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Tag: jerry-maguire

  • Best Tom Cruise Movies

    Tom Cruise on the set of 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning'. Photo: Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
    Tom Cruise on the set of ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’. Photo: Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

    Tom Cruise is possibly the greatest movie star in cinematic history!

    The popular actor has appeared in such box office hits as ‘Top Gun,’ its recent sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘Collateral,’ ‘Tropic Thunder,’ ‘Minority Report‘ and the ‘Mission: Impossible‘ franchise, as well Oscar-nominated movies like ‘Rain Man,’ ‘The Color of Money,’ ‘Born on the Fourth of July,’ ‘A Few Good Men,’ ‘Magnolia,’ and ‘Jerry Maguire.’

    The (possibly) final chapter of his ‘Mission: Impossible’ series, entitled ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘, opens in theaters on May 23rd and in honor of the new release, Moviefone is counting down the 35 best movies of Tom Cruise’s career, including his latest!

    Let’s begin!

    35. ‘Cocktail‘ (1988)

    (L to R) Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown in 'Cocktail'. Photo: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.
    (L to R) Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown in ‘Cocktail’. Photo: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

    After being discharged from the Army, Brian Flanagan (Cruise) moves back to Queens and takes a job in a bar run by Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown), who teaches Brian the fine art of bar-tending. Brian quickly becomes a patron favorite with his flashy drink-mixing style, and Brian adopts his mentor’s cynical philosophy on life and goes for the money.

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    34. ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘ (2023)

    In ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.

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    33. ‘Valkyrie‘ (2008)

    Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.

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    32. ‘Taps‘ (1981)

    Military cadets (Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Cruise) take extreme measures to ensure the future of their academy when its existence is threatened by local condo developers.

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    31. ‘The Last Samurai‘ (2003)

    Nathan Algren (Cruise) is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai’s way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

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    30. ‘Vanilla Sky‘ (2001)

    Tom Cruise in 'Vanilla Sky.'
    Tom Cruise in ‘Vanilla Sky.’ Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

    David Aames (Cruise) has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia (Penélope Cruz), his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That’s just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.

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    29. ‘The Outsiders‘ (1983)

    When two poor Greasers, Johnny (Ralph Macchio) and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), are assaulted by a vicious gang, the Socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbulent chain of events.

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    28. ‘American Made‘ (2017)

    The true story of pilot Barry Seal (Cruise), who transported contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel in the 1980s.

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    27. ‘Far and Away‘ (1992)

    A young man (Cruise) leaves Ireland with his landlord’s daughter (Nicole Kidman) after some trouble with her father (Robert Prosky), and they dream of owning land at the big giveaway in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local barehands boxer, and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple’s money and they must fight off starvation in the winter, and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman’s parents find out where she has gone and have come to America to find her and take her back.

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    26. ‘Knight and Day‘ (2010)

    A fugitive (Cruise and Cameron Diaz) couple goes on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.

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    25. ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘ (2025)

    (L to R) Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn and Hayley Atwell plays Grace in 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning' from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    (L to R) Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn and Hayley Atwell plays Grace in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity — which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe — with the world’s governments and a mysterious ghost from Ethan’s past on their trail. Joined by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever.

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    24. ‘Oblivion‘ (2013)

    Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger (Olga Kurylenko) from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

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    23. ‘Eyes Wide Shut‘ (1999)

    After Dr. Bill Harford’s wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill (Cruise) becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings — and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.

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    22. ‘The Color of Money‘ (1986)

    Former pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson (Paul Newman) decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria (Cruise) and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent the tricks of scamming, but he eventually grows frustrated with Vincent’s showboat antics, leading to an argument and a falling-out. Eddie takes up playing again and soon crosses paths with Vincent as an opponent.

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    21. ‘Mission: Impossible‘ (1996)

    When Ethan Hunt (Cruise), the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he’s surprised to learn that he’s the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.

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    20. ‘Jack Reacher‘ (2012)

    Tom Cruise in 'Jack Reacher.' Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    Tom Cruise in ‘Jack Reacher.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: “Get Jack Reacher!” So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher (Cruise) against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep.

