Rating: PG
Genre:
Children's/Family
Theatrical Release: 04/18/2003(USA)
Release Date: 09/23/2003
SubTitles: Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: DD5.1/THX
Run Time: 117 Minutes
Flags: Mild Violence, Excellent For Children
Distributor/Studio: Walt Disney Video
A boy being punished for a crime he didn't commit learns there's more going on at a juvenile correctional facility than meets the eye in this
comedy drama.
Stanley Yelnats IV (
Shia LaBeouf) is a teenager who has been told all his life that the men in the Yelnats family are cursed, thanks to a false promise his great, great grandfather made to a fortune teller. Given his frequent bad luck, and that which follows his father (
Henry Winkler),
Stanley has no trouble believing this.
Stanley's bad luck hits a new low when a pair of sneakers literally falls out of the sky on him -- and turn out to be stolen. A judge sentences
Stanley to a stay at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile correctional facility stuck in the middle of the desert, where he finds himself sharing a tent with a gang of misfits, including ringleader
X-Ray (
Brenden Jefferson), pushy
Squid (
Jake M. Smith), small but wiry
Zero (
Khleo Thomas), tough and stinky
Armpit (
Byron Cotton), paranoid
ZigZag (
Max Kasch), and thief-in-training
Magnet (
Miguel Castro).
The Warden of Camp Green Lake (
Sigourney Weaver) has her own ideas about rehabilitation, which consist of having the boys spend their days digging holes five feet deep under the desert sun. While well-mannered counselor
Pendanski (
Tim Blake Nelson) tries to help the boys however he can,
Mr. Sir (
Jon Voight),
The Warden's right hand man, is a heartless creep who enjoys making
Stanley and his friends suffer. Before long,
Stanley wonders if there's a good reason why the
Warden seems so curious about what (if anything) the boys find during their digging, and in time he suspects there's something they haven't been told which might be connected to the Yelnats family curse.
Holes was based on the award-winning book for young people by
Louis Sachar, who also wrote the film's screenplay.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide