Anybody seen those two commercials for DIRECTV, one with Christopher Lloyd from BACK TO THE FUTURE and the other with Charlie Sheen from MAJOR LEAGUE? In the middle of the scene, each actor turns and starts talking about the product, but these ads are seamless. Anybody know the details of how they did them? Digitial work doesn't usually wow me much but these are really pretty impressive.

The Shatner one, in which he played Captain Kirk one more (final?) time, obviously used the same digital technology used to de-age (unconvincingly) Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in X-MEN 3. Besides that, I'm not sure there was much trickery involved. I imagine they placed Shatner in front of a green screen and added the Enterprise bridge in post. I agree that these spots are edited and photographed very well to match the old and the new footage.

Apparently Pamela Anderson is back in her BAYWATCH bathing suit for a DirecTV ad.

There is also one with Jessica Simpson from THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.

It is pretty obvious they cut from a point in the original movies to newly filmed stuff. Their set decorators should gets props (ouch!) for matching the older movies perfectly. Watch the Lloyd one again and you will see at :12 seconds it is new footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcrt7OzJS8c

The new stuff in the Charlie Sheen is done when they go into a medium shot. Good editing trumps digital work once again.

I actually find these ads so unconvincing that they really turn me off.

In a way, they're sad and desperate since they don't really seem to understand their root inspiration. The BACK TO THE FUTURE ad is especially bad with Christopher Lloyd donning a slicked back wig, which is a mere simulacrum of his hair in the original film. And Sheen's "wild" haircut in MAJOR LEAGUE (which was a BIG DEAL in that film when it first came out) is MIA in the commercial.

I know it seems I'm stuck on hair here - but its too blatant to be ignored, since both characters were (even if on a subtle level) defined by their crazy locks or geometrically shaved style.

Isn't he wearing a ballcap in the ad? I actually thought this one was pretty slick looking. I agree the BTTF one is wonkified.

But even with the ball cap on, in the original film, you could still see the triangles cut out at the hairline on the back of Sheen's neck...

Slightly off-topic, but did anyone else notice that Blockbuster's tv spots have replaced the voice of Alec Baldwin with a female voice?

He's only shown head-on in the ad.

That is because Blockbuster are rude, thoughtless little pigs (in my best Alec Baldwin voice).