I have to own up, I completely missed last year’s sleeper hit movie ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ which grossed a surprising $75 million at the box office. The film was based on the New York Times number one bestselling series of books by Jeff Kinney and with 42 million copies in print worldwide it’s no wonder that there was a ready-made audience for the film version.

It was just a matter of time before they hit us with a follow up ‘Diary of a Wimpey Kid: Rodrick Rules’. Wimpy kid Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) continues to relate his school experiences to the audience through his diary and has moved on from middle school to the seventh grade. Much of Greg’s torment comes from the bullying received from his older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) who is hoping to make it big with his punk rock band ‘loded diper’ (that’s how it’s spelt on his van...honest). Even his eyes are ringed with black eye liner not unlike Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong.

Most of the actors from DOAWK have reunited for DOAWK2. Greg’s Mother Susan (Rachel Harris) just wants her two boys to bond and get along and encourages them to be best buds by leaving them both home alone (great idea Mom!) while she and husband, the totally underused Steve Zahn (Check out Happy Texas) go away for the weekend with weird little baby brother Manny. I don’t think Mom could have seen many teen flicks in her time, because we all know what happens when you leave hormonal boys on their own? They either a) Knuckle down and catch up on school homework? b) Tidy the house from top to bottom as a nice surprise for the returning parents? Or c) Have a wild party?

Anyway, after the house gets wrecked following a wild party, the brothers work together to put the house back to normal as best they can in true ‘Risky Business’ tradition. Hey!...wait a minute. That sly old Mom!

No sooner do the boys find a new found respect for each other than they both get grounded and even worse Rodrick is forbidden from playing in his band at the school talent show and totally blames his little brother Greg, totally!

Will Greg be able to put things right so his brother can perform with ‘Loded Diper’ and will their Mom’s dream of siblings united in friendship come true? Well...you’ll just have to go and see the movie yourself.

I had a slight pre-conceived idea about this film but still went in to the screening room prepared to give it a chance hoping to enjoy it. But unfortunately there was nothing new here. The diary thoughts of our Wimpy Kid hero Greg was reminiscent of Daniel Sterns narration for character Kevin in TV’s ‘The Wonder Years’ . Greg also has a foil to bounce off in the form of an even wimpier best friend Rowley (Robert Capron) similar to Kevin’s best friend Paul (Josh Saviano). Rachel Harris and Steve Zahn are just caricature cut outs of parents from every other kids movie and limit their acting talents to a few huffy facial expressions and a couple of lines of “why I oughta...” . But having said all that I should have known better because the film does exactly what it says on the tin and certainly won’t disappoint the millions of DOAWK fans. I have to admit that there were also a couple of moments that actually made the corners of my mouth turn up. One of those being the replacement door episode.

This sequel was directed by David Bowers a Brit from Cheshire. He actually does quite a good job for his first live action film and manages to keep the storyline flowing. His previous directing experience was on two animated features Flushed Away (2006) and Astro Boy (2009). But more impressive than that he worked as an animator on episodes of TV’s ‘Count Duckula’ and ‘Dangermouse’. He’s already gone up in my estimation. Roll on ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3’.