Fresh and Exciting

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Jerry McGuire is a good film bolstered by a touching screenplay and some great performances. Tom Cruise plays Jerry Mcguire- a sports agent with a conscious. He writes a memo from heart on the ethics of his industry and is booted off his job. He starts an agency on his own, assisted by a single mother and later wife played by Renee Zellwegger. On his rooster is a crazy, unremarkable client, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is filled with quips and a certain warmth which is common in Cameron Crowe films. Gooding Jr. is hilarious as the over the top smartass, yet lovable deep-down Rod Tidwell and Tom Cruise shows yet again why is such a top movie star- he makes himself relatable. This movie is about love and redemption.

1996 seemed like a weird year at the movies.People could finally laugh at horror movies with SCREAM, American culture's obsession with the end of the world led to INDEPENDENCE DAY and TWISTER's box office success, both FARGO and TRAINSPOTTING caught audiences and critics by surprise, and the whole sector of cinephiles stood together in disgust that a movie like THE ENGLISH PATIENT could win Best Picture.I'm not a sociologist so I'm not sure how that amounts to when defining the cultural zeitgeist of the late 90s. However I will say that if there's any movie that, to me, properly distills what life felt like back then, I'd say it's either JERRY MAGUIRE or FARGO. Since I already saw FARGO, this Scavenger Hunt is dedicated to this instead.Cameron Crowe missteps quite a lot since his heyday as director, but boy did he had a voice. The sensitive, emotionally broken vision he conjures transcends this otherwise melodramatic story into something we can all relate to. Beneath our grin and multi-million dollar facade, we are all still people with emotions and needs. The center of all this is the Space Pope himself Tom Cruise, reverting his TOP GUN swagger into a performance packed with charm and pathos.Whereas FARGO captured the cynical extremes of human choices and how it affects all of us, JERRY MAGUIRE encapsulates a time where we get so fixated on fame and success to mend our lonely lives. And Cameron Crowe reassures us that sometimes, expressing your emotions won't cause the end of the world. Maybe it's okay to settle down and warm up to people once in a while. Even if you're on the hurdle towards your lowest point, all you can depend on is that one person who really cares about you for you.It cannot possibly compare to the extended cut to ALMOST FAMOUS - because almost nothing can - but I was shocked that this still hits in the feels.

Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise team up in this drama that garnered Cuba Gooding Jr an academy award. Go see it if you haven't.

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.