John Malkovich's Ad for Sunday's Patriots-Jaguars Game Was a Little Meta Masterpiece

The actor gets biblical for CBS's telecast

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At least, that’s the amusing conceit of the meta four-minute ad. It opens on the actor phoning his agent, feigning indignation at the overwrought monologue he’s supposedly been asked to deliver as an intro to the AFC Championship Game. Before long, he’s storming down to interrogate the young (and somewhat clueless) director during an orchestra rehearsal.

There, as the musicians run through the score for Malkovich’s benefit (he wonders why they’re even there in the first place), he rattles off what he feels the story should be—a simple but dramatic football version of David (the Jacksonville Jaguars) and Goliath (the New England Patriots) battling for a shot at The Super Bowl.

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