Holes was originally a book written by Louis Sachar which came out in 1998. It follows the story of Stanley Yelnats, a teenager from a poor family who is wrongfully sent to a juvenile detention camp. The camp is called Camp Green Lake, although at this point it is a desert which hasn’t seen rain in decades. At the camp, convicts are forced to dig a five foot deep and five foot wide hole every day with the promise of reward should they find anything interesting. Although the camp officials claim the purpose of this activity is to “build character”, Stanley suspects that there is something else going on. The first scene of this movie is a boy purposefully allowing a non-venomous snake to bite his foot so he can be sent to the hospital instead of Camp Green Lake. This is a great opening to the movie because it shows just how cruel the camp and the officials are. The main message of Holes is that your actions have consequences especially when promises are involved.

I would give this movie a 7/10 and it is certainly a faithful adaptation to the original book.