‘Wimpy’ Every Bit as Stupid as it Looks

One of the best scenes from “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules” works in a way that it really shouldn’t. That’d be the scene that takes a peek backstage during a talent show, just after wimpy kid Greg (Zachary Gordon) and his friend Rowley (Robert Capron) make it through a magic act featuring a bird that empties its bowels onstage. They let evil Patty’s (Laine MacNeil) review roll right off their backs: “Only a moron would find humor in bird poop,” she insists, before…yes, the bird drips some directly onto her.

It takes courage for a film to call attention to its own idiocy like that.

At least Patty’s clever enough to know how asinine such antics are, although to Greg’s credit, he had a feeling the act would turn out that way. He’s got a knack for winding up in moments like these – this is one of those comedies that degrades its hero in one cruel gag after the next, starting with a missed connection involving a cute girl (Peyton List) at a roller rink. While it’s a safe bet that older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) will come up with a way to foil his plans to approach her, their parents (Rachael Harris and Steve Zahn) embarrass him even more when they intervene and leave with him. Between their accidental jabs and Rodick’s deliberate ones, Greg doesn’t need baby brother Manny (Connor and Owen Fielding) breaking his game system by hiding a cookie in it.

Fragments of Greg’s life in seventh grade come in futile subplots – including one about an unsettling classmate (Karan Brar) whose friends attempt to fool him into believing he’s invisible – but the focus stays on his family, and the aftermath of a house party Rodrick cooks up while the folks are away. When it’s time to clean up and he and Greg find that somebody wrote “Rodrick Rules” on the bathroom door, they exchange it with a door that just happened to be lying in the basement. Considering how absent-minded everybody is, how long do you suppose it’ll be before someone figures out it’s got no lock?

Even those who admired the first “Wimpy” film or the children’s novels that inspired it might balk at how dumb the sequel is, though die-hard defenders will probably insist they had a ball watching it. When it’s over, you get an extra scene during the credits, which comes a bit too late – half the audience at the preview had gone by then. One of the children who caught it alerted everyone: “It’s not finished!”

It was finished for me.

This article originally appeared on AllMediaNY.com