Jerry Maguire (1996)
Nominated producer(s): James L. Brooks, Laurence Mark, Richard Sakai, Cameron Crowe
Director: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston, Jerry O’Connell, Jay Mohr, Bonnie Hunt, Regina King
Studio: Sony Pictures
Other Oscar noms/wins:
best actor (Tom Cruise), supporting actor (Cuba Gooding Jr., winner), original screenplay (Cameron Crowe), film editing (Joe Hutshing)
A movie with a memorable one-liner — “Show me the money.”
And that’s just what writer and director Cameron Crowe did for the studio, and star Tom Cruis in this story of a sports agent who has moral epiphany.
Part rom-com, and dude-bro-film, “Jerry Maguire” is unapologetic about trying to appeal to the masses, utilizing a couple of clichés, but never without sincerity as it walks us all through the tantalizing subject of football deals and games. It’s not surprising, considering one of the film’s producers is none other than James L. Brooks of “Terms of Endearment” (1983) and “As Good as It Gets” (1997), who knows how to create that balance.
However, there was no hope for the movie to topple the steamroller that was “The English Patient,” especially given it also shared the lineup with another classic comedy, “Fargo.”
