JunkerSeed Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 Took my sister to see this one yesterday and I've gotta say, it was pretty damned good. A live action kids movie with none of the recent commercial trademarks of the genre. The cast is filled with unknowns, except for the adults, who include Jon Voight and Sigourney Weaver. The sound track is great, the songs they pick actually suit the film, and it actually has a cool score when it kicks in. The plot is funny, mature, and original. Beleive me, I watch a kids flick every saturday with my sis, and this one was such a breath of fresh air its not even funny. Holes is about the fate of Stanley Yelnats. One day he is accused of a crime he didn't commit and sent to a camp for juvenile delinquents. In this camp each kid is to dig one hole a day, 5 foot wide, 5 foot deep. The logic is, you take a bad boy, make him dig holes every day, it turns him into a good boy. Of course, the real reason they are digging is the mystery and all that. At camp he meets the colorful group of boys that haze him. The kids at camp give great performances, they came off as very real. He also meets Mr. Sir, and the Warden. The Warden is played well enough by Sigourney weaver, she has good presence. Jon Voight is great as Mr. Sir., the tough ass supervisor of the kids. Damned funny performance. The story flashes back to tales about a family curse and the story of a tormented bandit who kissed her victims when she killed them. The plot is fun, and it has lots of substance to it, the characters are great, and overall the movie was cool. There were some problems tho. It was very obviously a book adaptation. The movie didn't flow well at all, transitions are jerky, and it seemed liek to had to fill in the blanks for some stuff. The movie is comprehensible, but a bit chopped up. Also, the relationship between all the kids in the camp was jumpy too. It went from everyone being an ass, hazing stanley, to them being his pal too quickly. I think it could have been 15 minutes or so longer, maybe fleshed things out more. So, I enjoyed this one. I think I may even read the book. Now I see that the screenwriter was also the original novelist. It's good that he was involved, keeping the story intact and all, but it's obvious he's never written a screenplay before. He probably could have used some help making it flow better. So, it was very good, but it had potential to be even better I think, if they'd made it smoother. On to read the book I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLeakyBucket Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 I'm sure I won't get to see this one in a hurry so out of curiosity, what were the holes for? Also, when you say kids film, do you mean like in the vein of Peter and the Dragon, or Spy Kids? Just that some of the stuff you mentioned sounded very un-kids like (e.g tormented bandit, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JunkerSeed Posted April 29, 2003 Author Share Posted April 29, 2003 (edited) well, it's really for like, pre-teens, 12-14 or so, not for 4 year olds or anything. And some parts, now that you remind me, were definatelynot for little kids, like the aforementioned bandit and um *spoiler, highlight to see* A black guy that is shot because he kisses a white woman*end spoiler and if you must know, *spoiler the camp is making kids dig holes to find the kissing bandit's hidden treasure. the significance of it all is a sorta long story tho. *end spoiler Edited April 29, 2003 by JunkerSeed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unidentified Source Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 Is it scary?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JunkerSeed Posted April 30, 2003 Author Share Posted April 30, 2003 Nope, not at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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