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    19. ‘Mission: Impossible III‘ (2006)

    Retired from active duty to train new IMF agents, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is called back into action to confront sadistic arms dealer, Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Hunt must try to protect his girlfriend while working with his new team to complete the mission.

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    18. ‘Magnolia‘ (1999)

    An epic mosaic of many interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.

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    17. ‘The Firm‘ (1993)

    Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by ‘The Firm’ and made an offer he doesn’t refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice – work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan…

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    16. ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol‘ (2011)

    Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States. An attempt to stop him ends in an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF to be implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to disavow them. No longer being aided by the government, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks around the globe, although they might still be too late to stop a disaster.

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    15. ‘Interview with the Vampire‘ (1994)

    (L to R) Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in 'Interview with the Vampire.' Photo: Warner Bros.
    (L to R) Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in ‘Interview with the Vampire.’ Photo: Warner Bros.

    A vampire (Cruise) relates his epic life story of love, betrayal, loneliness, and dark hunger to an over-curious reporter.

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    14. ‘Born on the Fourth of July‘ (1989)

    The biography of Ron Kovic (Cruise). Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

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    13. ‘Days of Thunder‘ (1990)

    Talented but unproven stock car driver Cole Trickle (Cruise) gets a break and with the guidance of veteran Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) turns heads on the track. The young hotshot develops a rivalry with a fellow racer (Michael Rooker) that threatens his career when the two smash their cars. But with the help of his doctor (Nicole Kidman), Cole just might overcome his injuries– and his fear.

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    12. ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation‘ (2015)

    Ethan (Cruise) and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating ‘The Syndicate’, an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.

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    11. ‘Risky Business‘ (1983)

    Meet Joel Goodson (Cruise), an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.

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    10. ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ (2022)

    Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in 'Top Gun: Maverick' from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
    Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

    After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.” Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.

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    9. ‘Rain Man‘ (1988)

    When car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father’s $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father’s money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers’ cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.

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    8. ‘Jerry Maguire‘ (1996)

    Jerry Maguire (Cruise) used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients, plus a nice commission for himself. Then, one day, he suddenly has second thoughts about what he’s really doing. When he voices these doubts, he ends up losing his job and all of his clients, save Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), an egomaniacal football player.

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    7. ‘Collateral‘ (2004)

    Cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) picks up a man (Cruise) who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.

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    6. ‘Tropic Thunder‘ (2008)

    Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. lead an ensemble cast in ‘Tropic Thunder,’ an action comedy about a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to make the most expensive war film. After ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys.

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    5. ‘Minority Report‘ (2002)

    Tom Cruise in 'Minority Report.' Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    Tom Cruise in ‘Minority Report.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    John Anderton (Cruise) is a top ‘Precrime’ cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they’re committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator (Colin Farrell) targets him for a murder charge.

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    4. ‘Edge of Tomorrow‘ (2014)

    Major Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again… and again – as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

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    3. ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘ (2018)

    When an IMF mission ends badly, the world is faced with dire consequences. As Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes it upon himself to fulfill his original briefing, the CIA begin to question his loyalty and his motives. The IMF team find themselves in a race against time, hunted by assassins while trying to prevent a global catastrophe.

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    2. ‘A Few Good Men‘ (1992)

    When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Cruise) and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson).

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    1. ‘Top Gun‘ (1986)

    Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun.' Photo: Paramount Pictures.
    Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.

    For Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Cruise) and his friend and co-pilot Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete’s dreams of becoming an ace pilot.

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  • Cameron Crowe Making Joni Mitchell Movie

    Joni Mitchell in Martin Scorsese's 'The Last Waltz.'
    Joni Mitchell in Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Waltz.’

    It’s been a quiet few years for Cameron Crowe in terms of narrative output on big or small screens. Though he had a great run from the time he wrote ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ (based on his own experiences going undercover at a high school), and created the hit movies ‘Say Anything’, ‘Singles’, ‘Jerry Maguire’, ‘Almost Famous’ and ‘Vanilla Sky’, he saw his most recent movie, ‘Aloha’ fail to connect with audiences and criticized for some dodgy racial elements (Emma Stone as a native Hawaiian just didn’t fly), and on TV, his Showtime series ‘Roadies’ (which trod similar ground to ‘Almost Famous’ but in the present day as opposed to the 1970s) was cancelled after one season.

