DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE LONG HAUL (David Bowers). 91 minutes. Opens Friday (May 19). See listing. Rating: N

The first Diary Of A Wimpy Kid movies brought a sweetness and maturity to their tales of preteen awkwardness, but that’s long gone in The Long Haul. The latest in the franchise, with a completely new cast, is all slapstick buffoonery and potty humour: a baby pig craps in a minivan, the minivan goes barrelling off the road, one guy’s puke accidentally becomes another’s meal and so on.

The previous movies featured similar gags but never let them overwhelm the plot or characters. But director David Bowers, who steered the last two outings, here has lesser material to work with. He’s adapting the ninth book in Jeff Kinney’s series, which sees Greg (Jason Drucker) and Rodrick Heffley (Charlie Wright) plucked from their social scenes and caravanned across the U.S.

The entire appeal of a Wimpy Kid movie is in seeing that kid play off against those who aren’t so wimpy. Here Greg just butts heads against a no-screens policy enforced by Mom (Alicia Silverstone) while an antagonist lout dubbed Beardo (Chris Coppola) pursues him as if he wants to eat him. It’s weird.

It also doesn’t help that the new Greg and Rodrick can’t muster a fraction of the charisma and chemistry that Zachary Gordon and the wily Devon Bostick shared. Fans especially soured by Bostick’s replacement have generated a #NotMyRodrick meme that’s pretty on point.