Briefly Noted...

Underdog. This was a surprise. I expected to hate it or at least only be mildly amused by it. I had never seen the original cartoon, so perhaps I had no expectations of the original character to have dashed to pieces, but Melanie was fond of the original cartoon, and we both loved the film. Very funny. Not great, high art, just funny, with some clever lines and moments.

Wheat the Springeth Green by J.F. Powers. Excellent book. This was the second Powers book I have read (Morte d'Urban was the first), and it has the same piercing view of the priesthood. Well written, with good, well-developed characters. Read it.

Star Wars, Episode II, The Attack of the Clones. I hated this movie the first time I saw it. I only saw it again, because we are doing the Star Wars marathon for Amalia (a few months ago I realized that she had never seen Star Wars: any of them, although she could pick Yoda out of a lineup - so we started with the original three and have been working through the whole thing). I was surprised at how much better I liked it. Part of it is that the idiotic dialog and ham acting are now expected. And Jar Jar is only in it briefly. Anyway, I upgraded my Netflix rating to Three Stars.

More later.