Rating: 
Summary: The best movie of 2003 yet, perfect..
Review: With Anger Management and its ilk of low-grade double entendre popcorn flicks going about, it was really quite a refreshing treat to finally see a fabulous family movie. A rear species these days with the possible exception of Harry Potters or the Lord of the Rings. Thankfully, Disney doesn't ruin this one. The imagery, settings, flashbacks, the narrative...everything about this movie is outright captivating. Although the story is a little "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (based on an eponymous book, which I confess I haven't read) the themes of loyalty, greed, interracial love, murder, revenge, suicide, inheritance -- and their treatment are all compelling. Even the credits are nice, with a song performed by the cast themselves so you may want to stick around until the end. Tough to find holes in Holes, only piddling caveats could be with a couple of slightly scary scenes and some cuss-words. Depending on the country you come from, you may want to consider this if you take kids younger than 10 or so with you. But overall, you know how you feel after a delicious wholesome meal. Perfect.
Rating:
Summary: a great movie
Review: this was truly a great movie!! it's about a kid named Stanley who gets busted for stealing a pair of shoes [but he didnt' actually steal them] and he gets to decide whether to go to jail, or Camp Greenlake. he goes to camp greenlake. at camp greenlake, stanley and a bunch of other kids have to dig holes to supossedly "build their character". he makes friends with a kid named Zero that arrived there not too long before he did. there's so many things in this movie i wouldn't have room to tell about all of them, just GO SEE THE MOVIE!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: If you like subplots, you'll LOVE this movie!
Review: "Holes" is Disney family comedy about Stanley Yelnats (Shia Leboeuf), a nice boy who has very bad luck. It seems his family is cursed, and Stanley ends up in a juvenile detention camp called "Camp Green Lake." There is, however, no lake at the camp, and it's located in the middle of a desert. The camp is run like prison chain gang by "Mr. Sir," odiously played by Jon Voight. Each boy must dig a five foot deep hole everyday for punishment. The warden (played by Sigourney Weaver) thinks something valuable is buried out there and wants to find it...
So far, so good. Then the endless subplots take over. We flash back to Stanley's eccentric family (Dad Henry Winkler is trying to invent a cure for smelly sneakers). Then we go back to Latvia, 150 years ago, to see the origin of the Yelnats family curse. Then we flash back and forth to an Old West frontier town, where the white school marm is in love with the black onion-farmer, not the mean sheriff who loves her. Then it's back to Camp Green Lake. We are never told, until the end, what all the flashbacks and the multitude of characters have to do with anything and after a while, it's hard to keep it all straight. If the story had stuck to Stanley's experience at the Camp, that would have made a very good story. Shia Leboeuf is quite appealing as the innocent and kindhearted Stanley Yelnats ("Yelnats" is "Stanley" spelled backward.) Voight and Weaver overact horribly and are reduced to playing nasty cartoon characters. The teens who play Stanley's campmates are all good, especially the boy who plays "Zero," the hero of yet another subplot.
Fans of the novel will undoubtedly appreciate "Holes," since the screenplay was written by the author. There are many nice elements here, but a bit too much confusion for those of us who didn't read the book first, or those over 15. Kids, however, will love the humor and will find Stanley a very likeable hero.
Rating:
Summary: Sigorney only adds to this wonderful tale
Review: Someone probably had a good chuckle when they added the theme song to "O Brother Where Art Thou?" to the soundtrack of this movie, because in many respects, this is a teenage version of the Coen Brothers' movie. Here, the jailed kids are mostly in jail instead of on the lam, but the tension between inmates is wonderfuly maintained just as it was in the Coen movie, with friends and enemies mixed together with the to-be-expected animosity towards the jailers. The use of flashbacks is probably the best I've seen in a movie, and it makes the humor of the present and the irony of the intertwined past twice as strong. I highly recommend this movie, and NOW I've got to read the book!
":)
Rating: 
Summary: Good job!
Review: "Holes" is one of the best movie adaptions of a novel I have seen in a long time. This is probably because the novel's author, Louis Sachar, was included in the screenwriting process. Somehow the film manages to include all the complexities of the novel, including several flashbacks to past events that bear on the matter at hand. "Holes" tells the unusual story of a boy who is wrongly accused of stealing some sneakers and is sent to a prison camp in the middle of nowhere. Each day he must dig a hole in the desert, while trying to fit in with the other misfits at the camp. But there's much more to it than that - what is the real purpose of all this digging? What happened in this place long ago? And how can the boy overcome his family's curse? The many strands of this ingenious story are skillfully woven together, and the film's casting is excellent. The boy actors (mostly unknowns) do a great job, and the adult actors are superb, especially Jon Voight as the odious "Mr. Sir." (One problem I had with the novel is that the counselor Mr. Pendanski seemed like too nice a guy throughout most of the book; here he is obnoxious from the start, which actually improves the story.) A fine movie for older kids.
