Plot
A wrongfully convicted boy is sent to a brutal desert detention camp where he joins the job of digging holes for some mysterious reason.

Release Year: 2003

Rating: 7.0/10 (25,648 voted)

Critic's Score: 71/100

Director: Andrew Davis

Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight

Storyline
"But if you forget to come back for Madame Zeroni, you and your family will be cursed for always and eternity." Those were the exact words spoken to young Elya Yelnats the day he forgot to repay the gypsy Madame Zeroni. From then on his family was cursed with bad luck. One hundred years later Stanley Yelnats IV is accused of stealing a pair of cleats from a major league baseball player and sent to Camp Green Lake (a dry lake bed in the middle of the desert). It never rains at Camp Green Lake, it hasn't for one hundred years. The secretive and mysterious Warden has each inmate spend every day digging one hole to "build character." But when an artifact from the famous "Kissin' Kate" Barlow is found in a hole, the Warden forces the boys to work double time leading Stanley to deduce they're digging because the Warden is looking for something. But what? And how is the mystery of Camp Green Lake connected to Stanley's family curse?

Writers: Louis Sachar, Louis Sachar

Cast:
Sigourney Weaver - Warden Walker
Jon Voight - Marion Sevillo / 'Mr. Sir'
Tim Blake Nelson - Dr. Pendanski
Shia LaBeouf - Stanley Yelnats IV / 'Caveman'
Khleo Thomas - Hector Zeroni / 'Zero'
Jake M. Smith - Alan / 'Squid'
Byron Cotton - Theodore / 'Armpit'
Brenden Jefferson - Rex / 'X-Ray'
Miguel Castro - José / 'Magnet'
Max Kasch - Ricky / 'Zigzag'
Noah Poletiek - Brian / 'Twitch'
Zane Holtz - Lewis / 'Barfbag'
Steven Kozlowski - Lump (as Steve Kozlowski)
Ski Carr - Guard
Roma Maffia - Atty. Carla Morengo

Taglines: The adventure is down there...start digging April 18.

Official Website: Official site |

Release Date: 18 April 2003

Filming Locations: Anderson Street Overpass, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $16,300,155 (USA) (20 April 2003) (2331 Screens)

Gross: $67,325,559 (USA) (10 August 2003)

Runtime: 117 min

Trivia:
Cameo: [Louis Sachar] the author of both the novel and the screenplay for this movie appears with his wife and daughter in the scene where Sam is selling onion juice.

Goofs:
Continuity: When Stanley is fighting his hat is alternately off/on between shots.

Quotes:
[first lines]
[Barfbag walks towards a rattlesnake]
X-Ray: Hey, Barfbag. What are you doing?
[Barfbag takes his shoe and sock off and steps on the snake, which bites him]
Barfbag: [yells] Aaaaaah!

The Secret to Sucessful Kid's Movie

Rating:

Its not often one sees a movie that really seems to understand what its like to be a kid. Too often, children are portrayed as precocious twenty-somethings trapped in the bodies of fifth graders: children whose wisdom and goodness would make Socrates look like Homer Simpson. (For further study see Jerry Maguire and Contact). On the other hand, movies made for the ten and under crowd often take place in a world free from violence and pain, where the worst thing that could happen to a kid is a stolen bike or a serious grounding. Holes makes neither of these mistakes. The kids and teens are just as dumb as I was, and the world they live in, while not being seriously naturalistic, is, at least, properly serious.

The movie gets going as Stanley Yelnats (Shia LaBeouf) is mistakenly accused of stealing a pair of valuable shoes, and is sent to a boy's correctional facility. Except, this juvenile camp feels like Boy's Town if it was run by the guards from The Shawshank Redemption. There Stanley is indoctrinated by the gruff Mr. Sir (John Voight with crazy hair and a brilliant performance).

The only activity this camp provides for these wayward youth is digging holes. The camp's philosophy on this matter is `You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day, and it turns him into a good boy.' Whether or not this theory works is doubtful, because Stanley soon experiences many cruelties and humiliations at the hands of his fellow reprobates. Don't let the cutesy nicknames fool you (X-Ray, Zig Zag, Armpit, Zero), these kids are just like your friends in the sixth grade, or to quote Rushmore, `With friends like you who needs friends?' Not that the other campers are as bad as all that, nor does the movie focus on the cruelties of youth. The kids come around, but never completely, and the movie (like Stanley himself) doesn't worry about them too much. Both of them have bigger things on their mind.

The story of Holes switches back and forth between the present and the past. Like the palindromic name Stanley Yelnats it begins at opposite ends chronologically and works toward the center. Where the end of the past story and the beginning of the present story are explained. The transitions are gentle enough that the viewer does not feel jerked around too much. Even though the transitions are entirely organic, I can excuse the random transitions because, like I said earlier. The filmmakers actually have something on their mind. They really do have a story to tell. Furthermore, Louis Sachar, the writer of the book and the screenplay seems to have gotten the tone just right for a movie for kids - just enough silliness and just enough bitterness. Stanley's father job is unreal (he is seeking to find the cure for foot odor), but Stanley's emotions are very real. As someone in the movie says (see the movie to find out why), `Peaches and Onions! That's the secret.' Holes isn't the most brilliant movie of the year, but it is funny without being offensive, and sweet without being maudlin. Most of all, it goes further in capturing what it is like to be young without portraying it as too horrible or too saccharine. The bitter and the sweet together is the secret of Holes' success.

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