Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (film)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul is a 2017 American live-action/animated road comedy film written and directed by David Bowers and co-written by the books' author Jeff Kinney. It serves as a soft reboot and sequel to 2012's Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, the fourth installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series and the final film to be live-action in the franchise. The film was based on the ninth book The Long Haul, with elements of seventh, eighth, and tenth books in the series. It is also the first installment in the series 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. Starring Jason Drucker, Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott, Charlie Wright, and Owen Asztalos, it follows the Heffleys into a road trip to Meemaw's 90th birthday, without imagining the disastrous confusion that will occur on this vacation.

After the release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days in 2012, the film was described as the last live-action film in the franchise, with the original cast and crew indicated that were no plans for a fourth film. By 2016, a live-action adaptation of the ninth book, The Long Haul, was in development, with a completely new cast playing the Heffleys. However, the announcement of the new cast drew a negative response from fans of the previous films, in particular, the hashtag #NotMyRodrick became trending on social media when the trailer was released in February 2017. 20th Century Fox theatrically released Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul on May 19, and it grossed $40 million worldwide on a $22 million production budget. The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus calls it "largely unfunny".

It is 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 = Dining out at the restaurant Corny's, Susan announces the Heffley family plan for a road trip to attend her grandmother Meemaw's 90th birthday party, much the boys' dismay. Greg then is sent to rescue Manny from inside a tube in the play area. He ends up in a ball pit with a diaper stuck to his hand and freaking out while searching for Manny. He subsequently becomes infamous when the footage was posted on the Internet, becoming the embarrassing meme "Diaper Hands".

Later, Greg learns Player Expo is taking place not far from Meemaw's in Indianapolis. His favorite Internet star, Mac Digby, will be attending. He hopes to meet him, be on one of his videos to have the Diaper Hands meme forgotten. He plans to sneak off from the road trip and secretly go to the Expo. As soon as they start off, everyone's devices are immediately confiscated by Susan, so the road trip is "absolutely technology-free".

That night, at a motel, Greg secretly gets his phone from the car. Later, while he and Rodrick are relaxing in a hot tub, Rodrick uncovers his plans to go to Player Expo. Later that night, Greg investigates a loud noise: a couple of kids repeatedly slamming a wheeled cart into a wall, belonging to a family which he dubs "the Beardos" due to their dad's beard. Scolding them for making a racket, Greg threatens to have them thrown out. Their dad comes out, and nearly gets hit by the cart his daughter rolls at Greg, but misses and damages Mr. Beardo's van. She blames Greg, telling her dad that he also called him a "Fat Beardo." He escapes, but Mr. Beardo then is obsessed to get revenge.

On the road, the Heffleys attend a fair where Manny wins a piglet. Mr. Beardo, also there with his family, sees Greg and begins chasing him. The next day, a work call and the craziness of the pig leads to the family nearly crashing their car on a bridge, and they donate the pig to a petting zoo, to Manny's dismay, while Greg reroutes the GPS to Player Expo. In the hotel room, Greg and Rodrick leave a note telling their parents they're buying a gift for Meemaw, but sneak out to Player Expo. Thnking they are missing, Susan calls the police, but gets them herself after seeing them on TV.

Seeing Mac Digby in a video game competition Greg asks Rodrick to record him on the stage behind him, but he accidentally knocks out the power to Mac's screen and his mom arrives, telling everyone he is Diaper Hands. She opens up saying all she wanted was a nice road trip to bring them closer together, and accuses him of not caring. However, Mac cannot believe that Greg is Diaper Hands and reveals it to the crowd, humiliating Greg in the process. Greg points out that she doesn't care about his interests, which is why he snuck out to the Player Expo. Giving up, she allows him to play on her phone.

Back on the road, the tarp on their motorboat blows open and their belongings fall out. The Beardos then show up and begin stealing them as "payback", including the suitcase with the family memory book for Meemaw, causing Susan to break down in tears.

