Holes

⭐10/10

Whew, I cannot believe what a perfect movie this is. I read the book a million times as a kid, and watched the movie a million times, and not only does this movie hold up perfectly, but the plot is so intricate and complex that it gets better every rewatch. A kids movie! It honestly blew me away how masterfully it weaves together so many threads across a hundred years. This is a unique book with a cool idea that the author clearly thought long and hard about. 

And yet, aside from the beautiful plot, this movie has everything you could want. A major thing that stood out to me was the brilliant performances from some pretty big names. Sojourney Weaver is incredible as the warden, and Tim Blake Nelson is a great lackey. This is Shia LaBeouf's breakout role, and honestly one of his best. All the rest of the kids were fantastic, and I feel like the dialogue is truer to how teens talk than most movies, though that might be because I was a teen at that time too. But the best performance?? Man, there has never been a better pairing than Jon Voight to Mr Sir. That dude was born to play that role. I laughed a million times. Every line is dripping with expression. "There once was a magical land where it never rained. The end." 

But yeah, everything else is great. It has an awesome setting, an awesome premise. There are some great, sweeping shots of the landscape and you feel as thirsty as the boys do. The stakes all feel super high. The jokes are funny, the characters are quirky. "I can fix that" are the sexiest words in cinema history. Damn, you just don't see movies like this anymore.

And ya, it all just fits together so well. Kissing Kate, the curse and Madame Zeroni, sweet feet, the grandfather, God's thumb, sploosh. Sachar actually wrote the screenplay so it's a super faithful, and it makes me wonder why this can't be done with more books. 

So yeah, great movie, maybe even a perfect one. I'm trying to think of a reason to not give it a ten. The ending drags a bit and is a tad corny? Some slightly dated CGI? These are just not good enough. "I don't wanna give a kids movie a 10, grandpa!" "Well that's too damn bad!!"