I am guessing most of you never heard of a restaurant chain called Wimpy’s. They were one of my first introductions to a hamburger chain, when I was a little kid. Their serving plates had a border of international flags. I much preferred my definition of wimpy than how it was used here. This was my first encounter with this movie franchise, nor was I familiar with any of the books. Since I was called a variety of names growing up, I am uncomfortable with the use of any negative descriptive words towards children. For those of you who know these movies please forgive me; I wasn’t getting it. I did not understand why the main character Greg Heffley, played by Zachary Gordon (Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise, The Brothers Bloom) was considered a wimpy kid. The story was about what Greg would do during his summer vacation. Where he wanted to sit at home and play video games; his father Frank, played by Steve Zahn (Sunshine Cleaning, Employee of the Month), felt his son needed to be outside and have some fun. This led Greg into several exploits. I thought the use of lying and revenge for a base to build comedic antics was a poor idea. For me the jokes were lame and the different situations Greg got himself into were barely worth a chuckle. I guess this movie was meant for a narrow age group of children. Maybe the books were better, but on film it was boring for me. I have been called a kid at heart; I just hope they were not referring to these type of kids.

1 3/4 stars