Spot Reviews: Dennis Hopper for Ameriprise
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
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Hollywood types are going to bank on their silver screen credentials by starring in TV commercials, their ads should be judged accordingly. Radar's Spot Reviews enlists the help of actual film critics to review these enterprising actors' ads.
In this edition of Spot Reviews, two-time Oscar nominee Dennis Hopper officially renounces his psychotic street cred by pimping for Ameriprise retirement planning. The ad in question shows a sunglasses-clad Hopper stationed in the middle of an idyllic beach, edgily ranting about bingo and how "your" generation is going to turn retirement "upside down." The camera then shifts, incongruously, to an uptight insurance agent in pearls and a power suit, followed by a man working on a sailboat, and finally back to Hopper again.
We corralled a bunch of young whippersnapper critics, including Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald, Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News, Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Peter Keough of the Boston Phoenix to take down old man Hopper and his Ameriprise shill.