Severely strained kiddie film adapted from a much-decorated novel by Louis Sachar. Three plotlines -- the origins of a hundred-fifty-year-old family curse in Latvia; interracial love, bigotry, and revenge in the Wild West; a juvenile hard-labor camp in present-day Texas -- keep interrupting one another and impeding momentum. The third one comes to dominate, then waits for the others to tie in. Kids might like it; kids who like their characters to have nicknames along the lines of Barfbag, Armpit, X-Ray, Zero, and Caveman; kids who like to flip back and forth between channels in mid-show. With Shia LaBeouf, Khleo Thomas, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Sigourney Weaver, and Patricia Arquette; directed by Andrew Davis. (2003) — Duncan Shepherd
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