A Thursday clip show, closing with the funniest thing you'll see today

Starting with some movie news, having been thoroughly burned by Matt Reeves' soulless, shot-by-empty-shot remake of one of my favorite movies, "Let the Right One In," I should just run screaming from this, but there's news today that still gives me hope that another unnecessary remake of a modern European classic might actually be pretty good.

Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One," based on the American novel by Harlan Coben, actually came out in the same year as Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In," and as a duo, they were my two favorites movies of 2008.

So there's nothing more representative of Hollywood's bankruptcy of ideas than the fact that they're both so quickly targeted for remakes, but in spite of that, I still have hope for the upcoming American take on "Tell No One" for exactly one reason: Ben Affleck.

He's now at work on "Argo," the odd thriller he's directing based on the true story of how the CIA and the Canadian government teamed up to rescue six U.S. diplomats who had been taken hostage by Iranians in 1979, developing a ruse that involved convincing the Iranians that the diplomats were a Hollywood film crew scouting locations for a movie called “Argo.”

That should be nothing but wicked fun, but today comes word that after that, he'll direct the American remake of "Tell No One," and though like I said I should know by now not to get suckered in so easily, the hard-boiled mind-bender would indeed seem to be perfectly catered to his directing style, if this remake needs to be made at all.

OK, enough of that. I promised clips, and the movie-related ones today are actually pretty sensational in my estimation, followed by three doses of pretty solid funny.

First up today is the first trailer I know of for the upcoming baseball flick "Moneyball," which, even with the thoroughly annoying "Entertainment Tonight" voiceover interruptions, looks like nothing but great. I love a good baseball movie, and this one starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A's bean counter Billy Beane, Jonah Hill as his assistant and, though he makes virtually no appearance in the trailer, Philip Seymour Hoffman as A's coach Art Howe, should be a real winner. Enjoy the trailer, and if you like baseball movies as much as me, keep an eye out for this in September.



Next up, if you take one piece of movie advice from me ever, it's go see "Tree of Life" if you have the chance. By far Terrence Malick's most personal movie, and in my opinion, his best, too. But don't take my word for it. In what I have to assume is a leaked DVD extra, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher eloquently make the case for why this is such a uniquely entertaining movie, emphasizing its naturalism as one of its chief strengths. Enjoy, go see the movie if you can, and stick around for three doses of good comedy, with the very best for last.



Part of my newspaper job (the one that actually pays me a bit of scratch) is to look for movie reviews of the week's opening releases, if there will be any. Well, this week, I just assumed several folks would step forward to review "Green Lantern" in time for inclusion in our entertainment publication, but only Rene Rodriguez took the plunge, and slightly too late, promptly giving the movie one star. With "Super 8" still to catch up with and perhaps Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" to see again (yes, it's just that good), I think I'll just say no, but just in case you're feeling tempted, here are the Onion folks to get you amped for the sure-to-be-phenomenon that is "Greg Lantern." Enjoy.



I read this book while in a Minneapolis bookstore last week, and even though I have no rugrats of my own to deal with, it was an amusing enough little ditty. I had no idea, however, that Adam Mansbach's "Go the F#$% to Sleep" was about to debut atop the NY Times bestseller list. Reading it is indeed a bit of fun, but believe me, hearing Samuel L. Jackson read it is at least 15 times better. Enjoy this audio-only clip, and then stick around for what is by a very wide margin the funniest thing I've seen today.



By himself, Karl Pilkington, the tormented genius of Ricky Gervais' podcasts and now his Science show "An Idiot Abroad," is pretty friggin funny already. But what happens when you combine him with Warwick Davis, the "Harry Potter" star who's also featured in his own upcoming Gervais series, "Life's Too Short"? Not surprisingly, comic gold. On the podcasts, Pilkington has made it clear that he fears just about everything even slightly out of the ordinary, especially little people, so when Davis sits on his lap in this clip, it's a riot. If you like this, be advised, it's only part one of four, and the rest can be found at YouTube by searching for "When Karl Meets Warwick." Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.