Rating:
Summary: A "Hole" lotta delight!
Review: Holes is a very faithfull adaptation of Louis Sachar's "Hole's". It contains all the fantasy, mystery, friendship, and basiclly everything about the book. I Was very scared to see this movie, as I love the book very much. But it turned out to be wonderfully good. As I understand not everyone likes everything... I think it harsh that someone called this "The worst movie of the year" hands down and the perfect cure for "Insomnia. They also said it was perfect for the 4-8yrs range, that's a lie. It contains many themes unsuitable to children. And it would be a bit hard to follow for them. I'd say its good for the 12yr and up. Adults should like it, my mom loved it. My 22yr bro loved it, and I loved it. This is not a brainless film at all, its full of many values and such. And its a great story and screenplay. You may not like it, because its unique. And generally less people appreciate the truely unique unfortenately. Kudos to Disney for keeping so faithfull to the book. Louis Sachar wrote the script as well. So if you're looking for a unique and different movie that tales a complex tale, check out "Hole's". It certainly stands out as one of the best teen/family movie thus far this year. But don't take my word for it... :D God Bless ~Amy
Rating:
Summary: Holes was the best movie
Review: I am in 7th grade and I read the book last year for a literature circle. i thought the book was really good, but the movie was even better. It has the best teen actors (Shia LaBeouf and Khleo Thomas). Imight even read the book again b/c i forgot some of the things that happened when i saw the movie.
Rating:
Summary: You loved the book and you will probably like the movie
Review: I was rather surprised that author Louis Sachar did the screenplay for this movie version of his novel "Holes," because I was quite prepared to blame the shortcomings on this film with whoever had the job of adapting it for the big screen. The novel deserves its reputation amongst young readers because of the marvelous way it brings literally everything together in the climax. The film version tries to do the same thing and if the result is not as magical as I would hope a Disney film to be, it could well be because I already know the punch line for this story. Our young hero in "Holes" is the palindromically christened Stanley Yelnats the Fourth. Walking along one day a pair of expensive athletic shoes come out of a relatively clear blue sky and hit him in the head. The next thing Stanley knows he is on his way to Camp Green Lake, a facility for juvenile delinquents where the idea is that if you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot desert sun, then you will turn him into a good boy (think "Cool Hand Luke" for young teens but set on Arrakis a.k.a. Dune the desert planet). However, there is much more to the story of "Holes" than that. In fact, there is much more to virtually everything in "Holes," so pay attention and remember details because they will become important later on. At various points in the story as we learn about a couple of other stories. One is the origin of the family curse that is on the Yelnats family because of the actions of our Stanley's great-great-grandfather (father of Stanley Yelnats the first). The other story is set a century earlier in what was then still the Old West and explains how Green Lake because a dust bowl (and involves the aforementioned Stanley Yelnats the first). Meanwhile, Stanley and the other boys continue to dig a hole each day in the hot sun, although they have been promised the day off if they find something "interesting." As I indicated on top, the less you know about the story the more you will enjoy the film. I had forgotten enough to get caught up in weaving together of the developing narrative threads. Shia LaBeouf plays the present day Stanley and seems a normal kid caught up in extraordinary events. His friendship with Zero (Khleo Thomas), the silent kid in the group bears unexpected fruit. The kids do not have much of an opportunity to shine because the adults tend to upstage them at every opportunity. Jon Voight chews what little scenery is available in the desert as Mister Sir, Tim Blake Nelson steals scenes as the camp's therapist, Dr. Pendanksi, with his comic pratfalls, while Sigourney Weaver turns on the ice as the camp's Warden. Director Andrew Davis ("Collateral Damage," which, oddly enough, we watched last night), distances the viewer from both the violence and the oppressive conditions of the work camp. I think this is both calculated and appropriate. I have no trouble mixing the realistic horrors of a sadistic boot camp like this with the fairy tale elements of the story. But then I remember the original version of Cinderella so a grim fairy tale is not going to bother me. But for kids raised on Disney films and the world of Harry Potter, the tone of this film is on target. I do not think that "Holes" is a great film; certainly not as great as the book. But it is a very solid film, without any major areas where things are missing.
Rating:
Summary: Dem Holes
Review: This was a very good movie. It is a pretty complex plot, yet the movie makes it easy to follow. There are flashbacks to other time periods that tie into the plot. The characters were extremely well cast, with some familiar faces such as Sigourney Weaver and Henry Winkler. Louis Sachar (the original author) wrote the screenplay, so it is very true to the book. There is some death, though there is no guts or gore. It is best to read the book first though. I reccomend this for ages 8 and up.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I think this movie was awesome. It followed the book so close that except for minor differences the script could have been the book. I liked the scene where Stanley was looking for the hidden cameras and tape recorders. The actors that played the people in the book were just like I thought they would look like in my imagination. I loved this movie and think everyone should see it.
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