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Tom Cruise stars as Jerry Maguire, a hotshot sports agent long on ambition but short on scruples. But one day, after years of "selling out," he suddenly has a crisis of conscience and in a flash of inspiration writes a personal mission statement that promptly gets him fired. But after a long (really long) good-bye speech, he inspires a lonely single mother to enter his life and his heart. And with the help of his only client, second-string football star Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), he finds himself negotiating the biggest deal of his life...

On paper, I suppose this sounds like a great little story ripe with possibilities, one to warm the heart and examine our cultural attitudes towards life, love, sports and success. But, alas, I still don't get it. Perhaps it would make more sense to me if Jerry quit his job and went off to join the Peace Corps., but this isn't so much a journey of "self-discovery" as it is a standard-issue revenge tale. Once again, the little guy quits the big firm in "disgust," only to go off on his own and make just as much money doing the same thing. I suppose we're supposed to cheer Jerry's "transformation" with the love a good woman, but is this really cause for celebration? Once again a selfish prick learns to think about someone other than himself for one minute, but don't stop the presses...

But there is plenty more to hate about Jerry Maguire. Why is this movie so damn long? It goes on forever, and somehow enraptured America with such cringe-inducing "catchphrases" as (ugh, I can't believe I'm actually going to type them) "Show me the MONEY!", or that favorite of hopeless romantics everywhere, "Yoooouuu... complete...meeeee." Over-inflated with its own self-importance, Jerry Maguire also is poorly cast, with Kelly Preston once again given the (mis)opportunity to act, and that little Jonathan Lipnicki smirking throughout. Shouldn't he be getting his own E! True Hollywood Story about now?

I could go on - smug and smarmy Tom Cruise overacting, whiny Renee Zelleweger playing the poor victim role once again, or Cuba Gooding laughably winning an Oscar - but enough of my complaints. If you're reading this you probably already love this movie, and of course I wouldn't dream of trying to change your mind. Yes, I didn't get it, but even I have to admit this is a pretty dang fine DVD, so read on...

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Minted from the same master as the previous movie- only DVD release, this new transfer looks like a slight improvement due to the advancements made in DVD authoring and compression technology over the past few years. Sporting a sparkling print almost completely devoid of defects, this is a very warm looking film. With more golden halos than a Barbra Streisand film, everyone and everything in Jerry Maguire is bathed in yellows, oranges and reds, and this transfer generally handles it nicely.

I thought colors where oversaturated at times with a bit of noise, but overall contrast and sharpness are good so the image still exhibits a pleasing quality. Shadow delineation is sometimes wanting in the darker scenes giving the film a flat look, but compression artifacts are much less apparent than on the previous release. I noticed no edge enhancement to mar the image. Pretty nice.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

Also sporting the same 5.1 Dolby Digital surround track as the previous release, this is a solid mix that sacrifices bombast for subtlety. Dynamic range and fidelity is very good, with a warm quality to the mix and nice separation among the front channels. Surround use is subdued except for the big football sequences, and the score is also generally front-heavy in the mix. Ambiance is nicely reproduced by the rears with a few discrete effects to heighten the sense of envelopment, and low end is fairly punchy. Imaging is overall fairly transparent so the mix rarely draws attention to itself. This is a nicely-recorded mix that supports the film just fine.

Also included is an English 2.0 Dolby surround track, English Closed Captions and subtitles in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Previously released on DVD back in 1997 as a featureless, movie-only edition with nary a trailer to found, this long-awaited two-disc special edition is loaded with goodies. Although I found the animated menus a bit cumbersome, the packaging is nice and slick and includes a nice 4-page foldout with some brief production notes.

Perhaps the standout feature is the brand-new commentary with director Cameron Crowe and in what is certainly a first, actors Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger and Cuba Gooding, Jr. Even more exciting, this commentary can be accessed either as a standard audio commentary on disc one or as a video commentary via a separate transfer on disc two. (The film on disc one is presented in anamorphic widescreen, the video commentary version on disc two in full screen.) Unfortunately, in terms of fun this is a good track, but no one seems to have much of substance to say. Aside from Cruise's ugly hat (what's he doing, going fishing?) and a slow start, this is filled with laughs and a generally loose vibe, and I'm assuming Cruise, Zelleweger and Gooding only got involved because of Crowe. He leads the discussion and tries (often valiantly) to talk about something real and is sometimes successful, but there just isn't too much in-depth insight here outside of generalities. The video commentary is certainly preferred; with the cast full screen the entire length with a little box for the film at the bottom, the camerawork is fairly good, alternating close-ups of the four participants. But like a party you aren't invited to, aside from the coup of getting all four of these top talents together, two hours of laughing gets a little old...

Up next is a collection of five deleted scenes - "Insane Fans," "Chicago Style," "Sugar Stealing Clients," "Pickleman," and "Tidwell and Cush Fight." Unlike most other Cameron Crowe DVDs, none of these scenes are particularly interesting this time out, but optional commentary with Crowe and editor Joe Hutshing is available to add context. All the scenes are presented in rough AVID outputs in non- anamorphic widescreen. Also included with Crowe and Hutshing commentary are three Rehearsal Footage clips - "Cuba's Kwan," "Show Me the Money!" and "Good-bye to SMI." While giving us a bit of a glimpse at the development of the characters, especially Tidwell, I'm not sure what the entertainment value of these is, but all you budding thespians will probably dig it. Easily the weirdest supplement on the disc is the short video vignette How To Be a Sports Agent. Watch a hyped-up Drew Rosenhaus give you a quick rundown on how to be a sports agent. I don't know about you, but only 4 minutes with Rosenhaus was enough to convince me that this high-stress occupation seems like the worst job in the world!

More goodies include an assortment of promotional items. The Bruce Springsteen music video for "Secret Garden" in presented in full frame and 2.0 stereo, as is the 30- second Rod Stillwell's First Commercial, a funny fake TV spot as seen in the film. The original making-of featurette runs 14 minutes and is pretty standard issue. Essentially an extended commercial, it does include onset interviews with Crowe, Cruise, Zellweger and Gooding discussing their roles, as well as the only production footage included on the disc, so that's a plus. More promo items include filmographies for the cast and crew and theatrical trailers for both Jerry Maguire and As Good As It Gets.

Rounding out the supplements are some text and still based extras, including the entire text of the Mission Statement that opens the film, and Jerry's Photo Album, a pretty robust still gallery divided into five parts and featuring over 150 production and publicity photos. All told, a very comprehensive assortment of extras.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

Though not even labeled on the packaging, the disc does include some exclusive ROM content. When you first pop your disc into the drive, the initial menu looks promising with lots of options to click. Unfortunately (unless they are some sort of weird easter eggs) two of the options are just little audio and video gags, while three more icons are simple weblinks to related Sony sites. The only real ROM feature is the entire shooting script with direct scene access. Via a nice interface, you can read each scene and watch the corresponding clip, and also print out specific chapters. Nicely done, though aside from the script there doesn't seem to be much else here.

Parting Thoughts