I rented "Holes" from Netflix because I thought this might be a movie that my 8 year old and I could watch together. I previewed it last night, and while it was an ok movie, it definitely wasn't worth another viewing.
"Holes" is set in a fictional Green Lake, Texas, where it hasn't rained in forever. The lake is all dried up, and there is now a children's correctional camp there, where the kids dig holes every day as a way to build character. The main character is Stanley Yelnats, played by Shia Lebouf. Stanley is wrongly sent to this camp. As the movie wears on, Stanley makes, then alienates, a group of friends, runs away, and eventually ends up exposing the camp for what it really is...which you'll have to watch to find out.
I actually found the story sort of hard to follow. The movie often bounced back and forth between the history of Green Lake, and current day. The history was supposed to give us a picture of why the camp is what it is. The problem is, there's no one really telling the story, so all of the sudden, we're in the past watching a story between 2 people we don't know. Eventually we find out who they are, but it took FOREVER!!! Maybe some people like that type of story telling but it's not for me.
I rate this one 3 stars...I'm glad I saw it once, but it's not worth watching again. I think the story is really complicated for littler kids, so wouldn't recommend it for under age 10.
1 comment:
Too bad the movie wasn't that good. Blog readers may want to try reading the book. Holes written by Louis Sachar won the Newbery Award (best American juvi book of the year)in 1999. Sometimes good books, make terrible movies, and many times people make good books into terrible movies. Small Steps by Sachar, a sequel to Holes, was published in 2006 following the main character from Holes two years after Holes. It also got good reviews from readers.
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