Psycho's Movie Reviews #409: Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules (2011)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 American comedy film directed by David Bowers and based on Jeff Kinney's 2008 book of the same name. It stars Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick. Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List also have prominent roles.

The film was released on March 25, 2011, by 20th Century Fox. It earned $72.4 million on a budget of $18-21 million. It is the second instalment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series, preceded by 2010's Diary of a Wimpy Kid. A sequel followed in 2012, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.

Plot

The Heffley family attends a back-to-school roller skating party, where Greg, now about to start seventh grade, reunites with Rowley and meets a new girl named Holly Hills, whom he instantly develops a crush on. Rodrick interferes with the party by sabotaging Greg’s attempt to ask Holly to skate with him and tricking Susan and Frank into embarrassing him by respectively talking to him on the rink's PA system and carrying him off the rink. Greg tries to tackle Rodrick for humiliating him but ends up face-planting in a girl's birthday cake, causing her and her friends to beat him up.

The next day, a local talent show is advertised on TV, and Rodrick sees it as his band's big break. Greg and Rowley try to become famous themselves by making videos for YouTube in the hopes of going viral. Susan, who writes a parenting column in the local paper, wants to get Greg and Rodrick to spend more time together and incentivizes them with money. However, at church the following Sunday, Rodrick stains Greg's pants with chocolate, humiliating Greg and causing a public scuffle between the two. Consequently, the brothers are grounded from the family's trip to the water park and instructed not to invite anyone over. Ignoring this, Rodrick throws a wild party which Greg and Rowley end up participating in. The next morning, their parents unexpectedly announce they will be returning early from their trip, prompting the brothers to hastily clean up the house. They find that someone wrote "Rodrick Rules" on the bathroom door in permanent marker. Greg gets the idea to replace it with a door in the basement, though after their family gets home, they realize that the replacement door does not have a lock.

Rodrick tells Greg to deny everything, but Susan soon realizes the lock is gone and confronts Greg over it. Greg confesses that he and Rodrick had people over, but lies, saying it was only a band practice and begs Susan to not punish Rodrick. Susan agrees to this, and Rodrick, believing that Greg kept their secret, gains respect for his younger brother. The two start spending more time together, and Rodrick gives Greg advice on school and girls, though most of it gets Greg in trouble. At school, Greg and Rowley start a joke where they treat classmate Chirag Gupta as if he were invisible. Chirag later gets revenge by forging a note from Holly asking Greg to meet in the art room. Greg approaches what appears to be Holly, only to be met with a disguised Chirag; the other students in the art room then laugh at him. After this incident, Greg does pass Holly in the hallway, but she mistakes him for Fregley, much to his chagrin.

That night, after Greg and Rodrick get home from a wild outing, Susan and Frank end up finding pictures of Rodrick's party, causing a fight to break out among the Heffleys in front of Susan's editors at the paper. As punishment, the brothers are grounded, but Rodrick is also prohibited from playing at the talent show, leaving him distraught. Having learned that Greg partially admitted the truth to Susan earlier on, Rodrick states that they may be brothers, but will never be friends. Greg and Rodrick are punished further by being forced to spend the weekend at their grandfather's retirement home, but Greg ends up running into Holly there. Holly apologizes for her earlier mistake, and the two become friends. Greg writes about this in his diary, but Rodrick gets his hands on it the next morning and threatens to show it to Holly. Greg chases after Rodrick in his underwear and manages to get the diary back, but ends up running into the women's restroom where he is violently chased out by a mob of some angry old women thinking that Greg is a Peeping Tom. Rodrick records the security camera footage of this incident and holds it over Greg.

At the talent show the next week, Rodrick finds out that he has been booted from his band by Bill Walter, a guitarist who recently joined; and Rowley is not able to perform his magic tricks due to his assistant, Scotty Douglas, having stage fright. Greg offers to participate in Rowley's magic act if Susan allows Rodrick to perform, which she agrees to. The magic act is praised by the crowd, including Holly, but people are unimpressed by Rodrick's band act until Susan starts dancing at the edge of the stage, which prompts the crowd to join in. Frank tapes the entire footage of Susan dancing, agreeing with Greg to keep it a secret. Rodrick removes Bill from the band in retaliation and gives Greg the tape from the retirement home as a token of forgiveness in return for making it possible for him to perform. The brothers reconcile as Rodrick drops Greg off at school the following Monday.

In a mid-credits scene, Greg and Rowley upload the "Dancing Mom" video on YouTube, which gains a lot of views and likes, making Greg and Rowley an Internet sensation. However, an enraged Rodrick finds out about the video, continuing Greg and Rodrick's rivalry.

