| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 22, 2003

Holes isn't just a movie to see, it's also one to be proud of.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 19, 2003

Brims with storytelling flourishes and gently deployed life lessons that even accompanying adults may dig.

| Apr 22, 2003

[T]here's too much going on, and none of it is executed well enough to recommend.

Full Review | Apr 21, 2003

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 20, 2003

A wonderfully dark fairy tale.

Full Review | Apr 18, 2003

One can't help but feel thankful that the movie doesn't always go the expected route, that the characters have a little more depth to them than average, and that the complexity, which is the movie's basic weakness, is also its fundamental virtue.

Full Review | Apr 18, 2003

Crazy as it is, Holes could be the Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory of 2003.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2003

Older kids, fans of the book and parents who remember the fun of reading dark stories under the covers should be happily engrossed in this adventure.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2003

A slightly better-than-average tale of friendship, sacrifice and survival.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2003

As kids' films go, it's a thoughtful, superior piece of work, an entertaining picture that youngsters can enjoy on first viewing and perhaps fully grow into as they get a bit older.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2003

A dense yarn with a range of humor, imagination and emotions as wide as the desert floor upon which it is set.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2003

Fills a hole in the genre by not treating kids with kid gloves.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2003

At the least, it's original.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 18, 2003

This is the sort of family film people keep wishing Hollywood would make. Well, they made it. Go see it.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Apr 18, 2003

That rare thing, a movie that will genuinely appeal to just about everyone in a family, though it emphatically is not the soppy pap that conventionally passes as a 'family film.'

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 18, 2003

I walked in expecting a movie for thirteensomethings, and walked out feeling challenged and satisfied.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2003

Readers familiar with the book may negotiate the film's antic crosscutting, but newbies will need to pop a Dramamine before the lights dim.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2003

A movie that feels a bit like digging a hole in the ground -- an exercise that may build character but doesn't seem to accomplish much else.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2003