Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Theatrical release poster
Directed by David Bowers
Produced by Nina Jacobson
Brad Simpson
Ethan Smith
Screenplay by Jeff Judah
Gabe Sachs
Based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules 
by Jeff Kinney
Starring Zachary Gordon
Devon Bostick
Rachael Harris
Robert Capron
Steve Zahn
Narrated by Zachary Gordon
Music by Edward Shearmur
Cinematography Jack N. Green
Edited by Troy Takaki
Production
company
Color Force
Dune Entertainment
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • March 25, 2011
Running time
 99 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $21 million[1]
Box office $72.4 million[2]

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (sometimes known as Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules) is a 2011 American semi-teen comedy film based on Jeff Kinney's book of the same name with a couple elements from The Last Straw. Unlike the first film, which was directed by Thor Freudenthal, this film was directed by David Bowers. The film stars Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick. Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List also have prominent roles. It is the second film in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series preceded by 2010's Diary of a Wimpy Kid and followed by 2012's Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.

Plot

The Heffley family attend a party at a roller rink, where Greg (Zachary Gordon) reunites with Rowley (Robert Capron), Fregley (Grayson Russell) and Chirag (Karan Brar). Greg meets a new girl at school, Holly Hills (Peyton List), and then talks about his summer. Rodrick (Devon Bostick) starts persuading violent teenagers to enter the rink. Their mom, Susan (Rachael Harris) and dad, Frank (Steve Zahn) humiliate him by speaking to him on the DJ system and carrying him off the rink (although his dad apologizes, having been equally humiliated). Greg gets angry and chases Rodrick until he destroys a girl's cake, so she beats him up.

Afterwards, their mother has noticed that the boys haven't been getting along so she devises "Mom Bucks", play money she will pay them if they spend time together and can then trade in for one real dollar, but this makes things worse. Meanwhile, Greg and Rowley try their hand at making a viral YouTube video of Rowley lip-syncing to the song "TiK ToK" by Ke$ha while wearing underwear on his head. Unfortunately, it proves to be awful, getting only 4 views. When a talent show is advertised on TV, the brothers see this as a big opportunity – Rowley suggests that he and Greg perform magic tricks, but Greg rejects the idea while Rodrick sees this as his band's big break.

On Sunday, the Heffley family goes to church but Greg is extremely reluctant to go inside, as a melted chocolate bar, intentionally placed on his seat by Rodrick, has stained his trousers. Greg's mom uses her coat to cover up the stain, but the cover-up backfires when Rodrick exposes Greg's pants. The boys ultimately end up in a scuffle on the floor and as punishment, they are to spend a whole weekend together to bond while their parents leave to go to a water park. Against his parents' orders, Rodrick has a party at the house and locks Greg in the basement. Rowley comes to save Greg, but Rodrick locks him in the basement as well, until a call from their mother results in Rodrick letting the two out in return for their silence on the matter.

The next day, the two get a call from their mom, informing them that they are returning early from their trip. The house is trashed, and the boys have to clean it up and erase all evidence of the party before their parents come home. When they see that one of the people wrote "Rodrick Rules" on the bathroom door, they replace the door with a different one. Afterwards, Greg notices that the new door does not have a lock while the old one did. Rodrick tells Greg to deny any accusations by their parents. Chirag comes home from a trip to India and makes fun of Greg at school for not hanging out with Holly. In revenge, he starts the "Invisible Chirag" joke when everyone pretends they cannot see him. Later, Rowley comes to Greg's house for a sleepover. And Bill Walter meets Rodrick, for supper whilst Dad takes an instant dislike to Bill when he finds out he still lives with his parents.

Rowley comes to Greg's house for a sleepover. Greg chooses a horror movie which terrifies them, so Rowley leaves. Mom notices that the lock on the bathroom door is missing and interrogates Greg and Rodrick. Greg confesses, but in order to prevent Rodrick from getting angry at him, he says the party was only a band rehearsal, and the two escape punishment. Rodrick thinks that Greg denied everything, and they become friends, with Rodrick teaching Greg about his secrets to an easy life. Rodrick gives Greg his assignment which he failed but Greg thought he got a good grade as it is revealed that Dad had helped Rodrick with every homework assignment that he did.