    Now, though, after a more recent fallow period (more on that below), it appears he’s back with a new planned movie that means a lot to him.

    According to Above The Line’s Jeff Schneider, Crowe has been busy writing a film about legendary folk singer Joni Mitchell.

    While little concrete is known about the movie yet, it apparently stretches further than a conventional biopic, driven by Crowe’s close friendship with Mitchell, who he has known since he was a young journalist working for Rolling Stone magazine, which published his profile of her in 1979.

    Joni Mitchell in Martin Scorsese's 'The Last Waltz.'
    Joni Mitchell in Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Waltz.’

    Joni Mitchell’s story

    The Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter was one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit and became known for her starkly personal lyrics and unconventional compositions which grew to incorporate pop and jazz elements. In her career, she has won 10 Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

    Her hits include ‘Both Sides Now’, ‘River’, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and ‘Woodstock’, while one of her albums, ‘Blue’, is considered among the greatest of all time.

    Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015 but recovered enough to make a rare public appearance at Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy party, escorted by Crowe.

    Writer, director and producer Cameron Crowe.
    Writer, director and producer Cameron Crowe.

    Related Article: David Crosby Dies at the Age of 81

    What has Cameron Crowe been up to since ‘Roadies’?

    Crowe hasn’t exactly been sitting around since ‘Aloha’ and ‘Roadies’, though –– he’s produced a documentary about David Crosby called ‘Remember My Name’ and directed the short Stevie Nicks: Show Them the Way’.

    And Crowe was also busy getting the stage musical based on ‘Almost Famous’, which is now playing on Broadway.

    He’s reportedly been at work on the Mitchell movie during pandemic but has yet to reveal what form it’ll take or whether various actors will be playing her in the course of the film. At 79, Mitchell remains as vital as ever, and is involved with the movie, which means Crowe should enjoy full access to her back catalogue and real insight into her life and career.

    With luck, this could bring Crowe back to make more movies, though as of right now, we don’t know where the new film is set up.

    Producer Cameron Crowe, David Crosby and director A. J. Eaton from 'David Crosby: Remember My Name.'
    (L to R) Producer Cameron Crowe, David Crosby and director A. J. Eaton from ‘David Crosby: Remember My Name.’

    Other Cameron Crowe Movies:

    Buy Cameron Crowe Movies On Amazon

  • Best Feel Good Movies to Make you Happy

    20th Century Fox
    20th Century Fox

    Ever have a bad day at work and just wanted to go home and watch a movie to help you forget about your problems?

    Those are called “Feel Good Movies” and everyone has their favorite film that makes them happy.

    So, if you are looking for a movie to put you in a better mood, here is a list of some fun films that will be sure to put a smile on your face.

    Let’s begin!

    13. Senior Year (2022)

    The story follows a cheerleader (Rebel Wilson) who wakes up after a 20-year coma and returns to high school to try to regain her status and claim the prom queen crown that eluded her.

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    12. The Holiday (2006)

    Two women, one from the United States (Cameron Diaz) and one from the United Kingdom (Kate Winslet), swap homes at Christmastime after bad breakups with their boyfriends. Each woman finds romance with a local man but realizes that the imminent return home may end the relationship.

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    11. Love Actually  (2003)

    ‘Love Actually’ follows the lives of eight very different couples dealing with their love lives, in various loosely and interrelated tales, all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England. The cast includes Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Kiera Knightley, Colin Firth, Billy Nighy, Laura Linney, and Liam Neeson.

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    10. Pitch Perfect (2012)

    College student Beca (Anna Kendrick) knows she does not want to be part of a clique, but that’s exactly where she finds herself after arriving at her new school. Thrust in among mean gals, nice gals and just plain weird gals, Beca finds that the only thing they have in common is how well they sing together.

    She takes the women of the group out of their comfort zone of traditional arrangements and into a world of amazing harmonic combinations in a fight to the top of college music competitions. Also starring Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, and Brittany Snow.

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    9. Jerry Maguire (1996)

    Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients, plus a nice commission for himself. Then, one day, he suddenly has second thoughts about what he’s really doing. When he voices these doubts, he ends up losing his job and all of his clients, save Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), an egomaniacal football player.

