Tuesday, February 08, 2011

I finally recovered from the Tron Fest that was the Black Eyed Peas.

On to the Super Bowl commercials. Overall, I thought things were pretty tame or lame, I guess. I can't name one that you'll think about during the coming year and say, oh, yeah, that was a Super Bowl highlight.

Traditionally, there are two types of ads that suck. Those for cars and those for movies. That pretty much held this year. And, oh, how those car manufacturers really tried to get out of their rut. Clearly, the best car ad was Eminem touting Detroit for Chrysler, the first two-minute ad during a Super Bowl:



Now, most people will tout the VW ad with the kid as Darth Vader as the best one for cars, but for art's sake, the ode to Detroit was awfully cool.

I, for one, was very happy to see that CareerBuilder was back on board this year. And they brought back the original guy who works with chimps in clothes! Nebraska plates!



As for the good ads, that was about it. Honestly. Nothing else resonated and there were some really strange efforts.

OK, the Doritos ads. I thought the pug was going to go through the window. And the guy sucking fingers was awfully gross. Not funny.

The other car ads. Audi with Kenny G. just took too long to tell the tale. The new generation of rich prison escapees prefers Audi instead of BMW. Got it. Yawn. Chevy missed badly on the seniors who couldn't hear and the Silverado that replaced Lassie. The worst had to be Mini with the "Cram it in the boot". The suggestiveness of the ad (with a Craig Ferguson-like host) reaches over-the-top status with the "Cram Cam" showing the guy shoving the extra long sub into the rear of the Mini:



Go Daddy is really wasting money at this point, aren't they?

Best Buy has Ozzy and Bieber and produces a WTF?

Snickers showed how tough it was to follow the Betty White/Abe Vigoda classic. The casting of Richard Lewis and Roseanne as whiners is spot on, but it had a sense of been there, done that.

Even the beer commercials were so-so this year. The Bud Light one where the guy was dog-sitting scored very high, but I'm not sure that some of the others were not worth the effort. Bud, especially, previewed their ad during the Conference Championship games and the possibilities were endless. I actually perked up when I saw that Peter Stormare (Buscemi's partner form "Fargo") entered the bar as the cowboy. To have them eventually sing "Tiny Dancer" was a major letdown.



Of course, he'll never top "German engineering in da house, yah" when he was unpimping autos way back when:



The Stella Artois ad was, well, um, different:



And, lastly, the Groupon ad with Timothy Hutton. It may have missed being a classic by this much. Christopher Guest has directed all of their ads and there is a charitable bent to the ads. However, when you have to explain the joke, it's probably not funny. But, oh, so close. The opening line especially: "The people of Tibet are in trouble. Their very culture is in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry."



Not my rule, but the bottom line is you can't make fun of Tibet.

Meal of Links

Keith Olbermann goes to Current TV. Raise your hand if you've ever watched Current. I watched it a long time ago when they had home movies of U2. That was it. Sorry, Al.

Liam Gallagher has stopped fighting his brother and has a new band. It's called Beady Eye.

The Top 100 British Films. "Don't Look Now" is Number One. Boy, there are a lot at the top I haven't seen. "Trainspotting" was 10. "24 Hour Party People" checked in at 94.

A detailed look back at one of Richard Pryor's classics, "Blue Collar". And that ain't no comedy.

Confession? There's an app for that.

Sexiest Cinematic Psychos. The popcorn-feeding Cameron Diaz is on the list from "Vanilla Sky".

Great observation on the AOL-HuffPo merger. SEO Speedwagon.

No wonder the "Basterds" had trouble in that movie. How you tell time in Germany clues everyone in to where you live.

Prince takes a stand.

Is the Super Bowl getting out of hand for those who attend. How about that half a million flyover of an unopened stadium?

Exercise Yard

I heard Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk this morning, talking about NFL relocation. He said the new CBA would allow for not one, but two teams to relocate to Los Angeles. Acknowledging that would be the Chargers and the Vikings.

The topic of the Jaguars came up and he said don't sleep on London. If Lord Football moves there, I'm convinced there is no way that home team plays at Wembley, considering its hallowed ground status. However, the new Olympic Stadium is allegedly going to seat 60,000 for the EPL team that moves there. Be it West Ham or Tottenham Hotspur, so I think that's where they would play.

The London games at Wembley have been selling out and the Super Bowl had record ratings there.

Visitor

8 Across: Buster who played Flash Gordon (6 letters) Answer: Crabbe

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