![]() ![]() When they’re not using a cell phone while driving the family SUV, they’re directing their offspring to steal personal property. First, the father figures depicted here are hardly role models for youngsters to emulate. ![]() Although the movie is imminently forgettable (despite a clever but incongruous send-up of the shower scene in Psycho), two things linger for reasons unrelated to quality. What’s missing here? The satirically edged animated illustrations by series creator Jeff Kinney, which would have made this Wimpy Kid less cartoonish, ironically enough. Call it the Nickelodeon style of acting: Mugs for everybody!Īlong the way, diapers cling, pigs crap, ducks attack, vomit spews, mud splatters, dough explodes, and embarrassing video clips go viral, further sharpening the slings and arrows of outrageous pre-adolescence for miserable Greg. Otherwise, the actors (both professional and nonprofessional) perform each scene – each shot, for that matter – as if it had no relationship at all to the rest of film, with the emphasis more on energy levels rather than credible characterizations. Quite frankly, it doesn’t make much difference who plays these parts, though Silverstone has a couple of effective moments as the parent who futilely attempts to wean her family from their electronic devices and direct their attention to one another during an eventful four-day road trip through middle America to attend Meemaw’s 90th birthday party. In fact, the new movie features an entirely refurbished Heffley family, including former Aerosmith music-video siren Alicia Silverstone wearing the mom jeans this time around, and onetime Tom Hanks look-alike Tom Everett Scott doing that Dad thing he does. In this fourth onscreen installment of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, a newly minted Jason Drucker assumes the titular role of the perennially put-upon middle-schooler, Greg Heffley, presumably because Zachary Gordon, who originated the character back in 2010, turned the corner of puberty long ago. ![]() Given the movie industry’s obsessive need to sequelize everything until the numbers no longer add up, the natural maturation process can quickly age a franchise dependent upon fossilized cast members to remain forever young, Harry Potter notwithstanding. Is Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes.Here’s the thing about kid actors: They grow up. There are some funny moments for the very junior viewers, and the young cast fit the roles well (and look spookily like the original actors), but for adults the best thing about this movie is Alicia Silverstone’s performance as the mum who truly believes a road trip without technology won’t end up being an utter disaster. Squarely aimed at the under-10s (some of the humour is so babyish it will horrify an 11-year-old) with its poop jokes and broad slapstick, this doesn’t have the charm of the first film in the series and rambles along expecting the audience to swallow some pretty daft plot contrivances (would dad really take a week off work without permission and not tell his wife?). Of course, in true movie road trip style (see Planes Trains And Automobiles, National Lampoon’s Vacation, etc) what can go wrong does, and matters are not helped by Greg himself, who is planning a little detour to a games convention without telling his hapless parents. They’re off to their grandmother’s 90th birthday party which means being stuck together in a car for about four days, an experience that is made all the more horrific for the boys (and dad) when mum decides it’s to be a smartphone-free trip. It’s road trip time for Greg (Drucker), older brother Rodrick (Wright), baby Manny and their parents Frank (Scott) and Susan (Silverstone). Five years on from the last Diary Of A Wimpy Kid movie (Dog Days) and the fourth film based on Jeff Kinney’s popular kids books gets a new cast, presumably because the child actors from the first movies are now college age. ![]()
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