The Invisible Chirag joke was still going on and at lunch that day Chirag tries to blackmail Rowley into having a corn dog if he said he could see Chirag but Greg manages to prevent it. After lunch, the class presents their assignments but the teacher humiliates Greg by making him read Rodrick's failed assignment.The next day, in an attempt to win Holly, Greg writes her a note and asks Rowley to pass it to Holly, he does but she passes it to Fregley and he accidentally passes it to Patty Farrell. The day after that, Greg finds a note from Holly Hills in his locker telling him to meet her in the art room. Instead, he finds Chirag, who has dressed up as Holly to trick Greg as revenge for his "invisible Chirag" joke. In the hallway, Holly passes by and greets Greg as "Fregley", which upsets Greg.

That night, Rodrick takes Greg out for the night. They end up having fun and pranking people. However, a small prank goes a little too far when Coach Malone (Andrew McNee) chases them into the mall. The boys return home, only to discover that their father has come across photos of the party that they threw while their parents were gone. Greg is grounded for two weeks with no video games, and Rodrick also gets grounded for a month and is not allowed to drive anywhere except to and from school during that time and is not allowed to participate in the talent show. Rodrick realizing that Greg had lied to him, tells him that they are no longer friends and they return to being rivals.

Later, they have to spend the weekend at Grandpa's retirement community. The two find it very boring at Grandpa's, often playing old board games and watching the security cameras on the television. Greg finds Holly there and she apologizes for calling him Fregley. Rodrick finds Greg's Diary the next morning and Greg chases him around in his underwear as Rodrick attempts to give it to Holly. Greg steals it and runs into the women's bathroom. The women discover him and chase him out. By the time Greg returns to Grandpa's room, Rodrick has already recorded a tape of Greg in his underwear.

At the talent show a few nights later, Rowley's magic performance is unable to take place, as his eight-year-old assistant Scotty (Jakob Davies) gets stage fright. Greg's mom suggests to Greg to do the show with Rowley, but Greg refuses, saying that it would be embarrassing in front of Holly. When Rodrick goes to his band, Greg follows and watches Rodrick's band member, Bill Walter (Fran Kranz), kick him out of the band he created. However, Greg is later able to both befriend Rodrick and Rowley once more when Greg offers to do the magic act with Rowley if his mom lets Rodrick perform. Rodrick performs his band act but the audience is unimpressed until they see Mom dancing on the stage and everyone gets up and starts dancing. Rodrick kicks Bill out of the band and in return for having Greg let him take part, he gives the tape of Greg running around in his underpants to him.

In a post-credits scene, Greg and Rowley upload the video of Mom dancing to YouTube and they instantly become an internet sensation.

Cast

Production

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.[3]

Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia and New Westminster, British Columbia from August 23 to October 27, 2010.[4] The mall scene was filmed at Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver. Director Thor Freudenthal was replaced by director David Bowers (Flushed Away and Astro Boy).

Distribution

The film's 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.[5] A TV spot of the movie was released in March 2011.

Home media

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was released on a stand-alone DVD, a special edition double DVD pack, and a Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy combo pack on July 19, 2011. One of the bonus shorts was shown during iParty with Victorious on Nickelodeon at 8:00 PM on June 11, 2011.

Reception

Box office

The film made $7,300,000 on its opening day, ranking #2 behind Sucker Punch. The film managed to rank #1 in the weekend box office.[6] In the UK, the film debuted at #3 in the weekend box office behind Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Hangover Part II.

Critical response

Like its predecessor, Rodrick Rules received mixed reviews; it currently holds a 47% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 93 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10.[7] It holds a score of 53 on Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

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 (38 on Metacritic), 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."

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryRecipientResultRef.
2012 Young Artist AwardBest Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young ActorZachary GordonNominated[8]
Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young ActorKaran BrarNominated
Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young ActorRobert CapronNominated
Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young ActressLaine MacNeilWon
Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Ten and UnderConnor & Owen FieldingNominated
Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress Ten and UnderDalila BelaNominated

References

  1. ↑ "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
  3. ↑ 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' Sequel to Bow Next March. Moviefone.com. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  4. ↑ "BCFC Film List" (PDF). British Columbia Film Commission. October 2, 2011. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  5. ↑ 'Wimps rule, movie opens 8 days ahead of US. StraitsTimes.com. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Weekend Report: 'Wimpy Kid' Blindsides 'Sucker Punch'". Retrieved March 28, 2011.
  7. ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules at Rotten Tomatoes
  8. ↑ "33rd Annual Young Artist Awards". YoungArtistAwards.org. Retrieved March 31, 2012.

External links