'HOLES' BETTER LEFT BURIED.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic PRODUCER Mike Medavoy wrote a book last year titled ``You're Only as Good as Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films and 100 for Which I Should Be Shot.'' Put his latest, ``Holes,'' squarely into the latter category. A tone-deaf adaptation of Louis Sachar's Newbury Medal-winning young-adult novel, ``Holes'' ranks as one of the most bizarre disasters in recent movie history. And for once, you can't carp that Hollywood has ruined another good book since it is Sachar himself who butchers his own novel. But then the real culprit behind this mess is probably director Andrew Davis, who has perpetrated five cinematic felonies since making ``The Fugitive'' in 1994. Here he takes a beloved children's book and turns it into a movie full of cruelty so vicious that it would make Dickens flinch. ``Holes'' is a Disney movie intended for the whole family, but, in truth, the only family it is suitable for is the Manson clan, and I doubt they'd be much interested. The basic premise of this fractured fairy tale fairy tale Simple narrative typically of folk origin dealing with supernatural beings. Fairy tales may be written or told for the amusement of children or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events, scenes, and personages has young Stanley Yelnats Stanley Elya "Caveman" Yelnats IV is a character in the novel Holes. One of the gags in the novel is that his name is his last backwards. (i.e. Yelnats is "Stanley" spelled backwards)! IV (Shia LaBeouf Shia Saide LaBeouf[1] (pronounced SHY-uh luh-BUFF, IPA: /ˈʃaɪə ləˈbʌf/[2]; born June 11, 1986) is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning[2] American actor and comedian. , the star of the Disney Channel  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. series ``Even Stevens'') being sent to the sadistic sa·dism n. 1. The deriving of sexual gratification or the tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain or emotional abuse on others. 2. The deriving of pleasure, or the tendency to derive pleasure, from cruelty. Camp Green Lake for 18 months as punishment for stealing a pair of shoes. His family is convinced that Stanley is the latest Yelnats male to fall prey to a curse that started when his great-grandfather forgot to carry a fortuneteller on his back up a mountain. (Please don't ask.) Camp Green Lake is run by a perverted per·vert·ed adj. 1. Deviating from what is considered normal or correct. 2. Of, relating to, or practicing sexual perversion. warden (Sigourney Weaver) and a couple of bumbling goons (Jon Voight and Tim Blake Nelson) who force their young charges to dig a big hole in the camp's dry lake bed every day. It's supposed to build character, but given the warden's obsession with small trinkets found in the holes, it's obvious there's more to the story. That story is revealed through a series of flashbacks, which grow more ridiculous and laborious over time and which include, in succession, a broken heart, a race-related murder and a suicide. While it is certainly possible to have dark themes and events in a movie aimed at children, it can't possibly work when the film's wildly inconsistent tone veers from cartoon to caricature to melodrama to strange bursts of cruelty and back again. Example: There's a scene where, with Stanley looking on, Weaver's warden paints her fingernails with rattlesnake rattlesnake, poisonous New World snake of the pit viper family, distinguished by a rattle at the end of the tail. The head is triangular, being widened at the base. The rattle is a series of dried, hollow segments of skin, which, when shaken, make a whirring sound. venom and then proceeds to wallop Voight with a roundhouse that turns his face into hamburger meat. The violence comes out of nowhere - the villains to this point had been portrayed as buffoons - and is absolutely pointless. After this, it wouldn't have surprised me if Weaver took out a straightedge and sliced off Stanley's ear to the tune of ``Stuck in the Middle With You.'' I have to believe, based on the awards it won, that the book's surprises were more germane ger·mane adj. Being both pertinent and fitting. See Synonyms at relevant. [Middle English germain, having the same parents, closely connected; see german2. and contained at least a modicum mod·i·cum n. pl. mod·i·cums or mod·i·ca A small, moderate, or token amount: "England still expects a modicum of eccentricity in its artists" Ian Jack. of charm. That's not the case with the movie, although I'm sure a handful of the novel's more myopic my·o·pi·a n. 1. A visual defect in which distant objects appear blurred because their images are focused in front of the retina rather than on it; nearsightedness. Also called short sight. 2. fans will disagree. For anyone else, ``Holes'' is a pit you don't want to fall into. HOLES - One star (PG: violence, mild language, some thematic elements) Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Patricia Arquette. Director: Andrew Davis. Running time: 1 hr. 47 min. Playing: Wide release. In a nutshell: Tone-deaf adaptation of Louis Sachar's prize-winning novel for young adults. Don't take the family. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: As punishment for stealing a pair of shoes, Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) is sent to Camp Green Lake, where the activity consists of much digging in ``Holes.'' |
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