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    8. School of Rock (2003)

    Fired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn (Jack Black) finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his students the finer points of rock ‘n’ roll. The school’s hard-nosed principal is rightly suspicious of Finn’s activities. But Finn’s roommate remains in the dark about what he’s doing.

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    7. La La Land (2016)

    Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

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    6. Clueless (1995)

    Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school’s pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other. Emboldened by her success, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother was right about how misguided she was — and falls for him.

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    5. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

    A timid magazine photo manager (Ben Stiller), who lives life vicariously through daydreams embarks on a true-life adventure when a negative goes missing. Also starring Kristen Wiig, Kathryn Hahn, Shirley MacLaine, and Sean Penn.

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    4. Yes Man (2008)

    Carl Allen (Jim Carrey) has stumbled across a way to shake free of post-divorce blues and a dead-end job: embrace life and say yes to everything. Also starring Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Darby, and Terence Stamp.

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    3. Big (1988)

    When a young boy (David Moscow and Tom Hanks) makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big—he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight. But he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman (Elizabeth Perkins).

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    2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

    After high school slacker Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) successfully fakes an illness in order to skip school for the day, he goes on a series of adventures throughout Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck), all the while trying to outwit his wily school principal and fed-up sister.

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    1. The Princess Bride (1987)

    In this enchantingly cracked fairy tale, the beautiful Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright) and the dashing Westley (Cary Elwes) must overcome staggering odds to find happiness amid a six-fingered swordsmen (Christopher Guest), a murderous prince (Chris Sarandon), a dangerous Sicilian (Wallace Shawn), a man searching for his father’s killer, (Mandy Patinkin) a giant (André Roussimoff), and rodents of unusual size. But even death can’t stop these true lovebirds from triumphing.

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  • Every Cameron Crowe Movie, Ranked

    Every Cameron Crowe Movie, Ranked

    20th Century Fox

    There are few contemporary filmmakers who have more successfully helped audiences navigate the treacherous waters of relationships than Cameron Crowe. After his illustrious time as a teenage reporter for Rolling Stone, Crowe began his career as a social documentarian of sorts — going undercover to report on the life of the modern teenager — where he seemed to learn quickly about the journeys that are common to adolescents. But each of his subsequent films has showcased not only his own maturity as a filmmaker, but that of viewers growing up with his films. Crowe became a chronicler, and a guide, for life’s twists and turns, imparting important life lessons via vivid, specific stories that are emotionally powerful and deeply relatable. To commemorate his 62nd birthday on July 13, Moviefone takes a look back at his body of work, ranking his various film projects as portraits, some more successful than others, of life’s big and little changes and how best to process and transcend them. (Crowe’s Elton John-Leon Russell documentary “The Union” is excluded from this list because it is currently unavailable to stream anywhere. Hopefully that’ll change)

    11. “Aloha” (2015)

    Columbia Pictures

    Despite featuring a lead character whose last name is very similar to this author’s, Crowe’s most recent big-screen effort proved to be his least effective. From its woeful but well-intentioned cultural representation (Emma Stone as half-Hawaiian Allison Ng) to its half-baked romance between Ng and military contractor Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) to its sociopolitical maneuvering (its climax involves a missile strike), this emotionally underwhelming dramedy (a passion project for the filmmaker that for many years existed under the title “Deep Tiki”) assembles a lot of intriguing pieces that never quite fit together.

    10. “Elizabethtown” (2005) 

    Paramount

    There are so, so many individual parts that work in this 2005 drama about failed sneaker designer Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), his father’s funeral, and Claire (Kirsten Dunst), the flight attendant so perky that she inspired the movie trope Manic Pixie Dream Girl, that it comes as no small heartbreak that they don’t add up to a truly special whole, undone by a repetitive story and some very bad casting decisions (Bloom might be many things but a romantic comedy lead is not one of them). But Crowe’s gifts for weaving moments of magical humanism remain sharp even if they aren’t as focused as in previous years.