The Heffleys chase them, but get stuck in a traffic jam, which they get out of by taking a back road. They come across the Beardos' van at another motel and steal their belongings back. The Heffleys manage to reach Meemaw's birthday celebration with Greg in the boat with it disattached to the car. After the party, the car is still broken down on the drive home. A tow truck driver stops by who only speaks Spanish. Luckily, Manny can speak to him thanks to the Spanish language CD they heard earlier in the trip. He guides them to the petting zoo and he collects the pig.

In Greg's ending monologue, Frank gets time off from work to spend with his family, and Rodrick gets money to repair his van. While the vacation was far hardly perfect, it was eventful and he's excited for next year. His mom steps in to say they will be flying.

In a mid-credit scene, two teenage girls ask for selfies with Greg, as they recognize him as "diaper hands", much to Rodrick's envy

= 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
 * Nathaniel Dickson as Brandon Beardo
 * Jake Strerner as Brent Beardo

The series' author, Jeff Kinney, makes his third cameo role, this time as a booth owner at the Player Expo.

Development
In 2012, the series' third entry, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days was described as the last live action film in the franchise. In August 2012, while doing press for the film, author Jeff Kinney and actors Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron each indicated that there were no plans for a fourth movie, but did not dismiss the possibility entirely.

Kinney replied to inquiries regarding the possibility of another sequel, stating, "At present, we don't have a fourth film in development, but you never know!" When describing the likelihood of starring in another film in the series, Gordon explained, "Dog Days most likely will be the last movie. The main problem is [the cast] is getting older. You can't stop it. There's no way to temporarily stop us from changing and growing up. You know, that's the problem because the characters are supposed to be timeless."

In March 2013, Gordon stated in a Spreecast live stream that there would not be a fourth live action film. Previously, Kinney had indicated that instead of making a live action film, he would like to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever adapted into an animated film, stating in an interview, "I hope that it gets made into an animated movie. but I'd really like to see it turn into an animated television special."

In 2016, it was announced that a live-action film adaptation of the ninth book The Long Haul was in development, and would be featuring a completely new cast playing the Heffleys.

Lucas Cruikshank, best known for creating the YouTube series Fred, originally auditioned for the role of Mac Digby. However, he didn't read the script and had no idea of the role he was auditioning for outside of the fact that it was a YouTube role. Coincidently, Cruikshank previously auditioned for the role of Greg Heffley back in the first film.

Theatrical
The film was released on May 17, 2017, in the Philippines, two days later on May 19 in the United States, and one day later on May 20 in the United Kingdom.

Home media
The film was released on Digital HD from Amazon Video and iTunes on August 1, 2017, and on Blu-ray and DVD on August 8, 2017, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It grossed $2.6 million in home video sales.

Box office
The film grossed $20.7 million in the United States and Canada and $19.3 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $40.1 million, against a production budget of $22 million. It was the lowest-grossing film of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by a wide margin.

In North America, the film was initially projected to gross around $12 million from 3,129 theaters during its opening weekend. However, after grossing $2 million on its first day, projections were lowered to $7 million. It ended up finishing with $7.1 million, placing 6th at the box office and marking the lowest opening of the franchise by a wide margin.

When the film was released in the United Kingdom, it opened on #2, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales with £1,444,092.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 17% based on 72 reviews and an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With an all-new cast but the same juvenile humor, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul finds the franchise still stuck in arrested – and largely unfunny – development." On Metacritic, it has a score of 39 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, down from the first three films' "A-".

Dennis Harvey of Variety was more positive, calling the film "an amiable, fast-paced entry that should win over fans." Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club called the film "repetitive and uninspired". Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com criticized it, saying it "Jettisons everything that’s honest and worthwhile about the books in favor of hackneyed misadventures and gross-out scatological humor." Jody Mitori of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave The Long Haul two stars out of four and commented on its increase of gross-out humor compared to the book version and previous films.