fantasyland. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Paper Moon

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Image credit: Paper Moon, 1973

If your summer plans include a road trip on a budget, then I’ve got just the movie for you. Paper Moon (Disc/Download) travels a long, hilarious path through the small towns of the American Midwest, fueled by hot dogs, whiskey, and get-rich-quick schemes. Forget baseball; grifting may as well be the national pastime of the good ole’ US-of-A.

Starring real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, Paper Moon is yet another Peter Bogdanovich classic that wouldn’t be nearly as special without the input of his ex-wife Polly Platt. Thanks to her, we have the precocious, stunningly good Tatum in the role of newly orphaned Addie, and it’s because of her performance the movie succeeds as well as it does. The way this little girl spars with her off-screen (and maybe onscreen??) dad is electric, and it’s a shame only Tatum won the Academy Award for this because Ryan turned in some amazing work too. If you like road movies set in 1930s rural America, such as O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, Sullivan’s Travels, and It Happened One Night, you’ll find a lot to love about Paper Moon. It’s a portrait of Americana, of people doing whatever they had to do to survive, yet not losing their heart along the way. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Addie and Moses Pray (that name!!!) find their hearts, and it’s the big payoff neither of them expected.

Tatum O’Neal’s record of being the youngest competitive Oscar winner in history still stands, and if you haven’t seen pictures of this little girl in a mini tuxedo, I urge you to look it up. It’s even more remarkable that she was only eight years old when the movie began filming, especially considering she’d never acted before. She smokes cigarettes and spars with prostitutes like she’d been doing it her whole life (maybe she had… I still need to read her memoir). Anyway, let’s toast young Tatum with this Prohibition-era cocktail, the Ward 8.

Ward 8

2 oz Rye Whiskey

1/2 oz fresh-squeezed Orange Juice

1/2 oz fresh-squeezed Lemon Juice

2 tsp Grenadine

Maraschino cherries (garnish)

Shake whiskey, orange juice, lemon juice, and grenadine in a shaker with ice until chilled. Strain into a coupe or Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with cherries.

The production design, locations, and costumes of the film are all stunning, but of course they were with Polly Platt in charge. The movie is timeless because she made it so, placing it in a very specific era and place that would never show its age. To watch Paper Moon is to feel like you’re watching a movie made in the 1930s, when the scripts were sparkling, the stars were dazzling, and the road of cinema seemed to stretch on forever. Cheers!

Classic Films

Donovan’s Reef

LizLocke1 Comment
Image Credit: Donovan’s Reef, 1963

Perhaps the most pedigreed of my Tiki Month picks, this week’s film by legendary director John Ford will have you feeling like you just spent a weekend in The Enchanted Tiki Room.

At Christmas.

Does Disney do an overlay for this attraction at the holidays? If not, it’s a missed opportunity. Donovan’s Reef (Disc/Download) proves Tiki and Christmas go together like Dole Whip and rum.

Starring John Wayne, Lee Marvin, and Jack Warden as a trio of US Navy veterans who’ve emigrated to an island in French Polynesia, Donovan’s Reef gets its name from the bar owned by Wayne’s character. While it contains some nonsensical barroom brawls and unfortunate stereotyping, there’s also a thread of melodrama woven in through the character of Miss Dedham, a proper Boston woman who’s come to the island looking for her long-lost father. She’s in the dark about his philanthropic medical practice and her three half-siblings, and the complicated feeling of knowing your dad didn’t want to be a dad to you, but he did want to be a dad to these other kids (and a whole community of islanders), is a relatable sting for many folks even today. There’s a weight I didn’t expect to this “hangout movie”, even though I’d ultimately still describe it as a fun romp.

Although Donovan’s Reef is set on the fictional island of Haleakaloha, it was actually filmed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. This seems like a great excuse to mix a cocktail I found in The Home Bar Guide to Tropical Cocktails by Tom Morgan and Kelly Reilly, the Kauai Island Jungle Sling.

Kauai Island Jungle Sling

1 oz White Rum

1 oz 12yr old Rum

¼ oz Yellow Chartreuse

¼ oz Pomegranate Liqueur

¼ oz Cointreau

½ oz Cherry Syrup

1 ½ oz Pineapple Juice

½ oz Lime Juice

Dash of Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Shake to chill and combine, then pour entire contents into a tiki mug or tall glass. Garnish with fresh orchids (optional).

I might revisit this movie again over the holidays with a different cocktail (there are some cinnamon-flavored grogs and punches I’m excited to try out!), but the Kauai Island Jungle Sling is a great way to celebrate a mix of flavors coming together, just like the mix of nationalities in this movie. The church service seems extra-inclusive, as though all are welcome, no matter where they came from. What a lovely idea. Cheers!