    9. “We Bought A Zoo” (2011) 

    20th Century Fox

    Based on the real-life memoir by Benjamin Mee, Crowe’s second meditation on grief and redemption is slightly more grounded than the first, but it still involves a dad (Matt Damon) who randomly decides to purchase and try and run a zoo in the wake of his wife’s death. He finds a budding new romance with a comely, very receptive young woman (Scarlett Johansson). While some of the idiosyncrasies of the plot are of course excusable because they actually happened, again Crowe doesn’t quite synthesize his story’s darker themes with his more whimsical ones, although the score by Sigur Ros mainstay Jonsi is genuinely lovely.

    8. “The Wild Life” (1984) 

    Universal

    Directed by Art Linson (“Where The Buffalo Roam”), this Crowe script marked his first original work after “Fast Times,” and it was a thoughtful if somewhat predictable comedy about postgraduate teens finding their way through life and love after high school. Better known as the show of promise that led James L. Brooks to bankroll his first directorial effort than as an especially memorable ‘80s teen film, it manages to offer some nice grace notes to a genre that wasn’t often marked by anything original, much less sensitive.

    7. “Vanilla Sky” (2001) 

    Paramount

    Hot off of the tremendous success (critical, if not commercial) of “Almost Famous,” Crowe reunited with his “Jerry Maguire” star Tom Cruise for this English-language reimagining of the Spanish film “Abre Los Ojos,” in which then up-and-comer Penelope Cruz would reprise her role from the original. Unfortunately, much of the dreamlike magic of the original is lost in translation, although again he conjures some truly unique moments on screen — including shots of Cruise running through a completely empty New York City — and the chemistry between Cruise and Cruz is absolutely undeniable.

    6. “Pearl Jam Twenty” (2011) 

    PBS

    Crowe returned to the music-oriented material that dominated much of his journalism career and ventured into documentary filmmaking in the last decade with this retrospective portrait of Pearl Jam’s debut album and the unconventional career that evolved for the band from that early, potentially overwhelming success. Bereft of too much drama — which the band seemed to have relatively little of — it feels less like a tell-all than a victory lap, but anyone who came up in the era of grunge will find plenty to entertain them.

    5. “Singles” (1992) 

    Warner Bros.

    After “Say Anything…,” Crowe evidenced his willingness to grow up on screen both as a storyteller and via his characters with this drama about young Seattle professionals at the time when alternative music was exploding into the mainstream. Kyra Sedgwick and Campbell Scott pay two lovers trying to work through their own anxieties and insecurities in order to be partners for one another, while grunge luminaries pepper the background of scenes to give the film prescient authority about a pivotal musical and cultural moment.

    4. “Jerry Maguire” (1996) 

    TriStar

    Crowe’s biggest box office success came with this Billy Wilder-influenced story about a failed sports agent who develops a debilitating conscience in an industry without one . The romance between Tom Cruise’s title character and his secretary Dorothy (Renee Zellweger, breaking through in a big way) is sometimes a little uneven, even bordering on disastrous, but the fact that the movie knows that it’s borderline disastrous — and errs on the side of hope rather than convenient happiness — is what makes this story such an inspiring and romantic crowd-pleaser. Crowe’s entire career has always walked that fine line between genuine and saccharine and here that line is razor-thin.

    3. “Say Anything…” (1989) 

    20th Century Fox

    Working with James J. Brooks (“Terms of Endearment”) in his corner, Crowe wrote and directed this great little movie about aspiring kickboxer Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack in a star-making role) and the overachieving classmate  (Ione Skye) he falls in love with. Crowe absolutely perfectly captures the awkward and delightful little moments of discovery between two people learning how to love one another, while also expertly chronicling that tough moment between school and adulthood where every choice feels like a life-changing moment.

    2. “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982) 

    Universal

    Directed by Amy Heckerling in her own feature debut, Crowe’s adaptation of his own captures the fun, silliness and pain of high school via a colorful cast of characters based on the real students he went to school with while undercover in San Diego for Rolling Stone. An uncommonly serious and sensitive depiction of pivotal adolescent moments, including first jobs, class struggles and sex, Crowe’s writing offers what has become a familiar outlook for him about his subjects (one of ultimate hope) without shying away from tougher topics like heartbreak and failure as the characters embark on adulthood. How many abortions have been depicted on screen in the years since, especially in what was ostensibly a wacky teen comedy? Exactly.

