United Paint the Town Red

Manchester United claim their third European Club Championship in dramatic style Wednesday night in Moscow

For the red side of Manchester, May 21, 2008 will go down as one of the greatest of European nights in their history. For John Terry, it will be a night he will forever be trying to forget.

Fifty years from the Munich Air Disaster which claimed the lives of seven Manchester United players when their plane caught fire and crashed on its way back from a European Cup match, the Reds capped a season devoted to their fallen legends by defeating Chelsea in the European Cup Final on penalties.

And the Oscar Goes to…

Reptastic live blogs from the red carpet at the 80th Annual Academy Awards

Last night we at Reptastic blogged live from the Red Carpet (by red carpet we mean the blood-stained carpet in our Seattle apartment) to bring you all the goings-on of the 80th Academy Awards. It was a night with a few surprises and some superb cinema, heightened by the deft touch of Jon Stewart who showed an uncommon level of sincerity in his role as host. A lovely night, some lovely winners, let’s relive it:

5:31–”Welcome to the make-up sex.”
Master of ceremonies and political funnyman Jon Stewart takes the stage to start us off on this long, arduous journey which is the Academy Awards telecast. He instantly amuses by asserting the proceedings would provide an amorous end to the writers strike.

But with this being a Hollywood crowd obsessed with back-patting, some of Stewart’s best material actually receives scattered groans from the crowd, including the priceless line, “Even Norbit got a nomination this year which I think is great. Too often the Academy ignores movies that are not good.”

His monologue was decidedly short though, betraying the obvious time crunch for him to complete it in the short time since the writers strike. It could also be that the higher-ups at the Academy want to keep this sprawling mess of a show under 5-hours, let’s see if they’re successful.

Ad Naseam: The Super Bowl of Advertising

Super Bowl Sunday saw two unexpected results–a Giants championship and a game which vastly outperformed an unimaginative crop of commercials

After large events happen, sometimes it’s good to sit back, reflect, and ask the question, “what have we learned?” Last night was the most watched Super Bowl ever and we learned quite a bit actually. Those 97 million who gathered around the tube to view the game learned the Patriots aren’t the greatest team of all time, we learned Eli Manning is ready for prime time, and we learned that even Tom Brady can look human in the face of unrelenting pressure. But hell, that’s not the important stuff, what did we learn from those commercials is the more important question. After all, this is the advertising industry’s Super Bowl as much as it is the NFL’s.

No Country for Old Men

In honor of it’s eight Academy Award nominations, Reptastic reprises it’s review of our pick for best film of 2007

The barren, scorched earth of 1980s West Texas is unforgiving, unrelenting; the same could be said for Anton Chigurh, a man who’s chillingly violent pursuit of $2 million cash is the epicenter of Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest film No Country for Old Men.The Coen brothers’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel find them at the peak of their talents, beautifully conveying the jagged and jaded Texas terrain familiar to McCarthy’s many western novels, expertly building tension in the cat and mouse game that drives their plot and conveying a wariness that comes with watching helplessly as the world changes before you.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Sherriff Ed Tom Bell and it’s hard to imagine anyone else capturing the sardonic, ill-at-ease, old lawman who doesn’t recognize or at least doesn’t want to face the world which surrounds him. Bell is a third-generation officer who longs for the days when his father and grandfather before him weren’t even required to carry guns to perform their duties. He shudders at the ebbing morality in society and the rising tide of violence and drugs which now plague the only place he and his family has ever really called home. The violence he will encounter on his pursuit of the various men mixed up in a failed drug deal will offer him no respite from his world-weary state.

Heath Ledger Dies

The tragic death of Heath Ledger will further expose a celebrity-obsessed media and the blurring lines between tabloid and mainstream media

As we at Reptastic have intimated in posts before, we’re at a loss when it comes to the cult of celebrity in our country. This blog could be far more popular if we used our biting wit to tear down celebrities instead of using this meager space to focus on their work, but that’s simply not our style. To Reptastic, the inconsequential foibles of celebrities carry far less weight than the art they create, thus the focus has always been on the work. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t consider the passing of the actor Heath Ledger and the media feeding frenzy that will likely occur over the next few days.

Dr. Drew Pinsky’s Celebrity Rehab

Unlike Amy Winehouse, these celebs are willing to say “Yes, yes, yes” to rehab in this reality show with Dr. Drew Pinsky

A culture obsessed with celebrity has risen in step with the rise of the internet, but it’s unlike the celebrity obsessions of yesteryear. In the past there was a reverence and respect for the leading men and starlets of Hollywood, but as the web grew, so did the number of celebrities in order to fill the void. As the number of celebs grew, people became famous not for their talents but more because of their proclivity for self-promotion. With this trend resentment has grown among many who think these people have done little of merit to achieve the attention they’ve received. The ease with which one can become a celebrity has cheapened it in many people’s minds and the exhaustive coverage has led to a backlash where people delight in taking these celebs down a notch.