Production

Brad Simpson stated he anticipated a sequel movie if the first film is a success. "Our writing staff are writing a sequel right now, "Rodrick Rules," which would be based on the second book"..."And, you know, we hope that the people to see a second movie, so that we are in position of going again right away and making another film. I certainly know that the fans would like to see all the books made into movies." Fox 2000 greenlit the sequel and Zachary Gordon returned as Greg Heffley. Steve Zahn (Frank Heffley) and Rachael Harris (Susan Heffley) also returned. The film was directed by David Bowers and the screenplay was written by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah. Principal photography began in Vancouver August 2010. A few new characters appeared in the film, including Peyton List as Holly Hills. The trailer was seen with Gulliver's Travels. The website created for the first was updated for the sequel featuring pictures of the cast and a short synopsis of the film. The film was released on March 25, 2011. Talks of a sequel were announced after the release of the first, but was not officially announced until May 12, 2010, announcing that it would be released March 25, 2011. Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia and New Westminster, British Columbia from August 23 to October 27, 2010. The mall scene was filmed at Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver. The roller rink scene was filmed at the PNE Agrodome, due to Vancouver lacking a real roller rink. Director Thor Freudenthal was replaced by director David Bowers (director of Flushed Away by Aardman, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, and the film adaptation of anime cybernetic superhero kid Astro Boy).

Release/Reception/Box Office

The trailer was shown with Gulliver's Travels on December 25, 2010. It was later online on January 3, 2011. A poster was released there after on January 14, 2011. In February 2011, an exclusive online-only trailer was released on the "Wimpy Kid Movie" YouTube channel, officialwimpmovie. Due to the success of the first film in Singapore, the film was released there eight days before the US release on March 17, 2011. The film was released in Brazil on September 16, 2011. A TV spot of the movie was released in March 2011.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 100 reviews and an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Moderately witty and acceptably acted, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 isn't much worse than the first instalment." On Metacritic, it has a score of 51 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade as the previous film.

Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review saying, "Director David Bowers keeps things peppy and brightly lighted, but the movie's swiftest pleasures come from moment-seizing cast members." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it a positive review saying, "A little less wimpy, gives value lessons to the watchers from the cast, and still pretty funny" and a B rating. Pete Hammond of Boxoffice magazine gave it a mixed review stating "Even better than the first edition, in its own sitcom-ish ways." However, Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave it a negative review, stating "You can't fault the filmmakers for reshaping a diary into a cohesive film. You can however, fault them for taking one of the great antiheroes in preteen literature and turning him into, well, an even wimpier kid."

The film made $7.3 million on its opening day, ranking #2 behind Sucker Punch. It managed to rank #1 in the weekend box office. In the UK, it debuted at #3 in the weekend box office behind Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Hangover Part II. The film eventually grossed $52,698,535 in the US and Canada and $19,718,859 in other countries for a worldwide total of $72,417,394.

Budget $18-21 million

Box office $72.4 million

My Review

Most adults do not have a high expectation for family movies like this, isn't it? After all, they are not those movies that contend for this award or that recognition. Then again, isn't it fun to have some great family fun once in a while at a movie like this?

The "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series is quite a big hit here in Singapore. Following the release of the first movie in this series last year, it received some criticisms on the pace and the low sense of humour but still managed to pull off a profitable $500,000 at the local ticket box office. This is indicative of its positive reception, probably owing to the vast number of readers of the illustrated novel series of the same name. As a result, Singaporeans are privileged to have "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules" released a week ahead of its official theatrical release in view of March school holidays.

Typically, the young readers can relate to the obligatory activities and school life of Greg and friends. There must be someone in school that somewhat resembles Fregley, the queer one that often disgusts everyone. And also the puny but talkative person that cannot wait to show off what he had accomplished with his wits, just like Chirag Gupta. What about the most beautiful girl in class that everyone just can't wait to get close to? Lastly, let's not forget the die-hard BFF who does everything with you and even go through a distasteful sleepover. Even the older ones in the cinema could somewhat recall classmates who are fitting into these characters. With the talented child actors, they make these characters come to life and really lovable. There is great chemistry which makes it a joy to watch the development of the story.

This time, the movie has a pretty tight storyline and gave the audiences some really great laugh! The content is largely humorous, whether it's the quirky behaviours of the kids, the older brother Rodrick or even the Heffley parents. Comparing it to other movies in the same league, this movie stands out with better humour. One of the potential pitfalls of a family movie is having jokes that are too hard for children understand. In this case, they manage to dodge away from the potential pitfall as the jokes are pretty relatable to the children. Even the adults cannot help but to laugh at the goofiness. Enjoy some simple and good humour! One of the important factors that helped to increase the entertainment value was the 2-D sketches. They were incorporated seamlessly into the storyline and are both intriguing and eye-catching.

As suggested by the title, this movie is more focused on the brothers' relationship, a further development from the first movie of the series. Rodrick was more than an annoyance; he showed the "older brother" side more this time. Be it manipulating his little brother to achieve his motives, or embarrassing his little brother for his own pleasure, or even to passing on his little brother the "good" stuffs… aren't these again, pretty relatable to everyone? Exactly, we're back to it again: relevancy of the movie is indeed the biggest selling point of the movie.

As the movie winds up, it continues to stir our interest and leads us to a less sighted side of the brothers which is dear and heart-warming to watch. Upon watching, you'll probably nod to yourself and say 'indeed, blood is thicker than water'. Despite the older brother not wanting to befriend his little brother initially, at the end of the day he is still always there for him and vice versa. With more diaries to come, this series will definitely gain greater popularity among the young readers. 8.5/10