- 94 minutes. Rated PG.
Rowley: I’ve never actually played tennis before…
Greg: We’ve played Ultimate Tennis on the Wii. It’s basically the same thing.
The majority of people in the world will tell you that most movies don’t live up to the book. Sure, you have your handfuls of movies that are just as good (i.e. The Godfather, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Rings, etc.), but most of the time, we are left disappointed. However, in the case of Jeff Kinney’s wildly popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series of books, I find the movies exceed expectations.
Dog Days is the third installment in the series of films and the plot follows the book (which, oddly, is the 4th book) fairly strongly. It is the beginning of summer vacation and middle schooler Greg (Zachary Gordon) has only two goals: play video games and hang out with pretty Holly Hills (Peyton List). He is foiled in playing video games because his father (well-played by Steve Zahn) thinks summer is for being outdoors. Greg has more luck in hanging out with Holly when he goes to the country club with his friend Rowley (Robert Capron) and discovers she is teaching tennis there. When Mr. Heffley tells Greg he got him an internship at his office, Greg thinks fast and claims to have a job at the country club so that he can continue going there all summer. His reprehensible brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick plays a jerky sibling to perfection) quickly smells the lie and starts having Greg sneak him into the country club, too, where he becomes infatuated with Holly’s insufferable sister Heather (Melissa Roxburgh).
One of the downsides to the plot is the fact Greg is not a particularly likable character on several levels. He lies and sneaks around constantly to get what he wants, a tactic that normally backfires. While this provides the film with many funny scenes, it doesn’t make us like Greg. Worse, he often mistreats his best friend Rowley. Honest, guileless Rowley is used and abused by Greg regularly. When Rowley invites Greg to his family’s beach house, Greg shows no tolerance for the Jeffersons’ way of life (admittedly a bit too wholesome. Think the Flanders family in the Simpsons) and instead gets Rowley in trouble followed by getting Mr. Jefferson (Alf Humphreys) arrested. Granted, Greg does none of this maliciously, but he also never takes the blame for his actions, either.
A shocker is that these failings in Greg’s character are even more marked in the books than the movies. In the series, Greg has no remorse for any of his actions and no respect for any kind of authority. However, whether it is the screenplay, the director or the actors (probably all three), Greg manages to appear more of the victim of being clueless and hapless than simply a jerk. By the end of the film, he even takes the blame for some of his actions, something that never happens in the book. Normally, once Greg is caught in a lie, he just whines about the unfair punishment he receives for it. I give a lot of credit to Zachary Gordon for making Greg seem like he has layers as opposed to his appearance in the book.
Many a scene in the film plays out far better as well. Watching the family eat the roast the dog chewed on, something only Greg and his dad knows, is hilarious. Rodrick’s off-key singing of a rocked out version of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” at Heather’s Sweet Sixteen party is inspired. The result of these scattered humorous moments (and a somewhat different and more emotional ending than the book) makes the movie into a tolerable choice for a family film, however banal it might be.
The kids in the film are maturing fast, noticeably so, feeding rumors that this is the last in the series to make it onto the big screen. If this is true, at least the characters go out on a positive note. Overall, while this is certainly not the worst movie made for children, it also could be far better. While I was trying to think of a quote from the film to begin this article with, I came up blank. Audiences will likely find this movie perfectly watchable but equally unmemorable. The lack of swearing or sexual innuendo makes the film accessible to older elementary children as well as the middle schoolers, which is good news for parents. Maybe some will even sit down and have character building talks with their kids. Now THAT would be a good legacy for the films to leave.