    1. “Almost Famous” (2000) 

    DreamWorks

    Crowe deservedly won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this semi-autobiographical account of the former reporter’s earliest days working for Rolling Stone magazine. Dealing with an unrequited crush on Penny Lane (Kate Hudson in a role that broke out another promising actress) while trying to navigate the vagaries of reporting on bands that he once idolized, the filmmaker’s stand-in William Miller (Patrick Fugit) piercingly captures the optimism, dashed hopes, heartbreak and advancing maturity of a young man forced to grow up faster than he’s ready. Teaching us that “honest and unmerciful” is the best way to go through life, Crowe reminds audiences what it’s like to be young, and how to grow older with grace and sensitivity.

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  • Jonathan Lipnicki Still Gets ‘Jerry Maguire’ Quotes Shouted at Him, 20 Years Later

    jerry maguire, jonathan lipnickiCameron Crowe and Tom Cruise‘s “Jerry Maguire” is celebrating its 20th anniversary on Tuesday, and the flick has become revered for its now-iconic catchphrases (Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr.‘s “Show me the money!”) and breakout performances, particularly that of then-5-year-old Jonathan Lipnicki, who played Renee Zellweger‘s son, Ray. And according to the now-26-year-old Lipnicki, who’s still working as an actor today, the 1996 film is as relevant as ever — at least when it comes to how often people approach him on the street and attempt to quote back some of his most memorable lines.

    In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor chatted about what it was like to work with one of the biggest stars in the world, and how the experience instilled in him a love of acting that has informed his career ever since. “Maguire” was Lipnicki’s first film role (he’d only appeared in a handful of commercials before landing the high-profile gig), and the actor mused about how lucky he was to kick off his career with such a huge movie.

    Lipnicki also shared an amusing anecdote about fans approaching him on the street and spouting off lines from the flick, though the actor said, “More often than not they get it wrong.” Take his classic non-sequitur line, “The human head weighs eight pounds,” for example.

    “God bless the people that do this, but judging by the grin on their face, they think that they are the first person who ever told me [those quotes],” Lipnicki told EW. ” … And it came out wrong, you said, ’10 pounds.’”

    Despite the frequency of such silly interactions, the actor knows how much the film means to people — and especially how much it means to him.

    “I kind of just laugh,” Lipnicki said of his reaction to well-meaning — if misinformed — fans. “I’m super grateful for everything to do with the movie. It’s cool that they like it.”

    For much more from the actor about his experience making “Jerry Maguire,” and what he’s up to now, check out his full interview over at Entertainment Weekly.

  • 21 Things You Never Knew About ‘Jerry Maguire’

    “Jerry Maguire” had us at hello.

    Released 20 years ago this week (on December 13, 1996), Cameron Crowe‘s sports-themed romantic dramedy gave us Tom Cruise at his most charming, made a star of Renée Zellweger, made an Oscar-winner of Cuba Gooding Jr. and generated at least three indelible catchphrases. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this ’90s classic, here are some mission statement-worthy facts you need to know.
    1. After the failure of his 1992 movie “Singles,” Crowe felt like he learned who his true friends were. That feeling was the seed of his next film. “I originally wanted to do a movie that was about how you would arrive at your greatest success through incredible failure,” Crowe has said of the “Jerry Maguire” script. One inspiration was a newspaper photo of an athlete and his agent, “They were two guys of very different sizes and loud shirts. But they were clearly two guys against the world.”

    2. Much of the inspiration for Jerry as a sports agent came from Leigh Steinberg, a real-life agent who served as a consultant on the film. You can see him in the movie as the man who introduces Jerry to Troy Aikman (a real-life Steinberg client). He’d have had a bigger role in the movie, playing Jerry’s brother, who gives an unflattering toast at Jerry’s bachelor party, but he didn’t want to come off as a villain. “To this day, I may be the only actor who ever talked his way out of a scene with Tom Cruise,” he claims. 3. He also claims to have taught Jerry O’Connell, as aspiring NFL quarterback Frank Cushman, how to throw a spiral.

    4. Similarly, Crowe based Rod Tidwell loosely on Tim McDonald, a San Francisco 49er who once walked the media floor with Steinberg the way Jerry and Rod do in the movie.
    5. Crowe has also credited McDonald with coining the phrase “Show me the money.”

