Jerry Maguire (1996)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I mean, it has good quotes, it is kinda funny, and a bit moving. But the story is at the edge of cheesyness and makes often no sense. The whole story is so unreal

Jerry MaguireThere are some genuine emotional moments with cliched touch which works for the most part of the movie with the help of some good performances but lacks complete understanding on executing a scene. Jerry Maguire despite of its strong writing material relies totally upon the performances and brings out the best from each and every character. Cameron Crowe still needs some work to do on supervising and executing from paper onto the screen. As mentioned earlier, it is filled with stellar performance by Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Renee Zellweger. Jerry Maguire starts off slowly as it takes its time to settle on its first act and then boosts up with incredible writing and finishes off majestically.

For those who endearingly miss Tom Cruise as a fine actor, or Cameron Crowe at the top of his games, JERRY MAGUIRE is a blast from the past. Our titular hero (Cruise) is a smug predator in a cutting-throat capitalistic business, who suddenly grows a conscience, and then immediately makes a wrong move, trying to exhort his peers to also grow a conscience, unfortunately the majority of those is too cynical to accept his noble motion, he is therefore blackballed and according to Murphy's law, must hit the rock bottom, which only leaves him a loyal admirer/accountant Dorothy Boyd (Zellweger), his only client, an under-the-radar football star Rod Tidwell (Gooding Jr.) and a goldfish. Tailored to USA's pernicious winner/loser ethos, the subsequent upswing must diligently tackle two most important things a man must obtain, his career and his love life, to prove the world that he is not a loser but a bona-fide winner, aka, it is the "kwan", that really matters to one's truth worth, a magically coined word by Crowe. Cogently the film thrives as a sincere page-turner albeit Crowe being rather deferential towards all the genre tropes, his script coruscates with a cordial sympathy towards Jerry's fix and a tangential self-awareness of eschewing the mawkishness, conceivably, it is a story borne out of affection and deliberation, but one defective looms large in the end is that Crowe doesn't get more into the agent business maybe because it is not his forte, the triumphalism is approached through Rod's doughty sportsmanship (a cinematic but garden-variety antic with a sharp tang of cruelty, in real life, more often than not, a player is physically permanently damaged), and what Jerry has attributed to the triumph is regretfully left largely untapped, however he would right this wrong in his next film ALMOST FAMOUS (2000), which is more in his element, inspired by the days when he was a contributing editor of Rolling Stones Magazine. One might argue JERRY MAGUIRE is the film where Tom Cruise's Hollywood golden-boy charisma is in his highest voltage, and his effort is incontrovertibly contagious, ever so remarkable he devotes himself entirely to a character which is quite self-referential in a manner (riding a money- seeking business, deviled by commitment issue, cannot deal with being alone), sheds self- consciousness and flexes his muscles to bring forth exigency, compassion and warmth, in company with a honest-to-goodness romance playing off against a self-abasing Renée Zellweger, who also punches above her weight in a conventional ugly-duckling role but spiffed up with a strong sense of dignity and sensibility, she knows when to waive what doesn't worthy of her even it is what she really wants, that is in my humble opinion, the most valuable takeaway of the whole movie. The homey atmosphere is also magically graced by a heart-melting Jonathan Lipnicki as Dorothy's cutie son and Bonnie Hunt's protective but amenable elder sister (although that divorced women group gag should be relegated to a cheesy chick flick dud).Lastly, about Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Oscar victory, he does strut his stuff with a highfalutin bravado, errs on the side of being clownish but essentially an entertaining hoot, like the film per se, a feel- good treat concocted with a conscience.

Jerry Maguire is a feel good romantic drama which surfed a zeitgeist wave in the mid 1990s and coined catchphrases such as 'Show me the money' 'You had me at hello' and 'You complete me.'Tom Cruise plays the successful sports agent Jerry Maguire who upsets his bosses with a mission statement such as having less clients in order to serve them better. His rival at the firm has to fire him and then compete for all his clients.Maguire is only left with one client, a mouthy, flamboyant football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding jr) who is upset that he is not getting the top endorsement deals. Maguire also is also chasing a hot shot player for the draft and thinks he has bagged him only to be snatched away by his rival.Maguire starts out at the bottom with Tidwell and Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) a single mother and one of the assistants from the sports agency who has followed him. Dorothy and Jerry fall in love but we are not sure if he genuinely confused her loyalty with love.Maguire needs to persuade Tidwell to play football with his heart and not think about endorsements or why other players are earning more. Tidwell shows loyalty and friendship to Maguire but in the football field he comes across as shallow and selfish. A reason why Maguire is struggling to get a lucrative contract deal for him.Jerry Maguire is actually a corny film, Cuba Gooding jr provides the laughs but the romance angle is very cheesy.At the end Maguire is successful because of the one to one relationship he has with his only client which other sports player are envious of.I saw this film again after 20 years because part of the scenes were featured in The Lego Batman Movie, the implication being some of the lines are hackneyed.