Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

As many kids movies are these days, this one is based on a series of books as well as the third of a series of films.  The main character is a put-upon boy comically fighting the growing pains of, well, growing up.

In this installment, the main set of characters are still being played by the same actors, giving continuity to the series. Pre-teen Greg (Zachary Gordon) is now looking forward to summer break between 7th and 8th grades, where he plans to zone out by playing video games all summer. His dad (Steve Zahn) though wants him doing something more constructive, such as joining the local scouting troup, or doing some reading of classic novels as his mother (Rachael Harris) suggests. Dad even thinks a new dog might help get Greg to doing outdoor things instead of vegetating indoors.

When Greg sees that his secret crush Holly (Peyton List) belongs to the country club, he enlists his best friend, the goofy and conservative Rowley (Robert Capron) to bring him as his +1 guest, and lies to his dad that he has a job there, to prevent his dad from bothering him further about getting a summer job (as well as avoid military school). Complicating his lie is that his older bullying brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) lusts after Holly's vain sister and threatens in his big brother way to expose Greg's lie if he doesn't help him get near her.

There are lots of summer hijinks as Greg tries to get near Holly, mostly of the tired old joke kind (boy loses trunk in swimming pool, boy is revulsed to be given mouth to mouth by a man, dog slobbers over a pot roast that is fed to the family, vain girls go ballistic when things don't go their way, setting up a camping tent goes haywire). There are several homophobic and ethnic jokes, as well as jokes in the "sissy" vein. Much of this humor is directed for the mentality of an audience younger than what the kid characters are now in the film (perhaps the characters the films are based on don't age in the books) so these broad jokes seem juvenile for real teens of their same age. Movie audiences of 13 years old deserve some more original entertainment.

Although this is not a lengthy film the many little plots could have been done away with to have the story concentrate more on what was supposed to be the theme--that Greg and his father needed to be drawn together to share something and for Greg to mature a little instead of being selfish. Adding the new dog element for instance didn't really add meaningfully to the theme of the story except as a jokey scene about the pot roast dinner (and as a subhead to the film's title). Was this meant to be a way the two characters "bonded?"  By lying to the rest of their family? That seems to be an unfortuante running theme in the story--it is okay to lie and get away with it, and also okay to lie and admit it later. Why not--don't lie in the first place?  Maybe it's just because I am looking at the story and jokes as an adult and not as a kid.

Somewhat of a highlight is the performance of Devon Bostick as the brother Rodrick, who, although he plays the fool and the jokes he is given are pretty broad, nonetheless comes across as less act-y than the rest of the cast.  As his character doesn't have any restrictions placed on him by the story (he barely interacts with his parents), Bostick gets to let loose with his acting and just be as foolish as he can be.