Mattress Man Commercial

'Mattress Man Commercial (2003)' is a beat-for-beat recreation of a real local commercial in which a man strums a guitar, announces the prices of his stock, then jumps off a roof onto some mattresses strapped to a car, bounces off them and crashes to the ground. It's an impressive reconstruction of the real deal, which functions almost as a planned joke despite clearly being completely accidental. The fact that Paul Thomas Anderson decided to do this is rather bemusing, as it's relatively inconsequential and only appears as a bonus feature on the home-media release of 'Punch-Drunk Love (2002)'. I wonder if Philip Seymour Hoffman actually did the stunt himself, falling onto the hard concrete after tumbling off those mattresses. In the original video, the man seems miraculously unhurt and there's no reason to think he didn't really come crashing to the ground. In this recreation, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some digital/ editing trickery to remove a crash mat. Either way, it doesn't really matter. For a sub-minute short, this is perhaps as entertaining as it could be. There isn't much to it and it works more as a curio than an actual film. Still, it's an endearingly strange inclusion on the Blu-ray.

Funny-yet-strange commercial for the false Mattress Man company seen in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love" (2002). During its one minute course, Dean (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) jumps from the top of a building onto a mattress--only to bounce off and hit the ground.

I was surprised when I first saw this, I thought it might be an outtake from the film, but after I saw the Blonde Brothers from the film rush to his aid I realized it was all false.

PTA pulled another one on us!

I guess this is spoofing a real mattress commercial from years ago that I just haven't seen but I just don't get the point of this one. It's just a few seconds long. Hoffman is on the roof of a mattress store then jumps off onto a pile of mattresses but bounces off and hits the ground hard. That's all the happens. I've seen Punch Drunk Love and loved it, and am a big fan of Hoffman and Anderson, but I just don't get the point of this outtake or extra or whatever it is.

This is just an advert which features on the Punch-Drunk Love DVD and features Philip Seymour Hoffman playing Dean. Dean is advertising his company as "The Mattress Man" whilst playing a guitar on top of a building. He then proceeds to jump off the building on to a car with mattresses piled up on top of it. However, instead of a nice comfortable fall Dean ends up bouncing off the mattresses and hitting the concrete road.

This is really funny and just another example of why Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the best directors out there today. It's cleverly shot and doesn't prolong the joke. A perfect extra to a perfect movie.

Hillarious, rip Hoffman you were genius and amazing actor.