Greg's Diary - Surrounded by Idiots!

The comic book series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney has been an integral part of contemporary pop culture, especially in the USA, since the publication of the first volume in 2007. And so it was only a matter of time before "Greg's Diary" also made it to the cinema. After the adaptation became a surprise hit in American cinemas, the quirky comedy is now coming to us.

GregHeffley (Zachary Gordon) is determined to make it clear to all his classmates on his first day at junior high school that he's cool as hell and doesn't belong to the pathetic losers whose heads you dunk in the toilet bowl or terrorize in the schoolyard. Unfortunately, this plan goes completely to shit. But Greg doesn't let this defeat get him down for long. Again and again he comes up with new ideas to become really popular. These ideas he records in his diary, in which gradually but also quite a few failures must be booked, which Greg but only prove one thing: he is surrounded by idiots!

"Gregs diary - surrounded by idiots" is a somewhat double-edged affair. On the one hand, the film is brimming with quite original ideas and its humour is very much in line with the reality that boys on the cusp of puberty have to face. The ominous cheese curse, for example, which is mentioned again and again and of course is allowed to play an important role at the end, belongs to the more amusing moments of the film. In its best moments, the film by "The Dog Hotel" director Thor Freudenthal seems like a feature film version of the comedy series "Malcolm in the Middle", which was also known and loved for irreverent, sometimes quite wicked humor. But then, unfortunately, there are always moments that are just infantile and too much on the worn-out and quite lowbrow "body-fluids-are-so-funny" level.

On the plus side, the film can chalk up the good choice of its actors. Besides lead actor Zachary Gordon, among the young actors, Robert Capron as Greg's best friend Rowley and Chloe Moretz, known from "Kick-Ass", are particularly convincing. And Steve Zahn, one of Hollywood's perennial supporting players, can also claim a few laughs as Greg's father. But even the good actors can't prevent "Greg's Diary - Surrounded by Idiots" from not always hitting the mark with its very special humor.

Thor Freudenthal has brought the first book in Jeff Kinney's cult series to the screen in an entertaining but somewhat uneven fashion. At times, the in places very authentically funny look at the end of childhood on the cusp of puberty is really good fun. But then other scenes are just silly and flat, which is why "Greg's Diary - Surrounded by Idiots" is, on balance, only worth seeing with reservations

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp