Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (film) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | David Bowers |
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| Music by | Edward Shearmur |
| Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond |
| Editing by | Troy Takaki |
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | May 19, 2017 |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $22 million |
| Money made | $40.1 million |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul is a 2017 American live-action/animated comedy road film directed by David Bowers. It is the fourth installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series and the final one to be live-action. The film was based on the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth books in the series, The Third Wheel (one element about Corny's Restaurant), Hard Luck (one element about Meemaw), The Long Haul (elements about a family's road trip) and Old School (one element about how Susan told Greg to stop using too much technology).
It is a soft reboot as the cast members from the first three films (Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, and Devon Bostick) did not reprise their roles, and were replaced by a new cast. It was theatrically released on May 19, 2017, by 20th Century Fox. The film received mostly negative reviews, with many criticizing its new cast. In particular, the hashtag #notmyrodrick became trending on social media when the trailer was released. It grossed $40 million worldwide on a $22 million production budget.
It received negative reviews from critics; the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it "largely unfunny". It is also the last film in the series to be produced by 20th Century Fox until the studio was acquired by Disney in 2019 and the last one before the series was rebooted again under their name, with the next installment being a computer-animated film on Disney+.
Plot
One day while the Heffleys are dining at a family restaurant known as Corny's with Greg's best friend, Rowley, joining them, Susan announces family plans to attend Meemaw's 90th birthday party, much to her family's dismay. Susan then tells Greg to rescue his younger brother, Manny, who became stuck inside a tube in the play area. He ends up in a ball pit with a diaper stuck on his hand. He subsequently becomes infamous after the people around him record him and post the footage on the Internet, leading him to be dubbed as an embarrassing meme known as "Diaper Hands".
Later, Greg learns that the Player Expo is taking place not very far from Meemaw's house in Indianapolis. His favorite Internet star, Mac Digby, will be attending, and he hopes to meet him and get in one of his videos so he will gain popularity and put the Diaper Hands meme behind him. He acknowledges that he will have to somehow sneak off from the road trip and attend the Expo without Susan and Frank's knowledge, however. The Heffley family hits the road, where Greg, Rodrick and Frank's devices are immediately confiscated by Susan, who wants the road trip to be "absolutely technology-free".
After arriving at a motel, Greg secretly gets into the car, takes his phone out of the bag, and uses it. Later, when Greg and Rodrick are relaxing in a hot tub, Rodrick hears a notification from Greg's phone and discovers his plans to go to the Player Expo. Later that night, Greg is woken up twice by a loud noise. Upon seeing what it is, he encounters a couple of siblings playing with a cart by repeatedly wheeling it into a wall, belonging to a family whom he later dubs as "the Beardos" due to their father's large beard. Greg scolds them for crashing the cart repeatedly into the wall, waking him up, and eventually threatens to have them and their family kicked out. Their father, whom Greg later dubs as "Mr. Beardo", comes out, but nearly gets hit by the cart that Brandi Beardo, his daughter, deliberately rolls at Greg, but misses and the cart ends up damaging Mr. Beardo's van. Brandi puts the blame on Greg and lies to Mr. Beardo about Greg calling him a "Fat Beardo", and Mr. Beardo is about to punish him, but Greg escapes. Mr. Beardo then becomes bent on getting revenge on him. The next morning, he wakes up in The Beardos' room, and escapes them yet again.
On the road, the Heffleys attend a country fair where Manny wins a piglet. Mr. Beardo, who is also there with his family, notices Greg and begins chasing after him, on the warpath against him, but Greg manages to lose him on a spinning ride called Alien Abduction, where Rodrick vomits on Mr. Beardo after he crawled over him. The next day, a call from work leads to the Heffleys nearly getting in a car crash on a bridge, and the Heffleys, unable to take care of Piggy, drop it off at a petting zoo, much to Manny's dismay, but not before Greg reroutes the GPS to the Player Expo. In the hotel room, Greg and Rodrick tell Susan and Frank that they're buying a gift for Meemaw, but they actually sneak out to the Player Expo. Upon realizing that they are missing, Susan calls the police to look for them, but decides to go get them herself after seeing them on TV.
Greg sees Mac Digby participating in a video game competition and tells Rodrick to record him on the stage, but the attempt fails when he accidentally knocks out the power to Mac's screen and Susan arrives, revealing to everyone that he is Diaper Hands. She opens up to him and says that all she wanted was a nice road trip that would bring her family closer together, and she accuses him of not caring. He berates her that she doesn't care about his interests either, which is why he had to sneak out to the Player Expo in the first place. Having given up, she allows him to play on her phone. Back on the road, the tarp on their motorboat blows open and all of their belongings begin to fall out. The Beardos then show up and begin stealing them as "payback", including a suitcase containing a family memory book for Meemaw, causing Susan to break down in tears seeing the whole trip was a disaster.
The Heffleys chase after them, but get stuck in a long line of traffic, which Greg gets them out of with the aid of a flock of gulls. Greg apologizes to Susan, and motivates them to never give up on the birthday party. While taking a back road, they eventually find the Beardos' van at another motel where they get their belongings back, Greg escapes Mr. Beardo in the shower, and Mr. Beardo falls into a dumpster and becomes the new Diaper Hands himself. After reaching their destination, the Heffleys happily celebrate Meemaw's birthday with their other relatives. After the party, the car breaks down again as they drive back home. A tow truck driver stops by, but he only speaks Spanish. Manny tells the driver they need a lift in Spanish. Manny guides the driver to the petting zoo where he reunites with the pig. In the end, Frank is allowed time off from work to spend with his family, and Rodrick got money to repair his van. Greg says that while this vacation was far from perfect, it was certainly eventful and expresses excitement for where they'll be going next year, but Susan steps in to say they will be flying.
Cast
- Jason Drucker as Greg Heffley
- Alicia Silverstone as Susan Heffley
- Tom Everett Scott as Frank Heffley
- Charlie Wright as Rodrick Heffley
- Owen Asztalos as Rowley Jefferson
- Dylan and Wyatt Walters as Manny Heffley
- Joshua Hoover as Mac Digby
- Christopher A. Coppola as Mr. Beardo
- Kimberli Lincoln as Mrs. Beardo
- Mira Silverman as Brandi Beardo
- Mimi Gould as Meemaw
The series' author, Jeff Kinney, makes his third cameo role, this time as a booth owner in the Player Expo.
