LaBeouf in a Hole
I just guess I am either too old or just prefer my children's movies simpler but Disney's "Holes" never did it for me. There is not anything really wrong with it as such, it is an amusing production with a quirky fantasy side but it never really grabbed me. It's a shame because one thing is for sure and that is that "Holes" is original with a good cast and good production values.
Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) was just walking along one day, minding his own business when out of the skies falls a pair of shoes, not just any shoes as there were the shoes of a famous sportsman which he had donated to a charity and before he knows it Stanley is arrested and charge with their theft. His inventor father and grandfather say it is the Yelnats curse thanks to a relative a long time ago failing to pay a gypsy. Sentenced to 18 months in Camp Green Lake Stanley finds that he and his fellow young inmates have to dig holes day in day out, 5 foot by 5 foot. Slowly Stanley begins to suspect there is something more than character building to all this hole digging.
Now as I said "Holes" is certainly original and certainly breaks the mould as there is no formula going on. It also has a quirkier even darker side than you would expect from a Disney movie with weird characters, strange flashbacks and an element of nasty as we have this quirky prison correction facility. All of which is certainly well visualized with the sight of a desert being full of holes being an impressive sight.
But my trouble is that whilst we have quirky I didn't find a single character to warm too. Maybe it is the quirkiness of them which did it for me but for me I needed a character to warm to and none of them achieved this especially Shia LaBeouf's central character of Stanley. In truth I found Stanley annoying even more annoying than the supporting cast which is probably down to the rest of them just being quirky with no attempt to create depth just humour.
What this all boils down to is that "Holes" whilst a solid movie which certainly breaks the mould didn't do it for me like it has for others thanks to the characters being mainly annoying.
