Film File - Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Roderick's Rules

From its origins as a series of online cartoons, 'Diary Of A Wimpy Kid' exploded onto the pop culture scene when Jeff Kinney's first 'novel in cartoons' was published in 2007. It spent almost three years on The New York Times' children's bestseller list, sold millions of copies around the world and launched countless video reviews and social networking fan groups celebrating the release of each new book. While Kinney had originally targeted adults through the book's nostalgic look at school life as told through a narrator with Walter Mitty-type fantasies of greatness, kids immediately connected to his blending of the subversive and edgy with the fun and wholesome. The first film brought to life the adventures of wisecracking pre-teen Greg Hefley (Zachary Gordon), who must somehow survive the scariest time of anyone's life, junior school. In this second film, director David Bowers and screenwriters Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah put the focus on Greg's family, especially his relationship with his older brother, Roderick (Devon Bostick). As Kinney's books are anecdotal and don't lend themselves to a direct transition from page to screen, the writers have gone forward and backwards in the book series in pulling together suitable moments to service this plot. Last year, Greg was heading into junior school for the first time. This year, he feels more confident, a little more in control and, on top of it all, he's trying to make inroads with a pretty new girl, Holly Hills (Peyton List), so he can improve his situation even further. However, Roderick continues to thwart his younger sibling at every turn, convinced he's teaching him some tough lessons about life. Roderick believes that if Greg can get past these pranks, then he can do anything. The older brother has a set of rules that he considers the best route to an easy life - they include such pearls of wisdom as: don't be good at anything you don't want to do; always lower mom and dad's expectations, and never do something when someone else can do it for you. Maybe it's being less surprised with a second film, but clearly there seems fewer scenarios for emotional scarring in seventh grade than there was in sixth. For this reason, much of Greg's acute embarrassment now centres on his family - a place where even his baby brother Manny (Conor Fielding) has become a source of pain as he's now old enough to tell on him to the parents. But it's always from older bro Roderick the biggest problems come - a constant presence who has become "the king of laziness, except when it comes to torturing me". Caught between teachers who lump him into the same low-achiever category as Roderick and a journalist mom (Rachael Harris) constantly coming up with doomed schemes to bring the boys closer together, Greg has few avenues of escape. While Mom tries vainly to be an involved parent, Roderick steals her eyeliner to better look the part as drummer in his band, Loded Diper. Lovely. Other plot lines that don't quite work are a weekend with Grandpa (Terence Kelly) in his retirement home, complete with the expected sagging flesh gags, and a 'Home Alone'-type party when the parents depart where older bro locks the younger one away as he throws an adolescent version of Tom Cruise's 'Risky Business'. As in the first film, Greg still has a sympathetic ear in his best friend at Westmore High School, the kindhearted Rowley (Robert Capron) who often ends up the worse for it. Kids of the age group this one is aimed at will love it. The acting is good and the interplay between Gordon and Bostick will remind anyone with the misfortune of having a difficult older brother that he's not alone.