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39 of 45 found the following review helpful:
Awesome Family Fun!!! Apr 07, 2010
By Pumpkin Man
This movie was actually a lot better than I expected, and had some hilarious moments. I can relate to some of the things that happened to Greg. I have not read the book, so I couldn't compare it. 12 year old Greg Heffley is nervous about starting middle school. Him and his dorky best friend, Rowley Jefferson try to fit in and become popular, but that's easier said than done. Throughout the school year, Greg and Rowley come up with weird ways to become popular like being a Safety Patrol officer, wrestling, and performing in epic school plays. In order to truly appreciate this film, you either need to be a parent, or think from the perspective of a kid. I highly recommend DIARY OF A WIMPY KID!!!
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Better than I expected Jan 10, 2011
By Irfan A. Alvi
My daughter loves this book series, so my wife decided to get this DVD, and we watched it as a family. I wouldn't normally review a kid's movie, but I want to let dads know that this movie is actually watchable, and certainly better than I expected. The plot hangs together, the kids are good actors, and there are some genuinely funny moments which I can relate to from my own childhood. The only reason I'm deducting a star is that, as others have noted, the portrayal of the parents as somewhat clueless is both unnecessary and counterproductive.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a cute look at school bullies & popularity in middle school Sep 07, 2010
By Haunted Flower
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" was directed by Thor Freudenthal ("Hotel for Dogs") based on the book by Jeff Kinney. Zachary Gordon plays Greg Heffley, a kid entering middle school for the first time with the company of his best friend, Rowley Jefferson played by Robert Capron. Greg becomes obsessed with the idea that he needs to do something notable to get into the "Class Favorites" section of the yearbook in order to make his mark and hit the big time, if it weren't for the dorkiness of his best friend holding him back.
Greg has the curse of being a middle child so he is largely ignored by his parents in favor of his younger brother still potty training and his older brother, Rodrick (Devon Bostick) takes great delight in torturing Greg giving him rules he must follow or suffer the consequences. Incidentally, a sequel is already in the works called "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules." Instead of keeping his head down and getting through these difficulty years, Greg fights the laws of nature in his household becoming a burden to his family and often getting in trouble.
With the situations and the way they are presented, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" feels more like an extended TV show of something like "Malcolm in the Middle" instead of a feature film. It has an amusing way of blending in the stick figure illustrations from the book into the story to represent Greg's visualization of the up and down changes in social status he and his friends experience. Greg tries several tactics to get famous in his school that fail fantastically like joining the wrestling team, auditioning for the school play, and joining safety patrol. Many of his problems stem from his own ego which is immature and underdeveloped and often places the blame on his less than cool friend, Rowley instead of turning the focus on himself.
The only times "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" feels like a movie are when Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl from "Kick Ass" who plays Angie Steadman enters the scene. She towers over the boys in height and maturity about their current situation. She tries to impart her wisdom on them that none of what happens in middle school really matters in the grand scheme of things and that it is infinitely better to sit back and watch others make fools of themselves for popularity and comment on it in the school newspaper. Greg turns down her invitation to join the paper insisting it would be a conflict of interest since the paper will be too busy reporting on him (which it does...when he makes a fool of himself). Chloe Moretz has an amazing screen presence that is such a pleasure when she is there and the movie noticeably reverts back to that TV style format again when she is gone.
The take on middle school drama, social status concerns, and the influx of made-up rules that can make or break your popularity is very familiar and a good wake-up call to kids that age. For adults, it might be a little familiar or nostalgic but no longer as engaging a problem to relate to. Director Thor Freudenthal's style is very much for kids and young families and in reaching that target demographic, it succeeds. It doesn't quite hit that sweet spot where it can be appealing to kids and adults simultaneously like "A Christmas Story" though it tries very hard.
Special Features:
There is full-length commentary by Director Thor Freudenthal and Writer Gabe Sachs where they go into detail about what was and wasn't in the book, what monologue was used to audition for the lead and how they picked Zachary Gordon. The Angie Steadman character played by Chloe Moretz was not in the original source material, but was added because there were all these diverse guy characters and no girls to even it out, like they were an alien species so bringing one into the mix clearly helped the movie.
There are 10 deleted scenes/diary pages consist of many more scenes with the scary ginger kid, Fregley and mostly consist of helpful how-to's and antidotes about the supporting cast characters.
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Awesome Movie!! Aug 05, 2010
By Misterbanks
This movie brought me back to middle school times. I'm an adult now. But this movie was highly entertaining. I can still relate to a lot of it, even though I am an adult and I don't have the same situations any more. But this movie makes it easy to remember. Middle school is a simpler time in your life. And this movie paints that picture very well. I don't mean they dumbed it down. This movie was smart with a very good message: "Never turn on your friends". What I mean is it shows how kids worry about simpler things in middle school. And they are frequently hilarious, just like the entirety of this movie. Zachary Gordon did an A+ job as Greg. I can't wait to see them all back in the sequel, and the one after that and the one after that! I give this a 10/10!
45 of 63 found the following review helpful:
Fun, Funny, But... Apr 21, 2010
By Kelly Klepfer
For pure entertainment and a basic feel good message about popularity and real friendship, Diary of a Wimpy Kid delivers.
Most kids are going to eat up the bathroom and booger humor (sorry about the pun). Most will love the problems Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) gets himself into. There were some pretty hysterical and absurd moments that made me laugh out loud. Lots and lots of physical humor and lots and lots of bad ideas. Greg eventually learns some important lessons like real friends trump popularity and popularity isn't everything especially if it costs your self-respect and good friends. However, Greg does a little bit of damage while getting to the lessons.
Parents may want to consider that this movie contains a few subtle negative messages. First, there are the parental units who are generally clueless. Now, for most older kids to teens this is a real fantasy -- who doesn't want to do what they want to do when they want to do it? Who wants rules and parents sticking their noses in and redirecting or handing out consequences? The more parents are portrayed that way, though, I wonder if kids begin to chafe even more against their own parents who might not be so easy going or easily fooled. I know most kids do know movies from reality. But the more that stereotype is tossed out there the more I wonder if that's not part of the "but everyone's doing it, Mom." mentality.
The older brother, Roderick, is a completely mean-spirited jerk. And in some of Greg's dealings with the world it almost feels like he has picked up some lessons from Roderick. The leading female within Greg's class is so annoying I wonder how she could be popular, oh, yes, it's because she threatens everyone. Some of the light-hearted fun is hobbled because of these characters and their excessive meanness. Some remarks made my two friends flinch. Roderick has a biker babe magazine under his bed and it appears in a few scenes. His mother confronts him about the disrespect he's shown all womankind while his friends laugh during the confrontation.
Aside from the parental warnings, it's-a-laugh-a-scene movie that most older kids will enjoy.
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