Big Picture Big Sound

"Show me the money!"

The Film

Part sports film and part romantic drama, writer/director Cameron Crowe's third major film, 1996's Jerry Maguire became one of the 90's most successful movies. Crowe somehow managed to craft a piece of screen work that appealed equally to men and women, becoming a go-to date movie and manly comedy that permeated the popular culture with catchphrases like "show me the money!" and "you had me at hello" that are still in use today.

Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a cutthroat, high-powered sports agent who cares less about his clients' well being than he does about his own success and the money to be made off of their success. One night, Jerry has a crisis of conscience and he stays up all night writing up an intra-office mission statement that he distributes throughout the sports agency he works for, Sports Management International, entitled The Things We Do and Do Not Say. He details a more personal approach to handling clients, caring about people, making more money by taking on less clients. It's a moment of inspired soul-searching that earns Jerry a trip to a crowded restaurant where he is fired by his former protégé Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr) and later dumped by his fiancé (Kelly Preston).

After a lightning-paced telephone duel between Jerry and Bob Sugar to secure their clients, which leads to some of the film's most hilarious moments, including the famous "show me the money!" line, Jerry is left with only one client, the self-assured yet hard to work with "A List" football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.).  Inspired by his mission statement, young single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) leaves her job at the agency to follow Jerry and together the two start their own independent agency with Tidwell as their sole client.

Soon, romance blossoms between Dorothy and Jerry and things become increasingly complicated as they eventually marry.  Matters of business and matters of the heart become confused as their success rides on Tidwell staying healthy and securing a big-money contract for the next season.

Crowe's dialogue and direction brings out some of the best performances in the careers of the film's stars, rightfully earning Gooding, Jr. an Oscar for Best Supporting Oscar and a Best Actor nod for Tom Cruise. Jerry Maguire is an emotional rollercoaster that creates a world full of characters that viewers learn to care about, through the laughter and the tears.  I'm sure it will go on to be a genre-crossing classic for years to come.

The Picture

Jerry Maguire's AVC/MPEG-4 encoding is a definite upgrade from previous standard definition releases, but it fails to reach the upper echelons of catalogue releases. The transfer suffers from inconsistent sharpness, sometimes looking crisp, other times soft and lacking in clarity. The overall quality of the transfer is a bit on the soft side and it also suffers from occasionally hot contrast levels which cause some blooming, inconsistent black levels, and some noise inherent in the source which could have been cleaned up a bit better.  There are other even older catalogue releases on Blu-ray that far surpass the quality of Jerry Maguire.

The Sound

Jerry Maguire is a dialogue-driven film that offers little excitement in its soundmix. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless mix is competent at purveying crisp, unsullied and dynamic dialogue with the surrounds being utilized mainly for ambience. The one spot where the mix opens up a tad is during the Rod Tidwell Monday Night Football sequences, when the surround channels are allowed to carry the cheering of the fans and broadcast sound effects. Still, this is not a mix that will dazzle like many an action film, but it does what it is supposed to do with the material at hand. The release also offers French and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 language options.

The Extras

Jerry Maguire's extras are all ported over from the Special Edition DVD release and as such are also all presented in standard definition. Although at first glance it may seem like an abundance of juicy extras are offered up on this release, but it is mostly throwaway material that doesn't offer much insight into the film, its director or its stars and will not be missed if never watched.

The extras available on this release are:

• Director and Cast Audio Commentary -- This audio commentary brings together Director Cameron Crowe and the film's stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Renee Zellweger. It's more of an amiable, giggly conversation between friends than an informative commentary on the film itself. Although it is an easy listen, it gets irksome quite quickly.
• Deleted Scenes (4:3/windowboxed/standard definition) -- 5 deleted scenes
• Rehearsal Footage with Optional Director's Commentary (4:3/standard definition) -- This is simply a brief look at some rehearsal footage.
• Jerry Maguire's Mission Statement -- This interactive feature will allow you to read through the entire thirty-some-odd page infamous mission statement by Jerry Maguire.
• Rod Tidwell Commercial (4:3/standard definition) -- An obvious promotional gimmick, this is a commercial for Reebok with Cuba Gooding, Jr. in character as Rod Tidwell.
• How to Be A Sports Agent (4:3/standard definition) --  A real sorts agent mouths off nonsensically about the sports agent lifestyle.
• Music Video (4:3/standard definition) -- Bruce Springsteen: "Secret Garden", not one of "The Boss'" better songs, in my opinion, but still better than the other extras offered on this release.
• Previews (high definition):
  • Blu-ray is High Definition!
  • Men in Black
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Edition

Final Thoughts

Jerry Maguire is an amusing and heartwarming film that should appeal to both genders equally. This release is not in the top tier of catalogue releases on Blu-ray Disc in its A/V transfer, but it offers a definite upgrade from previous editions, and it should please any and all fans of this film. Recommended.

Product Details

• Actors: Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Cuba Gooding, Jr.
• Director: Cameron Crowe
• Audio/Languages: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, French Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: Arabic, Cantonese, Chinese, Dutch, English, English SDH, French, Indonesian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: ABC (All Regions)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: September 9, 2008
• Run Time: 138 minutes
• List Price: $28.95
• Extras:
  
  • Audio Commentary with Director Cameron Crowe,Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
  • Deleted Scenes with Director and Editor's Commentary
  • Rehearsal Footage with Director & Editor's Commentary
  • "My First Commercial" with Rod Tidwell
  • Drew Rosenhaus: How to Be A Sports Agent
  • Music Video: "Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen
  • Making of Featurette
  • Jerry's Mission Statement