Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film)


Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 American live-action/animated comedy film based on Jeff Kinney's 2008 with a couple of elements from '. The film 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. The film earned $72.4 million on a $21 million budget. It is the second installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series preceded by 2010's Diary of a Wimpy Kid and followed by 2012's '.

Plot

The Heffley family attend a back-to-school party at a roller rink, where Greg reunites with Rowley, meets a new girl named Holly Hills who Greg instantly has a crush on, and reveals he passed on the Cheese Touch. His older brother Rodrick interferes with the party by sabotaging Greg's attempt to ask Holly to skate with him and tricking their mother, Susan, and father, Frank, into embarrassing Greg by 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 Taylor Pringle's birthday cake. Enraged, she and her friends proceed to beat up Greg as the intro starts. The next morning, Susan makes an effort to have Greg and Rodrick bond by spending time together by using her methods called "Mom Bucks", but it makes things worse as Rodrick cheats her system. One day, a school talent show, "Plainview's Most Talented", is advertised on TV, which Rowley sees as an opportunity to perform magic, and Rodrick sees it as his band's big break. However, Greg refuses to assist Rowley's magic.
At church, Greg and Rodrick are grounded after a scuffle, upsetting Susan about her family's reputation being ruined; after which, they are forbidden to go to a water park, nor inviting people over, and told that they must bond. However, Rodrick does the opposite by throwing a party and locking Greg in the basement to keep him from ruining the party. Greg calls Rowley over to rescue him, but Rodrick outsmarts them and locks them both in the basement. They convince Rodrick to let them out after threatening to tell Susan about the party. In the process, Greg and Rodrick have fun together and begin to bond.
The next morning, Susan calls and says that they will be home early, as Greg and Rodrick's little brother, Manny, is sick. Rodrick and Greg hastily erase all the evidence, but find out that the bathroom door is graffitied. They replace the door, but Greg finds out that the replacement door doesn't have a lock like the original door. Rodrick convinces Greg to deny everything when their parents return. Susan, however, discovers the difference and questions Greg, in which he partially reveals the truth but begs Susan not to say anything as he is finally getting along with Rodrick. Convinced that Greg didn't reveal about the party, Rodrick starts bonding with him as a gesture of gratitude. However, they are exposed when Frank comes across photos of the party that Greg had accidentally taken with the camera, ruining the Heffley family's reputation again as editors, Mr. Salz and Mrs. Kohan, leave in humiliation and no-one will read Susan's articles about siblings bonding anymore. Greg and Rodrick are both grounded, and Rodrick is barred from participating in the talent show, much to his devastation. Their punishment is to stay at their Grandpa's retirement home, where Greg finds out that Holly is visiting her grandmother. To humiliate Greg, Rodrick steals his diary, in which Greg has written about his crush on Holly, and threatens to give it to her. Greg, in his underwear, chases after Rodrick and steals his diary back, but inadvertently hides in the women's restroom; Rodrick tapes the whole incident.
At the talent show a few nights later, Rodrick finds out that he has been booted from the band by Bill Walter, a guitarist who recently joined; and Rowley isn't able to perform his magic tricks due to his partner, Scotty Douglas, having stage fright. Greg has a change of heart and helps Rowley and Rodrick out by participating in Rowley's magic act in return for allowing Rodrick to perform his band act. The magic act is praised by Holly and the crowd, but people are unimpressed by Rodrick's music act until Susan starts dancing at the edge of the stage, then the crowd joins in. Frank tapes the entire footage of Susan dancing, agreeing to Greg to keep it a secret. Rodrick boots Bill from the band, and gives Greg the tape from the retirement home as forgiveness in return for making it possible for him to participate.
In a mid-credits scene, Greg and Rowley successfully upload Frank's video of Susan dancing to Rodrick's band to YouTube, and it instantly goes viral, making them an internet sensation. However, an enraged Rodrick, having seen the video, shouts at Greg from off-screen, "GREG, YOU ARE SO DEAD!"

Cast

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 and Rachael Harris 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.

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. The film was released in Brazil on September 16, 2011. 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 June 21, 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 $7.3 million on its opening day, ranking #2 behind Sucker Punch. The film managed to rank #1 in the weekend box office. In the UK, the film debuted at #3 in the weekend box office behind and The Hangover Part II.
The film eventually grossed $52,698,535 in the US/Canada and $19,718,859 in other countries for a worldwide total of $72,417,394.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 98 reviews and an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Moderately witty and acceptably acted, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 isn't much worse than the first installment." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 51 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.
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."

Accolades