Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Roderic Rules

Directed by David Bowers. Starring Zachary Gordon, Devon Bostick, Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, Connor Fielding, Owen Fielding, Peyton List G cert, gen release, 99 min

FEW 10-YEAR-OLDS will need an introduction to Diary of a Wimpy Kid,Jeff Kinney's knockabout chronicles of pre-teen angst.

The ongoing misadventures of middle-schooler Greg Heffley have already inspired five books (43 million copies and counting), T-shirts, Top Trumps cards and a special edition of Scrabble. The franchise may be blooming, but things haven't necessary improved for our middle-runt-of-litter hero, Greg (Zachary Gordon). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rulessees the titular weed in seventh grade pining for cute girl Holly Hills (Peyton List) and fending off attacks from his meaner older brother, Rodrick (Devon Bostick).

We know things are bad when the boys’ fed-up parents (Steve Zahn and Rachel Harris) leave the brothers home alone for a weekend as punishment. But will the party Rodrick decides to throw in their absence make things even worse?

Director David Bowers and screenwriters Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah ( Freaks and Geeks)have worked hard to translate Kinney's free-form fictional journal and stick figure illustrations into a proper film. For better or worse, the new movie sidelines many of the book's scattershot details, including popular comic relief Rowley (Robert Capron), to focus on the brothers' escalating rivalries.

The results are cartoonish and inoffensive (think a Malcolm in the Middleseasonal special), but they do coalesce into a cheery, endearing portrait of adolescent mortification. Young master Gordon, a gifted physical comedian, fearlessly falls face first into a birthday cake and bravely struts about in excruciating Speedos. There are further embarrassments and admonishments involving poop, more poop and Greg's playground nemesis, Patty.

At its best, Diary 2can play like the trials of a young American Basil Fawlty. Greg's frequent humiliations, real and imagined, are compounded by a frequently misplaced sense of injustice and an overwhelming belief that idiots lie in wait at every turn. At heart, of course, he's a good kid; it's just that sometimes he forgets.

Oh, well, things could always be worse. He could be Fregley (Grayson Russell), the schoolyard’s red-haired untouchable and the funniest character in the entire film. Wimps really do inherit the earth after all.