Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | David Bowers |
| Produced by | Nina Jacobson Brad Simpson |
| Screenplay by | Jeff Judah Gabe Sachs |
| Starring | Zachary Gordon Devon Bostick Rachael Harris Robert Capron Steve Zahn |
| Music by | Edward Shearmur |
| Cinematography | Jack N. Green |
| Editing by | Troy Takaki |
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | March 17, 2011 (Singapore) March 25, 2011 (United States) |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $21 million |
| Money made | $72.4 million |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 American live-action/animated comedy film directed by David Bowers and based on Jeff Kinney's 2008 book of the same name. It stars Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick. Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List also have prominent roles.
The film was released on March 25, 2011, by 20th Century Fox. It earned $72.4 million on a $21 million budget. It is the second installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series, preceded by 2010's Diary of a Wimpy Kid. A sequel followed in 2012, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.
Plot
The Heffley family attends a back-to-school party at a roller rink, where Greg, now going to start seventh grade, reunites with Rowley and meets a new girl named Holly Hills, who he instantly has a crush on. His older brother, Rodrick, interferes with the party by sabotaging his attempt to ask Holly to skate with him and tricking their mother, Susan, and father, Frank, into embarrassing him by talking to him on the rink's PA system and carrying him off the rink. He tries to tackle Rodrick for humiliating him, but ends up face-planting in Taylor Pringle's birthday cake. Enraged, she and her friends proceed to beat him up.
The next day, a school talent show, "Plainview's Most Talented", is advertised on TV, which Rowley sees as an opportunity to perform magic, and Rodrick sees it as his band's big break. Rodrick gives Rowley and Greg a drum lesson. Later in the afternoon, Greg berates Manny for stuffing a cookie in his Xbox and complains how Rodrick and Manny ruin his life. The next day, Greg tapes Rowley lip syncing to Kesha's Tik Tok before he ends up sitting on the tinfoil ball Manny made for Greg. At church, Greg and Rodrick are grounded after a scuffle, after which they are forbidden to go to a water park with Rowley's family over the weekend. Rodrick throws a party and locks Greg in the basement to keep him from ruining it. However, the next morning, their parents unexpectedly announce their return from their trip, prompting the brothers to hastily clean up the house.
Later in the evening, Rowley sleeps at Greg's house where they watch The Foot which scares both of them. Manny then comes in to dig through their candy when Greg and Rowley think he is the hopping foot from the movie. At school, Greg and Rowley joke about Chirag Gupta being invisible after he returns from a trip to India. Greg hands in Rodrick's "100 years ago" assignment which Mr. Draybick gives him an "F" on. He also gets into even more trouble when he tries to pass a note to Holly which ends up going to Patty Farrell instead. Later in the evening, Rodrick takes him to a gas station where they have hot dogs, slushies, and chips and they play pranks on people by putting fake vomit on their cars.
When Greg and Rodrick arrive home, Frank comes across photos of the party that Greg had taken with the camera, ruining the Heffley family's reputation once again as Susan's editors leave in disgust. Greg is grounded for two weeks without video games, and Rodrick is not allowed to drive anywhere except to and from school for a month and can't perform in the talent show, much to his devastation. He begs to get a different punishment, but Susan and Frank initially refuse. In anger, he states that while Greg may be his brother, he'll never see him as a friend, despite his attempts to explain and apologize. They are further punished by staying at their grandfather's retirement home, where Greg finds out that Holly is visiting her grandmother. To humiliate him, Rodrick steals his journal, in which he has written about his crush on her, and threatens to give it to her. He, in his underwear, chases after Rodrick and steals it back, but inadvertently hides in the women's restroom; Rodrick tapes the whole incident on the security camera.
At the talent show a few nights later, Rodrick finds out that he has been booted from the band by Bill Walter, a guitarist who recently joined; and Rowley isn't able to perform his magic tricks due to his partner, Scotty Douglas, having stage fright. Greg has a change of heart and helps Rowley, and ultimately Rodrick, by participating in Rowley's magic act; his doing so persuades Susan to let Rodrick perform with his band. The magic act is praised by Holly and the crowd, but people are unimpressed by Rodrick's band act until Susan starts dancing weird at the edge of the stage. Then the crowd joins in. Frank tapes the entire footage of Susan dancing, agreeing to Greg to keep it a secret. Rodrick boots Bill from the band, and gives Greg the tape from the retirement home as forgiveness in return for making it possible for him to participate.
Cast
- Zachary Gordon as Gregory "Greg" Heffley, the middle child of Susan and Frank
- Devon Bostick as Rodrick Heffley, Greg and Manny's older brother who is a drummer and a bully
- Connor and Owen Fielding as Manny Heffley, Greg and Rodrick's younger brother who never gets into trouble
- Robert Capron as Rowley Jefferson, Greg's childish best friend
- Rachael Harris as Susan Heffley, Rodrick, Greg, and Manny's mother
- Peyton List as Holly Hills, Greg's love interest
- Kevin Quinn as Tom Heffley, one of Greg's Brothers
- Steve Zahn as Frank Heffley, Rodrick, Greg, and Manny's father
- Fran Kranz as Bill Walter, a brief new member of Rodrick's band whom Frank dislikes
- Grayson Russell as Fregley, Greg's weird classmate
- Laine MacNeil as Patty Farrell, Greg's arch-enemy since kindergarten
- John Shaw as Mr. Draybick, Greg's history teacher who used to have Rodrick as a student
- Bryce Hodgson as Ben, one of Rodrick's friends
- Terence Kelly as Grandpa Heffley, Frank's father and Rodrick, Greg, and Manny's grandfather
- Belita Moreno as Mrs. Norton, a music teacher at Greg's school
- Andrew McNee as Coach Malone, Greg's gym teacher
- Alf Humphreys as Mr. Jefferson, Rowley's father who dislikes Greg
- Jakob Davies as Scotty Douglas, Rowley's former assistant who was replaced by Greg due to stage fright
- Teryl Rothery as Mrs. Kohan
- Serge Houde as Mr. Salz
- Melissa Roxburgh as Rachel Lewis, one of the girls at Rodrick's house party
- Dalila Bela as Taylor Pringle, a rude and unforgiving girl who celebrated her birthday at the roller rink at the beginning of the film
- Jeff Kinney, the series' author, makes a cameo as Jonathan Hills, Holly's father.
Distribution
The trailer was shown with Gulliver's Travels on December 25, 2010. It was later online on January 3, 2011. A poster was released there after on January 14, 2011. In February 2011, an exclusive online-only trailer was released on the "Wimpy Kid Movie" YouTube channel, officialwimpmovie. Due to the success of the first film in Singapore, the film was released there eight days before the US release on March 17, 2011. The film was released in Brazil on September 16, 2011. A TV spot of the movie was released in March 2011.
