"Diary Of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" Is a Cute Danger to Children

The first "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" movie was a pleasant surprise to me as a rental. Even though it was a series of skits with some morals crammed in around poop jokes: I laughed a lot. When I heard that a sequel was made I was actually looking forward to it. "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" came to the theater, I went, and here are my thoughts.

"Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" is about a seventh grade boy who feels his life is a torturous one due to being the middle child. His younger brother blames everything on him and his older brother, Rodrick, picks on him ceaselessly. However, soon they attempt bonding and the young boy finds he has a lot to learn from his older brother, good and bad as he also tries to navigate the social circles of his school and woo the affections of the new girl he has fallen for. The movie was directed by David Bowers and stars Zachary Gordon, Devon Bostick, Rachel Harris, Robert Capron, and Steve Zahn.

The "Diary of A Wimpy Kid" movies are much better in your living room. I did not find myself as tuned in to the movie at the theater with the lackluster sound system competing with all of the popcorn munching and unleashed children. However, the environment did not affect my perception of the movie in such a way as to reflect ill on it. It earns that without the handicap in consideration.

"Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" is a cute movie and there are moments worth smiling about. I think the cast of characters are great and really capture what it is like for a late blooming kid going through these middle school circumstances. Well, middle schools in simpler times and places, these days kids in school seem to have more drugs and sex than what occurs in the innocent shenanigans of the "Wimpy Kid" world. It is almost a good movie.

In the first movie, the lead character is almost a bad friend to his chubby best buddy, well actually he is a terrible friend to him, but he makes up for it in the end and learns his lesson. "Rodrick Rules" attempts a similar lesson learning ending, but shoots itself in the head with a fumble that not only fails as a morality lesson, but ruins the lead character and his motivations. Once again the lead is a crummy friend, but the the moment comes to make right on it, the story just shows that he only helps his friend in order to get something else accomplished, not to actually be a good friend. So, the lesson in "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" is: treat your friends like crap and only help them if it helps you in some way.

For all of the potential lessons and chuckles a kid can have from watching "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" I would be worried of it actually subliminally placing the wrong ideas into a kid's head and do not actually think it stands up as a good enough sequel to recommend laying the bucks down for.