Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Another story centering on Moist von Lipwig (from Going Postal). In this one he is required to sort out the mint and central bank. The characters are fun, but overall the story lacks the bite of Pratchett's best recent novels (I'm thinking of Going Postal and Thud!, in particular). It feels like the ideas didn't quite come together as they were intended to, or something.

Still, there is plenty to enjoy along the way.

Big Trouble In Little China

Another old favorite rewatched, this film has lost none of it's charm over the years. The jokes, action and even the special effects hold up very well indeed.

This copy also had a commentary track with Carpenter and Russell, which was very funny. They said a fair amount about the film, but it seemed that primarily they were enjoying watching it again and catching up. Russell seemed to spend half the film laughing at whatever just happened, and they even digressed into asking about each others' kids at one point. Despite all this, it was good to listen to, because the amount of fun they had making the film really shines through. Worth a listen for fans, maybe not so much for others.

The Pirates in an Adventure with Communists by Gideon Defoe

Probably the funniest pirates book yet. In this episode, the Pirate Captain ends up helping save Karl Marx and indeed the entire Communist movement. There are some hiccups along the way, such as when the Pirate Captain suspects Marx's beard might me more luxuriant than his own.

One For The Morning Glory by John Barnes

A fantastic light-hearted fantasy novel. The humour is strange - shades of Jack Vance - but very funny indeed. A particularly nice touch is a constant replacing of words... the people talk of hunting gazebo, shooting with their omnibuses, riding on a horse-drawn tumulus, and suchlike.

The story is a heroic fairy tale, and the Prince and his companions are quite aware of this and often decide what to do based on whether it would fit into the narrative or not. These moments are not too often, and are not overdone.

Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story

Watched this video the other night. This is one of the funniest films I've seen for a while. It's hard to know exactly what made it work - the humour is in several areas that I regarded as basically played out (e.g. jokes about making the movie itself).

Between the actual story of Tristram Shandy and the freshness and fun of the cast, it really worked.

I guess I need to go and read the novel now, to see how it fits in. I suspect that it has almost no relation to the film, except maybe in an absurdist attitude to itself and everything else in the world.

The Pirates! In An Adventure With Whaling by Gideon Defoe

As those of you who have read the first of Defoe's pirate books might guess, this is very silly. This time the Pirate Captain and his crew accidentally buy a very expensive new ship and are forced to hunt down Moby Dick for the bounty that Ahab has placed on the whale's head.

But really, it's all just an excuse to make lots of jokes about the school-boyish pirates, pop culture, Melville's great novel and so on.

Lots of fun.

While checking on the spelling of his name, I discovered that a third Pirates book is now out, The Pirates! In An Adventure With Communists. Golly!