We live in a culture where we’re obsessed with the happenings of Paris, Lindsay, Britney and others like them not so much out of their innate respect, but instead to root for their failure. In this toxic atmosphere the likes of TMZ and Perez Hilton thrive, feasting on the entrails of the stars they love and love to hate. It’s this very attitude which drives the ratings of the first few episodes of American Idol where people delight in others’ shortcomings, an attitude Ricky Gervais eloquently railed against in the finale of his show Extras. This wall-to-wall coverage of the downfall of celebrities has revealed a dark, nasty and mean element of our culture.

Ad Nauseam: Riggle Me This…

The Daily Show’s Rob Riggle and Budweiser team-up for an extremely inane and unimaginative ad campaign

Over the years, when it comes to commercials that deliver the funny, most people looks toward the beer companies to appease our jonesing for 30 seconds of low-brow humor. Beer enjoys the fact that their product is one of the most egalitarian of pleasures in life. People of all colors, class and creed can find a way to enjoy a hoppy beverage, so it’s natural that on occasion, the comedy in their commercials is especially geared toward the lowest common denominator in an attempt to appeal to a mass audience.

For those of us who desire our humor to be less about crotch shots and more about cleverness, this appeal to the widest possible audience leaves us a tad empty. But when I saw Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle hawking Budweiser, I thought to myself, alright here comes the funny; here comes the thinking man’s hilarious beer commercial. I can’t wait to see how he is going to deliver the goods…

30 Rock: “Episode 210″

30 Rock provides one last outstanding episode before heading back to their Writer’s Strike-imposed hiatus

Like finding an oasis in the arid, bleak desert that is the Writer’s Strike, 30 Rock unexpectedly aired a new episode Thursday amidst little fanfare. It was a beautiful and refreshing respite from what seems like an intractable labor impasse. Sure, with the Writer’s Strike, intellectually stimulating fare such as American Gladiators and Moment of Truth are seeing the light of day-but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want 30 Rock back. For one night I had it back, and “Episode 210″–a clever rumination on relationships–did nothing to dispel my yearning for the quick return of the smart and funny 30 Rock.

In “Episode 210″ we find our favorite corporate baron, Jack Donaghy attempting to build upon his relationship with C.C., the Democratic Congresswoman played by Edie Falco. In her third appearance this season, C.C. has managed to reconcile her and Jack’s political opposition only to face a struggle to balance their relationship and careers.

A League of Below-Ordinary Gentlemen

A terrible Championship Game epitomizes the debacle that is the BCS

It all began a year ago, when Ohio State laid down and died in the BCS Championship game against Florida, setting the tone for one of the worst years in sports championships. For the NCAA Football title the Buckeyes and Gators played a game devoid of entertainment, and then the schools reprised this theme in a yawner of an NCAA Basketball Final. The Superbowl was a boring slog in the rain, the NBA Finals was a lifeless four-game sweep by the Spurs, the World Series was a complete mismatch and the Stanley Cup Finals…well, I’m not sure if the NHL even played the Finals last year, that’s how insignificant it was.

Three Hundred Sixty four days later the Buckeyes came full circle, shitting the bed once again on the National stage in an utterly forgettable Championship game and providing a fitting end to the inauspicious sports year they kicked-off. Unfortunately, the terrible play on the field was only one aspect of the debacle that is the BCS Championship Game: the BCS system, the bowl season, the conference commissioners, and Fox as the broadcaster of the BCS all threaten to make college football’s showcase events totally irrelevant.

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares

Chef Gordon Ramsay shows unexpected heart and humor in his restaurant consulting-meets-reality show tour de force

On the high streets of London, the Champs Elysee in Paris, and the catwalks of New York City one can see how fickle fashion can be. Styles, materials, the hot-designer and over-arching trends change constantly, led by a wide assortment of visionaries and artists. Couture is constantly shifting, molding as well as reflecting changes in the populace at large. However, couture isn’t the only institution which finds itself a slave to fashion, cuisine changes with times nearly as much as the clothes we wear, a perspective greatly illuminated by the world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay.

To most Americans, Scottish chef Gordon Ramsay is simply the foul-mouthed, ill-tempered host of Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen and the US incarnation of Kitchen Nightmares. The previous Reptastic article, Empire Makers, illustrated how there is much more to the man than simply Ramsay dropping f-bombs and insulting everyone around him; explaining how his success is built on a solid foundation of culinary excellence. BBC America’s Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares does well to showcase Gordon’s cooking prowess, but more importantly it exhibits the Chef’s leadership, business acumen, keen sense of the culinary zeitgeist, tempering his gruff exterior with his unexpected heart and humor, making Kitchen Nightmares the most compelling reality show on television.