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/ 3 September 2004
<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> The poster slogan for <i>King Arthur</i> sells it as "The untold true story that inspired the legend". While there is some intellectual texture and moral fibre, as it were, to the story, much else is botched, writes Shaun de Waal.
Punting female power, two action fantasies with girls in the lead grace our screens this week. The graceful Halle Berry is more girlish than all woman, but the titular girl in the fun French computer-animation <i>Kaena</i>, by comparison, really is a girl — there’s no hint of the former’s sexuality here, writes Shaun de Waal.
Suresh Roberts has spent the best part of the last decade on Nadine Gordimer’s authorised biography. Now it is no longer "authorised" and the contract has been cancelled. Gordimer’s disagreement with her biographer is an issue of authority, writes Shaun de Waal.
<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> <i>The Girl Next Door</i> is your average, run-of-the-mill teen flick about teens and porn flicks. Boy meets girl, loses girl, gets girl back — that is the story, and one that has been told a million times, writes Shaun de Waal.
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Overlooking a couple of flaws, <i>The Statement</i> is a good thriller — something of a cross between a police-procedural and a chase movie. Shaun de Waal commends lead actor Michael Caine on a fine performance.
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK: <i>Spider-Man II</i> barely improves upon its disappointing and restrained predecessor. But at least he has an impressive opponent this time round in the form of Dr Octopus, writes Shaun de Waal.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: "The 1955 Ealing Studios classic <i>The Ladykillers</i>, a very British movie in almost every way, does not seem like an appropriate vehicle for a remake by Joel and Ethan Coen, known for their offbeat take on pop-Americana and their love of the South. At least not at first." Shaun de Waal reviews the remade <i>Ladykillers</i>.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: ‘Sand is overrated,” murmurs Joel, the hero of this comedy, who’s goofed off work for the day to mope around the beach. ”It’s just … tiny little rocks.” That slacker epiphany could only have come from the pen of Charlie Kaufman, creator of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is suffused with Kaufman’s charm, writes Shaun de Waal.
Lionel Abrahams, who died this week aged 76, was one of South Africa’s most influential and beloved literary figures. He was responsible for getting key 1970s poets such as Oswald Mtshali and Mongane Serote into print for the first time, but also took a huge amount of flak in the 1980s and 1990s for his views on the inadequacy of political rhetoric as a poetic programme. Shaun de Waal reflects.
For a hardcore Apple Mac person like me, having a new PowerMac G5 to test-drive for a week was akin to being in heaven. The Mac originally made professional applications available to everyone. Without Macs, desktop publishing, for instance, would never have happened. Without Macs, this newspaper, for one, would not have come into existence.