Diary of a Wimpy Kid

What it's about:

Meet the kid who made "wimpy" cool, in the adventures of wise-cracking middle school student Greg Heffley, who must somehow survive the scariest time of anyone’s life: Middle school. To Greg Heffley, middle school is the dumbest idea ever invented. It's a place rigged with hundreds of social landmines not the least of which are morons, wedgies, swirlies, bullies, lunchtime banishment to the cafeteria floor and a festering piece of cheese with nuclear cooties.

To survive the never-ending ordeal and attain the recognition and status he feels he so richly deserves, Greg devises an endless series of can't-miss schemes, all of which, of course, go awry. And he's getting it down on paper, via a diary. "It's not a diary, it's a journal!" Greg insists, preferring the less-sissyfied designation filled with his opinions, thoughts, tales of family trials and tribulations and (would-be) schoolyard triumphs. "One day when I'm famous," writes Greg, "I'll have better things to do than answer peoples' stupid questions all day." So was born the Wimpy Kid's diary.

What the critics thought:

"What the movie gets right, sometimes in agonizing detail, are the humiliations and horrors of school..."
- Mary F. Pols, MSN Movies

"Much of the book's cartoony charm gets lost in the conversion to live action, and we're left with a coming-of-age comedy that just feels aged."
- Leslie Gornstein, E! Online

"The young cast is all game, and sidekicks Robert Capron and Grayson Russell are a real hoot. Slumber party viewings are inevitable."
- Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

"Kids who realise they're fully ordinary - that is, pretty much all of them - will be pleased to see a world they recognize on the big screen."
- Dan Kois, Washington Post