Do you remember that movie which showed someone having a positive experience in middle or high school? Yeh, me neither. I know that I've said in the past that there can't be drama without drama but what is it with filmmakers' obsession with showing school as being a hellish place? Is everyone in the movie industry someone who was picked on in school? Did none of them enjoy high school? The latest movie to demonize higher education is Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid opens by introducing us to Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon), a very average kid who is about to start middle school. He's determined to make this new experience a positive one and he has grand plans to be popular and to be prominently featured in the yearbook. In order to do this, he feels that he must distance himself from his lifelong best friend, Rowley Jefferson (Robert Capron), a simple and goofy kid who enjoys being himself. Greg must also contend with the snotty Patty Ferrell (Laine MacNeil), who has been his nemesis since kindergarten. On the first day of school, Greg and Rowley meet the enigmatic Angie (Chloe Moretz), who tries to offer Greg advice, but he's set on seeing his plan through. Yet, Greg quickly learns that the best laid plans can't get one safely through middle school, as he must contend with his demented older brother (Devon Bostick), bullies, and a scary piece of cheese.

I have two children who are avid readers, so I'm always in the kids section of the local bookstore and I've seen the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for years, but didn't know anything about the story until I watched this movie. First of all, as far as the movie is concerned, the title is sort of misleading. Greg isn't so much "wimpy" as he's goofy and unsure. To me, "wimpy" implies scared and puny, and he doesn't really meet that criteria, save for the wrestling scene. Actually, the best words to describe Greg are self-centered and jerk. I don't know if this was the film's intention, but Greg almost comes off as the villain of the piece. Determined to become popular, he's mean to Rowdy (who's never hurt anyone) and tries to use others to get what he wants. The movie is clearly trying to teach a lesson about the lengths that people will go to achieve their goals, but having the main character become more and more unlikable was a mistake. By the mid-point in the film, I didn't care what happened to Greg and I hoped that he got what he deserved.

Other than that, the main problem with Diary of a Wimpy Kid is that it never finds an even tone. (Again, I haven't read the books, so I don't know if they share this issue.) Part of the film seems to want to be a nostalgic look at childhood, but in a modern scope. The Halloween scene, with the exhaustive planning of the candy route comes closest to achieving this. But, so much of the film is exaggerated and blown out of proportion that it's difficult to take the ostensibly warm-hearted scenes seriously. There's also a notable mean-streak to the movie. As noted above, Greg comes off as a ego-maniac and the scenes involving Rodrick's torture of Greg go from funny to somewhat unsettling rather quickly. The biggest unbalance comes from Greg's experiences at school. Again, the movie portrays middle school as hell and despite Greg's best efforts to fit in, he's always doing the wrong thing. When will filmmakers learn that this sort of thing wears on the viewer and we need a little positive to go with the negative. The movie also makes a mistake by telling us next to nothing about Greg's family.

Given the success of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and the relative popularity of the movie (a sequel is in the works), I must assume that someone likes Greg's adventures. And, it's clear that somewhere in Diary of a Wimpy Kid lies a good movie. There's nothing wrong with lampooning how bizarre middle school can be at times, but this movie doesn't know when to pull back. I laughed a few times, but I was mostly in awe at how Greg kept digging his own grave and how the film seemed to be daring us to like him. Don't bother picking the lock to check out this diary.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid makes an awfully big deal out of dirty cheese on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 35 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only a hint of grain. There are no defects from the source material. However, the image is notably soft at times, something which is unusual for a brand-new movie. The colors look very good, and the image is never too dark or bright. The level of detail is fairly good. The Disc offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5. 1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good, as they show nice separation and illustrate off-screen sounds. The surround effects really come into play during the PE scene and the Halloween chase. The subwoofer effects are limited, but do punctuate some key scenes.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY with Director Thor Freudenthal and Writer Gabe Sachs. "Deleted Diary Pages" are ten brief interstitials which show various characters from the film sharing their thoughts on school and life. Were these original made for a website? Some of these actually look like deleted scenes. The final extra is the THEATRICAL TRAILER for the film.