Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

That kid (Zachary Gordon) is back, now in seventh grade but still wimpy, and bedeviled by his older brother (Devon Bostick); their exasperated parents (Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn) resort to bribing them to get along. As with any sequel, the pleasure of unexpected discovery is missing, but otherwise this one lives up to its original, with a script by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (from Jeff Kinney’s book) that’s as clever as their first one, albeit with less complexity and more poop-and-potty jokes, and a resort to that tired cliché, the wild teenage party. David Bowers directs at a brisk pace, and young Gordon carries this film as easily and naturally as he did the first. There are no great surprises, but no disappointments, either. Robert Capron plays Gordon’s best friend, Peyton List his schoolhouse crush.