Holes

I really liked the book, it was a well written one and easy to read and understand. This film adaptation does have some flaws but it was much better than I expected it to be. The film looks very beautiful, the photography is excellent throughout, even in the flashbacks, and the music was great. The screenplay is fairly faithful to the book, and is consistently engaging. The performances from everybody involved are very good, Shia LeBoeuf I actually found quite likable in this movie, and Tim Blake Nelson is fun to watch too. Patricia Arquette is given little to do, and while her character was necessary, I just felt that they could have cast somebody else that fitted the character a tad better, though I liked her chemistry with Sam the onion man, wonderfully played by Psych star Dule Hill. Sigourney Weaver looks beautiful, and seems to be relishing her role as the warden, but my favourite is Jon Voigt. He was absolutely hilarious as Mr Sir. My only other complaint of the movie, other than Patricia Arquette was some slow moments in the middle half, where little of interest happens. On the whole, it is an enjoyable and engaging film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

HOLES is not your average Disney stuff- it's very, very fun, even for adults who usually cringe at the cutesy, focus-group designed "family entertainment" that Uncle Walt's studio passes off as live-action. Perhaps the secret of this film's success is in its faithfulness to the original book, which is a little bit darker than your average kid stuff. The action begins when Stanley Yelnats is sent to a boys' prison camp, where all the inmates are forced to dig holes under the desert sun as a form of rehibilitation. But as the story progresses, Stanley's tale becomes interwoven with that of a legendary treasure, and this adventure becomes ten times more fun than any Disney movie about an all-boy prison camp has any right to be. Jon Voight is especially nasty and colorful, and Sigourney Weaver is beautiful, as always.

Oh, Holes... one of my favorite books of all time. I first read the book in 8th grade for a book report and thought, "Oh, my God, this is so good!" I loved it, and read it three times more! When I heard that this movie was going to be made, and with Shia LaBeouf in it as well, I was so excited. Well, my wait is over, I went on opening night, and the theatre was packed! My friends and I had to split up it was so crowded.

I was very impressed with this movie. All the characters were great, and very memorable. I enjoyed the way they did the flashbacks. Since it has been over 3 years now since I last read the book, I still questioned things, and wondered, "Hmmm....what? OH YEAH!" This is the best kid's movie... which to me, it shouldn't be one... cause I loved it, and I'm 17. Great job, Disney... great job, Shia! Holes... no holes to fuss about... 8/10.

I couldn't keep from commenting after reading the very short "Not bad" commentary. This movie is much better than just not bad. The acting is stellar, even from the children in the cast, who don't play cute or anything else but act just like my son's friends. The movie is smart and expects it's audience to be as well. The double back flash story lines are imaginative and contribute to the story rather than act as time filler. I watched this movie with my kids and then I watched it again by myself a few days later. If you have kids and are sick to death of movies that inspire a diabetic coma with their syrupy sweetness, then check out "Holes." My 6-year-old enjoyed it as much as my 11-year-old, and my husband and I enjoyed it as much as the two of them. How many movies can you say that about?

Ostensibly a film for adolescents, Holes is a film with too much plot and, at two hours long, not enough time to tell it in. Despite that, it is refreshingly original and offers some satisfying performances from both younger and older members of the cast.

Stanley Yelnats (Shia LaBeouf) is wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of trainers and sentenced to eighteen months at Camp Green Lake, a boy's detention centre deep in the desert where he and the other inmates spend each day digging 5ft deep by 5ft wide holes beneath the scorching sun. The camp's warden (Sigourney Weaver) aided by her henchmen Mr. Sir (Jon Voight) and Dr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson) claim such treatment is character building but, of course, have an ulterior motive.

Saddled with a sometimes intrusive and usually inappropriate soundtrack, Holes looks like a music video at times and, because of the wealth of information it has to fit into its running time, contains a convoluted structure featuring repeated flashbacks and, sometimes, even flashbacks within flashbacks. All this suggests a requirement for the viewer to be familiar with screenwriter Louis Sachar's novel on which it is based, but this isn't necessarily the case. The film's story can be followed by anyone who hasn't read the book, but there's a depth of characterisation that is sorely missing from the film that anyone who knows the novel would presumably be able to draw on to fill in the gaps.

Most of the real personalities belong to the adult characters. The triumvirate of Weaver, Voight and Nelson stray dangerously close to parody at times but manage somehow to avoid the obvious pitfalls and entertain while giving us reasonably hissable villains. Our young heroes, Stanley and Zero (Khleo Thomas), work well together and writer Sachar builds a largely adversarial relationship between the inmates that would be as recognisable on the school playground as it is in a detention camp.

Perhaps the story's main failing is the impression it gives of just being too clever. Every story has to tie up its loose ends, but the more strands the story has – and this one has many – the more contrived the ending appears when they are finally all neatly pulled together. But at least it's different from much of the media offered to teenagers today in that it offers a thoughtful and intelligent story, and it is obvious that both Sachar and director Andrew Davis have put a lot of care and attention to detail into the telling of this tale.