The catch phrase for this newly released movie to attract the masses to the theatre was “The book is now the movie.” And the only thing that I can really say about “Holes” is that it should have remained a book, and that is it. “Holes” was released two weeks ago, on the hopes that the readers of the novel, written by Louis Sacahr, would be intrigued enough to visit this rendition and possibly drag their kids along with them. With the exception of only a few movies (“Jurassic Park,” “The Godfather,” “Lord of the Rings”) a movie adaptation of a book is almost never as successful as the book. It may indeed make more money than the book did, but only because people would rather spend $7.50 for two hours than to actually read something.
Although I have never read the book, Sachar should have left the novel as a success and kept it at that.
Shia LaBeouf takes on the role of playing the movie’s key character, Stanley Yelnats IV. And yes, the kid is as lame as his name would assume. This middle class white kid is sent to an alternative form of prison for 18 months because he supposedly stole the cleats of a famous baseball player, who is actually played by Rick Fox, the basketball player. (The shoes actually fell out of the sky and hit him on the head.)
We won’t get into the fact that this kid wasn’t even represented by a lawyer in court. To build character, the judge sentences Stanley to a year and a half in a correctional facility, Camp Green Lake.
And as all members of law enforcement know, there is no better way to build a child’s character than to have him dig holes in the desert for twelve hours a day. As Mr. Sir so eloquently puts it in the film, “You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day in the hot sun, you turn him into a good boy.”
While at camp, Stanley meets such intellects as Squid, Armpit, Zig Zag, and Zero. Stanley eventually earns the name Caveman. Sigourney Weaver, whose sidekick is none other than Jon Voight, plays the tough and sexy warden of the camp. Voight portrays the enforcer of the camp, one Mr. Sir. If it was not for a few of Voight’s humorous acts, I’m sure that the theatre would have emptied at a steadier pace.
To wrap things up, the camp is actually just a front for Sigourney Weaver, who is intent on finding a treasure that was buried in the area centuries ago via the convicts. The movie is filled with so many twists and flashbacks that you won’t be able to hear a thing because of all the questions that children will be asking their parents. Keep the kids at home on this one, and save yourself $20.