PopcornTreeCt

Forgive me, I haven't seen the movie in awhile but isn't the film totally offbase regarding Rod Tidwell and the way the film ends? The film showcases an undersized WR, makes little mention of his skills or stats, and gives him a huge ego to boot. Yet we're supposed to sympathize with him because he's not as famous as the #1 draft pick. Then finally at the end of the film the Cardinals are pressured into giving the guy a big contract because he scored a touchdown and then obnoxiously celebrated for what seemed like forever. I may be totally offbase here but that would certainly not be a feel good story in the real NFL.

Thoughts?

GoldenJCJ

I never liked Rod or the rest of his obnoxious family for that matter. I enjoy Jerry Maguire for the relationship between Jerry, Dorothy, and little Ray. A totally hartwarming story between the three of them. Heck, I'll even add Dorothy's sister as a character that I learned to like.

Thinking about it, I don't think I liked any of the athletes in the film, Rod was a self centered prick (who lost Jerry a lot of clients cause of his ego) and "Cush" and his Dad were both money hungry dicks. Sadly, it portrayed the NFL accurately, IMO.

Brack

You need to see the movie again.

"John Taylor. J.J. Stokes. Andre Rison. I SMOKE all these fools!"

That's all you need to know in terms of Rod's skills. Why he wasn't getting the "real" money was because he was a paycheck player, with not a lot of heart on the field. That's what Jerry said anyway.

Obnoxiously celebrated the touchdown? Everybody there was happy he wasn't paralyzed, and that he made a great TD. He was overwhelmed with joy with how the crowd responded to him, and he went with it. Rod was finally showing the rest of the world what he only was showing his family.

Jerry Maguire is one of my all time favorite movies.

Timber

He was a home town guy. Didn't he go to Arizona or ASU? Fans generally love the home town guy and he was undersized to boot.

Brack

Remember, we're talking about the obstacles the MOVIE presents, not REAL LIFE.

PopcornTreeCt

I'll have to watch it again. I was reading up on stories about football players that holdout and want more money and it made me think of this movie.

mikelowry

Haven't seen for for a long, long while. I enjoved this movie and I suppose I'll it give a third viewing.

dhmac

The movie is about why conceited agents who don't care about their spoiled, ridiculously overpaid clients should be replaced by slightly less-conceited agents who do care about their spoiled, ridiculously overpaid clients.

Brack

^^^ overpaid? that'd be true if no one placed any value in sports. but we do. are the owners the only ones allowed to be rich?

The_Cube

It's too bad that they just don't charge less for tickets and merchandise. That way the owners and the players get paid less, and normal people save. The law of supply and demand sucks sometimes.

Brack

who's they?

Fok

you had at 'forgive me'

Legolas

To be fair, Rod never held out. He just wanted a contract extension from his home team for what he thought he was worth, despite being undersized and undervalued. He was a paycheck money-first player, but you could say that he also changed by the end of the movei.

DVD Josh

Yes it would. A hometown boy with average career stats having a breakthrough season and leading his downtrodden team to the playoffs against a hated rival. Classic sports drama.

PopcornTreeCt

Did it ever say or show that he had a breathrough season? I can't remember I just remember him scoring that one touchdown and getting his contract.

DieselsDen

I had an even more negative reaction to the movie. Aside from sympathizing with the Renee Zellweger (sp?) character, I found the two male leads to be self-centered and unsympathetic. That Tom Cruise "redeems" himself by going back to her at the end meant nothing to me...it's not like he suffered throughout. And as a poster has already stated, the Rod Tidwell character is just obnoxious and egotistical. We're supposed to cheer because he's going to get more commercial endorsements and become richer? Gimme a break. This is like feeling sorry for Gordon Gekko when he gets screwed on Blue Star Airlines.

However, Kelly Preston looked great.

DVD Josh

I believe there was a throwaway line during the Dallas game that mentioned he was having a career year.

Brack

Did you only watch certain parts and ignored others? Rod might have been obnoxious and egotistical about his job, but he was always a family man (how selfish) first, or did you miss all those scenes? Did you also miss the scenes where Jerry talks to Rod about Dorothy? And Jerry suffers plenty--with himself. Jerry never "left" her, she was the one to end it, because she wasn't getting all of him. It was his limitation, or at least he thought so. But ultimately, Rod helped Jerry out personally, and Jerry helped Rod professionally. I'd hardly call that unsympathetic.

Toad

I think Brack was personally involved with this movie...

Brack

I've seen it many times, so I know what I'm talking about

Toad

No, I know. I'm a fan of it, too, but I don't fault people for not liking it. There's plenty of shit I hate that other people worship. Like reality TV.

DieselsDen

Eh. It doesn't really matter what I may have missed or ignored. I didn't like the two main characters and I didn't like the movie.

But I would absolutely recommend it to Kelly Preston/Scientology fans!!

DieselsDen

Is "Brack" a pseudonym for Cameron Crowe?

Charlie Goose

I really like the movie too, but there is a rather large plot hole that always bothered me.

When Maguire is fired at lunch, he is allowed to go back into his office and spend the rest of the day calling clients and trying to get them to leave the agency to go with him. Doubtful.

Brack

Well, if you watch a movie and choose to miss or ignore parts of it, I'd say it does matter.