    6. Crowe spent nearly four years writing and revising the script, all the while with Tom Hanks in mind for the lead. But Hanks was committed to directing and starring in “That Thing You Do.”
    7. Cruise was Crowe’s next choice, though he’d been told the A-lister wouldn’t want to play a struggling loser. “In fact,” Crowe learned, “he was dying to play someone who was on the ropes.”

    8. Connie Britton screen tested for the role of Dorothy and was led to believe she’d nailed the audition. But there was still one more actress the producers wanted to see, and that turned out to be Renée Zellweger. Britton has joked that she probably lost the part because she’s too tall for Tom Cruise.
    9. Zellweger, then little-known, auditioned for Dorothy three times over the space of a month. Cruise was there for her final reading, and that made all the difference. Crowe videotaped the audition and saw Cruise reacting to Zellweger “in that great way that Spencer Tracy regards Katharine Hepburn. Just someone watching this person who, as it happens, was going to play a big part in his future life. And it was all there in the first moment.”

    10. Having begun his show business career as a breakdancer, Cuba Gooding, Jr. was also the right actor to perform Rod’s end-zone dance, which was choreographed by Paula Abdul.
    11. Gooding disarmed and won over Cruise and Crowe during his audition by performing the locker room scene naked as written. His high school football background gave him the chops to play Rod, though he also went through a week of training camp to prepare.

    12. To prepare for the scene where she has to clock Cruise, Kelly Preston trained with celebrated boxer Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini.
    13. To play Ray, Crowe wanted a child who didn’t seem like a professional actor. But the one he hired didn’t work out and had to be replaced after three weeks.

    He hired a kid with a McDonald’s ad on his résumé, Jonathan Lipnicki. The five-year-old and Cruise had a rapport, maybe because, as Lipnicki told Cruise at his audition, “Top Gun” was his favorite movie, one he’d seen 20 times. Lipnicki brought to the picture Ray’s look (the spiky hair, the glasses) and the line about the human head weighing eight pounds.

    14. Crowe wanted the director he admired most, Billy Wilder — whose “The Apartment” was Crowe’s model for the office romance between Jerry and Dorothy — to play Dicky Fox, Jerry’s mentor seen in flashbacks. Wilder, who was a sparkling conversationalist but not an actor, turned him down. Not even Cruise could talk him into taking the part. Crowe went instead with Jared Jussim, a top lawyer at Sony (the film’s distributor) who had no acting experience.
    15. No Cameron Crowe movie would be complete without some music-business cameos. There’s Crowe’s former boss, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, playing Jerry’s boss at Sports Management International. That’s the late Glenn Frey of the Eagles as the general manager of Rod’s team, the Arizona Cardinals. Music video director Mark Pellington is the director of the commercial with the camel. And that’s Alice in Chains frontman Jerry Cantrell as the guy at the copy shop who helps Jerry print his notorious mission statement.

    16. We see very little of that mission statement on screen, but Crowe really did write all 27 pages of it. He posted it online a few months ago here. (It is also on the film’s first special edition DVD.)
    17. Life Imitates Art moment: Shortly after Gooding filmed the “Are you Hootie?” scene, a fan in an airport really did mistake the actor for Hootie and the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker. By the way, in Spain, the line is dubbed, “Are you Ice-T?” because Rucker and his band weren’t that famous there.

    18. As you would expect in a movie about athlete endorsements, product placement runs rampant in “Jerry Maguire,” with some 25 retailers’ merchandise getting prominent screen time. But then there was Reebok, which spent $1.5 million on placement, including a commercial starring Rod.

    That got cut from the film, and all that was left was Rod’s rant criticizing the shoe company. Reebok sued the studio for $10 million for breach of contract, a suit that was settled out of court. Rod’s Reebok ad was restored to the film in TV broadcasts and on the Special Edition DVD.
    19. The movie cost a reported $50 million to make. It earned back $154 million in North America and another $120 million abroad.

    20. “Jerry Maguire” was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Editing. It won for Best Supporting Actor, a moment that saw Gooding accept his trophy by doing Rod’s end-zone breakdance.
    21. Of all the quotes in the movie that became pop-culture staples, Crowe was surprised that the idea of “the kwan” did not become as quotable. He really thought that one was gonna take off.