Release Date:
04/30/2002
First off, any critic who uses the phrases Show me the DVD or You had me at the Special Features Menu in their reviews ought to be repeatedly bludgeoned with Rod Tidwells jockstrap. With that off our chest, we tore into this 2-disc special edition bracing for a bunch of HBO First Look specials or lame Making of Tom Cruises hair featurettes. We were happy to find that director Cameron Crowe has decided to give us something a lot better than that.
With commentaries usually a given, its up to the truly creative to find ways of making them more interesting than voices droning over a picture. Ghostbusters went the Mystery Science Theater route by putting a silhouetted Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman along the bottom of the screen, and This is Spinal Tap reunited the actors to deliver their thoughts in character. But Jerry Maguire trumps them all by including a video commentaryYou actually watch director Cameron Crowe and stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Renée Zellweger watching the movie. This is a great new twist on a rapidly-getting-boring convention. We only wish Cruise had ditched the dopey hat and sunglasses, since he looks like a Hollywood-ized Bob Denver.
The rest of the supplemental material is pretty tight (Tidwells TV commercial is a riot, and Maguires mission statement is a fun inclusion), with the expectation of the How to Be a Sports Agent feature (which shows how annoying these guys really are) and the generally neccessary deleted scenes. But in all, a great use of disc space.
With commentaries usually a given, its up to the truly creative to find ways of making them more interesting than voices droning over a picture. Ghostbusters went the Mystery Science Theater route by putting a silhouetted Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman along the bottom of the screen, and This is Spinal Tap reunited the actors to deliver their thoughts in character. But Jerry Maguire trumps them all by including a video commentaryYou actually watch director Cameron Crowe and stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Renée Zellweger watching the movie. This is a great new twist on a rapidly-getting-boring convention. We only wish Cruise had ditched the dopey hat and sunglasses, since he looks like a Hollywood-ized Bob Denver.
The rest of the supplemental material is pretty tight (Tidwells TV commercial is a riot, and Maguires mission statement is a fun inclusion), with the expectation of the How to Be a Sports Agent feature (which shows how annoying these guys really are) and the generally neccessary deleted scenes. But in all, a great use of disc space.