Shaun De Waal

Shaun de Waal looks at three dramas opening in the holidays.

<b>Review: Whatever it Takes</b>

<b>Review: Hamlet</b>

<b>Review: U-571</b>

<b>NOT QUITE THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Christopher Paolini’s <i>Eragon</i> makes a Harry Potter movie look like <i>War and Peace</i>, writes Shaun de Waal.

<i>Bridget Jones’s Diary</i> is a lot of fun, as Bridget works through her own entanglements and embarrassments while dealing with the complications that have suddenly erupted in her parents’ lives, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>CHRISTMAS MOVIES OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews two movies that are very much Christmas movies — but very different kinds of Christmas movies.

The fantastical world of James Bond gets brought down to earth in <i>The Tailor of Panama</i>, and the result is funny, tense, and coldly cynical, writes Shaun de Waal.

Bond is back, and he has a clear run at the festive box office, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> For a heavily message-driven movie, the actual message of <i>Beat the Drum</i> is pitifully short of content, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>COMEDY OF THE YEAR:</b> Much of the humour in Borat is anti-Semitic, which is to say a vicious parody of unthinkingly vicious anti-Semitism, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Writer-director Rian Johnson’s latest feature, <i>Brick</i> looks good in an understated, unfussy way, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>Movie of the week:</b> <i>Minority Report</i> is great to look at, is engrossing and often thrilling, but it’s so cool it leaves one cold, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews <i>The Ice Harvest</i>, starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton.

<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews <i>An Inconvenient Truth</i>, a documentary revealing hitherto unglimpsed evidence that Al Gore has charm, ease, a sense of humour and even a personality

<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Brian DePalma has an almost unique ability to scramble a plot and has done so with <i>The Black Dahlia</i>, writes Shaun de Waal.

Shaun de Waal looks at South African books that explore how land defines life.

<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Christians around the world should be protesting about the holy disappointment <i>Bruce Almighty</i> instead of things like <i>The Last Temptation of Christ</i>, which actually had a meaningful theological issue to explore, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> A Coen brothers production that’s funnier, in their screwball or oddball way than most other American movies available, <i>Intolerable Cruelty</i> should really have been titled <i>The Massey Pre-Nup</i>, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal finds that Jack Black fails to raise even a titter in the comedy <i>Nacho Libre</i>.

Shaun de Waal tries to get the elusive Aryan Kaganof to explain what his multifarious works add up to.

<b>MOVIES OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews the gril-driven screech that is <i>Snakes on a Plane</i> and the Robert Altman release, <i>A Prairie Home Companion</i>.

<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews <i>Hard Candy</i>, starring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson.

<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews the latest example of the "mockumentary" genre, <i>Confetti</i>.

Shaun de Waal pays tribute to one of South Africa’s leading poets, Mazizi Kunene, who died last week.

<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> The trouble with M Night Shyamalan’s <i>Lady in the Water</i> is not just that it is boring, predictable and laughably absurd; it’s that it is so obviously contrived, writes Shaun de Waal.

A new book is the most important yet on contemporary South African art, writes Shaun de Waal.

A film about the ill-fated 9/11 flight brings the horror to life as not even a documentary could, writes Shaun de Waal.

<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> <i>Miami Vice</i> Michael Mann’s reinvention of Miami Vice feels like a hundred other, more recent TV cop shows, writes Shaun de Waal.

Author Denis Hirson speaks to Shaun de Waal about writing and unfinished business.

A new book picks apart the mythology of Shaka, but is also an absorbing picture of his times, writes Shaun de Waal.

Shaun de Waal reviews James D Tabor’s <i>The Jesus Dynasty</i> and Anne Rice’s <i>Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt</i>.