Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Review

Color me not surprised: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is one of the best movies of the year thus far.  A follow-up to last year's surprisingly hilarious adaptation of the popular children's book series, Rodrick Rules manages to overcome the common fate of sequels and succeed as a solid continuation of what is proving to be one of the most reliable family franchises around today.

While not quite as much fun as its predecessor, Rodrick Rules still packs in the laughs.  Few movies manage to bring me to tears of laughter, but this film managed it on a couple occasions.  The film provides a beautiful balance of over-the-top antics and more grounded, even recognizable scenarios, creating a vision of middle school that is uncomfortably close-to-home but with enough goofy turns and sweet touches to avoid being one-note.

Again, Zachary Gordon proves himself a charming, disarming leading man.  Gordon makes a character who is strangely likable, even as he's selfish, rude, and unapologetic.  It's a testament to Gordon's talent that Greg Heffley never feels as simple as the animated caricature that steps in to represent him at moments (paying ode, of course, to the hand-written aesthetic of the source material).  Gordon underlies Greg's less admirable qualities with a startling compassion that makes his maturation, a strong continuation of the arc started in the first film, in which Greg learns the value of friendship.

Here, the focus is instead on Greg's relationship to his older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick), the sort of cinematic sibling who frustratingly keeps the parents fooled even as he makes Greg's life a (minor) living hell.  Bostick also gets the opportunity to branch out, taking Rodrcik beyond the straightforward bully and delving into the discovery that his little brother might not be so square, after all.  Of course, there's still plenty of sibling rivalry and practical jokes, many of which create the film's most memorable scenes, such as the opening roller rink excursion and a hilarious chase scene through a retirement home.

Robert Carpon's role as best friend Rowley is sadly diluted from the last film, though the shift isn't surprising considering the familial themes in this chapter.  Capron still manages to steal a few scenes, especially when channeling Ke$ha for the sake of Youtube fame.  The other supporting kids, along with Steve Zahn and Rachael Harris as the Heffley parents, all maintain the level of quality they possessed in the last film, marking Rodrick Rules as a solid, if unsurprising, next step in the franchise, despite lacking room for its supporting characters to grown in any sort of meaningful ways.

Culling material from the series as a whole, and adding in some original material, as well, it's disappointing that Rodrick Rules borrows one of the book's most uninteresting scenes: Rodrick throwing a party and swearing Greg to secrecy.  The scene is far too long in the movie, and especially from a cinematic perspective, it's too familiar to provide many (if any) laughs.  The party marks a stretch of slow, harmless, and disappointingly blasé scenes, but the film rights itself in time and rebuilds to a great finale that gets some of the movie's biggest laughs.

It's still strange to me that Diary of a Wimpy Kid draws in such a young demographic, as most of the humor goes right over youngsters' heads.  However, this is one of the few safe havens of innocent fun to be had in theaters today.  Instead of stooping to double entendres to keep the parents and older siblings entertained, Diary of a Wimpy Kid allows the strength of its material and the consistently impressive talents of its young cast to provide a strong sense of humor that anyone can enjoy.  Aside from Pixar's yearly offerings, there may not be a more consistent source of genuine family fun to be had at the movies.  Hopefully, I'll be reviewing The Last Straw this time next year.