The Week in Entertainment

Film: I've now seen all three of the big three number threes... Shrek the Third last week and this week Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End and Spiderman 3, as well as Rise of the Silver Surfer. Neither of the latter was as bad as I’d heard. Neither was a great movie, but both were entertaining enough, explored a few deeper questions – especially Spiderman – and were good to look at. I think they’d both have been received well if they weren’t sequels to much better movies – excellent, in fact, in the case of Spiderman. I had held off on Spiderman as long as I could; I wanted to see it with my friend in Tennessee, but the magic of the internet allowed me to learn that it was not going to still be there. Pirates 3, on the other hand, was, and I caught that with her. Of the three, it was the best! Intricately (possibly confusingly) plotted, good special effects, good acting - obnoxious child in the seat behind me, who kept explaining things to his mother... things that hadn't actually happened yet, mind you. But after a while I was able to more or less tune him out, except for his loud laughter whenever Martin Klebba (Marty) showed up on the screen and his repeated "Go, Mini-Me!". Sheesh. I wanted to point out, loudly, that Martin Klebba is not Verne Troyer, but what would have been accomplished? Mom clearly thought her kid was brillant... Anyway, my friend and I were the only ones left when the credits ended and the little extra bit came on, but there was a huge hint it was going to happen if you paid attention to the cast list, so ...

DVD: Osobennosti Natsional'noj Okhoty (Peculiarities of National Hunting), an absolutely hilarious movie about a bemused Finn working on a treatise on Russian hunting and eager to experience it firsthand. His dreams - based on 19th century hunts with borzois and aristocrats - are juxtaposed with the reality: men drinking and wild absurdities (the cow in the bomber is priceless, as is what happens when one guy decides to fish with explosives - and let's not forget the sauna scene with the bear and the inflatable raft!). The Finn speaks no Russian, and none of them speak Finnish; so his communication is limited to English with his friend, German with the guide (when the guide is drunk), and body language otherwise. Nothing much happens - and an enormous amount happens - and I was laughing almost constantly. I also finished up the first season of Mission Impossible (what is up with Martin Landau being in every episode and yet never being in the credits? Is that some kind of billing thing - better to be "special guest star X as Y" than in the actual credits too far down?)

TV: I haven't been mentioning it, but I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report everyday. Otherwise, it was pretty much nothing happening last week.

Read: Finished up Inventing English, which was wonderful. From Caedmon to Chaucer to Shakespeare to Milton to Johnson and Webster and the OED, a wonderful exploration of the history of English. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, which is a fine little modern fairy tale, very engaging. Started Liz Williams' Snake Agent - entertaining so far.