AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn B. saw a new comedy/adventure film. Here are her thoughts on....

HOLES

Walt Disney Pictures

Based on a very popular kids' novel, Holes won tons of book awards and is now a feature film written for the screen by the author of the book. The filmmakers grabbed a bunch of kids new or relatively new to acting and stuck them out in the Death Valley desert to dig holes, bond and, successfully impress bigtime castmates like John Voight and Sigourney Weaver.

Holes is about Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia Labeouf), who, suffering under a family curse dating from his great-grandfather's youth in Latvia, is wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of shoes and sent off to a Juvenile Detention camp in the middle of the desert. At the camp, Stanley and the other prisoners Zero (Khleo Thomas), Squid (Jake M. Smith), Armpit (Byron Cotton), X-Ray (Brenden Jefferson) and Magnet (Miguel Castro), are forced to spend their days digging holes, supposedly to build character but actually to find a long-buried treasure that the Warden (Sigourney Weaver) is sure is in a dry lakebed. The kids are kept in line by the wacky yet menacing reform school counselor and guard (Jon Voight and Tim Blake Nelson).

All this is interwoven with two other stories set in two other time periods; one about Stanley's long dead relative getting a curse placed on the family for not fulfilling his part of a bargain with a gypsy woman (Ertha Kitt). The other is about a female, Old West "kissing" bandit (Patricia Arquette) who went "bad" after the man she loved was killed by the evil town patriarch. By the end of the movie, these stories interlock and turn out to be related to Stanley and his family.

The ads for this film are misleading. Holes isn't a slapstick kid camp comedy although there is humor and a great ensemble of kid actors. This movie has something for all ages but it's kind of hard to keep track of it all for two hours. Heavy subject matter is addressed here, throwaway kids, social injustice, interracial romance, greed, murder, revenge but there are also the themes of undying friendship, honor and destiny. The acting is great, especially that of the film's buddies Stanley (Shia Labeouf) and Zero, (Khleo Thomas). Jon Voight is over the top but really funny as the tough guard "Mr. Sir" and Aliens' Sigourney Weaver is really weird as a half-crazy warden who puts rattlesnake venom in her fingernail polish.

The various storylines are interesting but, for a long time, you wonder how they are all going to come together. If you are patient, they all do. There is a little too much actual hole digging. A few less scenes of the boys digging, sweating and hoping for a water refill would make for better pacing.

If you are over twelve or just mature for your age, you won't squirm in your seat as you watch the adventures of Stanley, his friends, family and enemies. Adults will get a lot of references to old Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western movies and prison epics like Cool Hand Luke.

Overall, a little editing or re-arranging wouldn't have hurt the film but it's different, entertaining and full of heart. And there's something enjoyable for all ages.

Rated: PG

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