Holes Movie Review

• Actors:
 Shia LaBeouf as Stanley, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Khleo Thomas as Zero

• Directors:
 Andrew Davis

Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBouf), is a hard-luck boy, not surprising seeing his great-great grandpa had a curse laid on him for eternity by Madam Zeroni (Eartha Kitt). The Yelnats have had a habit of failure ever since. Stanley's Dad, (Henry Winkler) is working (unsuccessfully, of course) on inventing a perfect shoe-deodorizer. Ironically, Stanley is falsely arrested for stealing a great athlete's shoes. He is given a choice of jail or Camp Green Lake. Stanley innocently notes he's never been to camp before so---you just know This Was Not A Good Choice. Camp Green Lake is on a parched and barren desert. The lake disappeared a century before. Stanley is indoctrinated by down-and-dirty bad Mr. Sir (Jon Voight) who informs Stanley his days will be spent digging 5' x 5' holes to build "character" and any misstep will bring him to the Warden's (Sigourney Weaver) attention, a lady who coats her nails with rattlesnake venom. His fellow inmates who like to be known as X-Ray, Armpit, ZigZag and Magnet greet Stanley with hazing and hard times. His only true ally is tiny little Zero (Khleo Castro) who wants Stanley to teach him to read. The day-in-day-out work is filthy, backbreaking and endless. But Stanley is learning some secrets that might permit him to break the age-old curse of the Yelnats.

After I read the book Holes by Louis Sachar, I just had to go out and get the movie.  I really liked the movie.  They actually went to Texas and made the movie there, and I thought that was really good.  The actors were great.  Things in the movie weren't exactly like the book, of course.  In the book, Stanley is overweight and gets in shape over time.  They couldn't do that in the movie, so they just picked someone they thought looked like a "young Tom Hanks".

They picked Shia LaBeouf.  What do you think?  I thought he did a really good job.  I think if Stanley could speak for himself, he's say it was a great job!

There's nothing I would change about the movie.  All of the important parts are there, and all of the actors did a good job.

I did like the book better than the movie, but I usually do.  The movie did have a couple of swears in it that the book didn't have, and I wish those weren't there.  But overall I think this was a great movie that people of all ages (well, maybe not little kids....but like 8 and up) will love!