Another Great Movie from Disney

This is a twisting tale of co-incidence and intrigue written by master storyteller Louis Sacher. Based on Sacher?s book of the same name, Holes is an incredibly good story retold in film as only Disney can. Stanley Yelnats the fourth (played by Sia Labeouf) is an ordinary 15 year old. His family believes they are doomed to suffer because of a curse on them and there is little they can do about it. Stanley?s great great grandfather inadvertently stole a pig from a gypsy, so the gypsy cursed him and all his descendants.

Stanley has spent his whole life being in the wrong place at the wrong time, so when he catches a pair of shoes that ?fell from the sky? and runs home with them to show his father, very few people do not believe that he didn?t steal the shoes and run from the police. The Judge sentences Stanley to 18 months in a juvenile detention camp called ?Camp Green Lake? and after 10 minutes here Stanley realises that he truly is cursed. The camp is in the middle of a desert and there is not escaping the heat or torture of the guards.

Stanley and the other boys in the camp are expected to dig a hole 5 foot deep by 5 foot long. One hole per day; out in the desert hot sun with little water and no shade. The boys at this camp are rough and Stanley has to toughen up and develop a healthy amount of street smarts to survive. Stanley teams up with a young boy nick named Zero (Played by Kleo Thomas). He was a homeless youth imprisoned for stealing and Stanley is the first person he has spoken to since being locked up. Stanley helps Zero learn to read in return for help digging his hole each day and the two boys become firm friends. Things are not too bad for the boys until the warden (played by Sigourney Weaver) and Mr Sir the main guard (played by Jon Voight) decide to single out the boys to use as examples to the camp.

The camp has some pretty dodgy rules and regulations and when Zero challenged the wardens authority and runs away, Stanley seems to be the only one concerned with Zero?s well being. Stanley decides to escape to try to find Zero, he spends several days in the desert looking for Zero and is only just staring to piece the puzzle together when he finds him. The only way the boys can be free is to figure it all out. What are the holes really for? Who is the warden? Why is Stanley?s family cursed? And the biggest mystery of all, how is Zero connected to Stanley?

I wasn?t really sure what to expect from this movie as I had not heard very much about it and it all looked a little weird - but I have to say this is one of the best movies my family has watched this year. There is plenty of action and whilst the story is complicated to retell it?s quite simplistic and the plot flows beautifully well throughout the entire movie. This is definitely a story young boys will enjoy; my 6 and 8 year old boys loved it! They laughed in all the right places and tried to work out the mysteries and especially enjoyed all the wildlife, lizards and rattlesnakes etc.

There is plenty of slapstick humour and the dialogue is quite clever, Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight are brilliant, as the heartless Jailors and the kids in this movie all give very credible performances.

The picture quality in the movie is the usual high standard we have all come to expect from Disney, the brightness and clarity is unrivalled and if you are lucky enough to have a flat screen or digital TV you will appreciate the crispness right to the edge of the screen. I ran this DVD through our surround sound theatre system and it sounded magnificent! The lizards and snakes sound like they are under your seat and you don?t miss a minute of the action with this quality. With Disney now being available at department stores and larger retailers there is no excuse not to add this one to your home collection, this is one your kids will thank you for over and over again.

THE EXTRAS

The Boys of D Tent - This is a quick flick into the casting of the film, how they chose the cast and what they were looking for in each character. The 6 boys form ?D-Tent? all add their little bit on each cast member and character. Nothing too exciting here, just the usual stuff at the end of movies.

Digging the first hole - Jon Voight and Sigourney Weaver talk about how they became involved in the movie and why they wanted to play their parts. Sigourney tells of her daughter coming home after reading this book and telling her she would be perfect as the mean old warden if this book was made into a movie!

Deleted Scenes ? 6 scenes deleted from the move. These were just more of the same and whilst they were funny, they didn?t add to the story and it?s easy to see why they were deleted.

Gag Reel - this is just the 6 boys from the movie all mucking around commenting on each others? characters etc. One of the boys makes a comment about Kleo Thomas?s Hair this as quite funny as he has arguably the wildest head of curly hair in Hollywood.

Audio commentary - there is the choice of two commentaries the fist is from the 6 boys who star in the movie ? and the second is from the writer and director both are the same usual stuff of ?this is what we were trying to achieve? and ?this is what was going on when we shot this? ? this was funny? I find audio commentaries a bit boring and honestly wouldn?t watch them if I didn?t have too.

D Tent Music Clip ? ?Dig-It? This is a cool song sung by the 6 young boy actors in the movie the music is boppy and catchy and the clip is OK. Not the stuff of must watch TV but not too bad.

Pretty much a standard collection of bonus features exactly what you would be expecting and nothing more.

CONCLUSION

This is a twisting tale of co-incidence and intrigue written by master storyteller Louis Sacher. Based on Sacher?s book of the same name, Holes is an incredibly good story retold in film as only Disney can. Stanley Yelnats the fourth (played by Sia Labeouf) is an ordinary 15 year old. His family believes they are doomed to suffer because of a curse on them and there is little they can do about it. Stanley?s great great grandfather inadvertently stole a pig from a gypsy, so the gypsy cursed him and all his descendants.