JERRY MAGUIRE (SPECIAL EDITION)
Columbia TriStar Home Ent., $27.95
CHAMPIONING Tom Cruise’s earnest, career-ending business memo, Ren饠Zellweger declares, “I think in this age optimism like that is a revolutionary act.” You won’t hear anything revolutionary on Maguire‘s DVD commentary tracks (featuring Zellweger, Cruise, writer/director Cameron Crowe, and Cuba Gooding Jr.), but you will find the same sunny affection that distinguishes all of Crowe’s estimable romantic comedies.
The Maguire company is laid back and loving the chance to watch its work again; the four howl gleefully at the Oscar-winning Gooding’s “Show me the money!” speech—also shown here in bare bones rehearsal footage—as if it were the first time they’d ever seen it. A separate video track allows you to watch them watching the movie. Here, Cruise looks ridiculous slouching in sunglasses and a goofy hat, but the amiable crew seems to humanize him in a way that explains the success of his endearingly loose performance in the film.
Among the several deleted scenes is a funny bit where Kelly Preston, playing Cruise’s fierce fianc饬 casually savages his memo—then promises him a “Chicago-style” blow job. You get several chatty nuggets of interest: Crowe talking about playing mood music for the actors during actual filmed takes; plus his initial uncertainty about Cruise’s climactic “You complete me” moment, the film’s much-mocked but sentimentally pure raison d’괲e. (“I was never sure about that speech. I just always thought, ‘Is it too much?'”)
Like the film itself, this chock-full two-disc set (released April 30) celebrates good people happy to be in one another’s company.
Steve Wiecking
ALSO GOOD company are the stars of Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven remake (due May 7 and reviewed here next week). Spider-Man fans take note of a disc called Spider-Man: The Ultimate Villain Showdown (April 30), while anime enthusiasts will want to check out the recent Metropolis (April 23). Disney’s bringing several old family titles to disc, including The Parent Trap (May 7). Far from the Disney animation stable, Richard Linklater’s innovative Waking Life debuts on DVD May 7 with many voices on the commentary track (his included), plus some shorts by his ingenious lead animator Bob Sabiston.
EDS.
