Like its predecessor, the first in what will surely grow into a moneymaking franchise spun off from Jeff Kinney’s hilarious stick-figure chronicles of pre-teen agony, part deux of Diary of a Wimpy Kid chugs along inoffensively enough. But shifting from the original's focus on the experiences of Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) at the ignored-runt end of middle school to domestic tyranny at the hands of his bullying big brother (Devon Bostick, a fledgling Jeff Goldblum) is ill-advised. Out come the dusty old tropes: Parents (Steve Zahn and Rachael Harris, mugging obediently) take off for the weekend; place gets trashed; brothers bond over household repair; spend mishap-filled quality time with Grandpa; regress briefly; then re-bond.
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