Holes Critic Reviews

It's great to see an action-adventure family film with heart as well as humor, whimsy alongside wisdom, and a compelling narrative.Read the full review

One of the few recent movies I have seen that plunged me into that rare, giddy state of pleasurable confusion, of not knowing what would happen next, which I associate with the reading and moviegoing experiences of my own childhood. But there is no reason that children should have a monopoly on this primal, wonderful experience.Read the full review

It's smart, strange, unpredictable, and defies the formulas that typically define this sort of motion picture. Read the full review

One would have to be totally tone-deaf not to notice that the director, Andrew Davis, has inflicted a broad cartoon style on adult performers who are distinctly uncomfortable with it. Read the full review

An ambitious undertaking, but not a successful one: It unfolds with the studied determination of a grade-school book report. Read the full review

It's got an involving, adventurous story to tell and the wherewithal to tell it correctly. And while young adults may think this is intended only for them, in truth it's their elders who are especially starved for this kind of entertainment. Read the full review

Honoring the literary ground beneath it, spotted yellow lizards and all, the movie Holes is easy to dig.Read the full review

It eschews obvious effects, but even more impressively, it tells a story without an obvious moral. It assumes that kids can wrestle with a fairly complicated narrative and draw their own conclusions.Read the full review

A movie so strange that it escapes entirely from the family genre and moves into fantasy. Like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," it has fearsome depths and secrets.Read the full review