Diario de Greg: Carretera y manta

10/13.17. I enjoyed the first 3 Wimpy Kid movies and I was a bit unsure that an entire cast change could continue the series. But, surprisingly enough it did fine. It's a cross-country road trip movie with the Heffley family as they travel to Meemaw's 90th birthday party. The humor was funny and it does touch on modern-day issues like can't we all just spend time together as a family without devices? Silverstone did a great job as mom, and Scott was surprisingly good as the put-upon dad. Enjoyable, despite the total cast change.

I had high hopes for this film, until I saw it. This movie could have been like the previous films that where okay and kinda good, but at everything they did right in the previous films they did wrong with this one. The problem is the movie feels rushed and trying to move to the next joke, the jokes are unfunny and childish. Not only are the jokes childish but the acting is the worst I have ever seen. Not only that but the characters are complete idiots and feel unreal, in past films they felt real and relatable. Unlike this one the movie tries to relate to the audience with references of "Mad Max" and Markiplier but fail to do so. Overall it was a big disappointment, I give it a 4/10.

Even I have to laugh at the #notmyrodrick uproar. It's the silver lining in all of this. "The Long Haul" is atrocious, a dumbed-down sequel that tosses out the series' charms for the cheap gags. It's got DTV written all over it, which does not do the book justice. And it was a great book!

It was about six months ago that we saw the trailer for this in the theater. Tom Everett Scott and Alicia Silverstone start jamming to The Spice Girls' "Wannabe", and a kid in the back of the theater asks, "Mommy, what are they saying?".

That moment was funnier than anything in the movie.

3/10

Greg Heffley (Jason Drucker) is looking forward to a long summer of just hanging out, but his mother forces the entire family to take a road trip for a relative's birthday celebration.

Wimpy Kid veteran David Bowers directs a briskly paced family comedy in the vein of National Lampoon's (only a version for a younger audience). The cast include the familiar faces of actors Alicia Silverstone and Tom Everett Scott who are accompanied by some fresh faced new comers who play Wimpy Kid favourites Greg, Rodrick and Rowley. The players are forgivably not as settled into their roles quite yet but nonetheless are entertaining. Some editing aside Bowers offers a well made good looking film. Long Haul is a road trip where almost every outlandish gag is borrowed from another comedy but it's put together well enough to get pleasure from. It also amusingly touches on the over reliance of technology within a family.

If your child is a fan of the Wimpy Kid series, they'll no doubt enjoy this one, it's entertaining and lowbrow enough to also appease the moodiest of teens and grumpiest adults.

My son, who is 7 years-old, and I laughed several times during this movie. After I got over the "getting used to the new actors playing the characters" feeling, it was very enjoyable. I think I missed Rowley the most-I loved the first Rowley! We would definitely pay to go see another movie in this series with these actors. It's a good family movie and a series my son has recently discovered and really enjoys reading!