Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth is a 2013 film released by 20th Century Fox and Fox 2000 Pictures on October 22, 2013, directed by series creator, Jeff Kinney and Produced by Robert Stainton, known for creating Greeny Phatom, it is based off the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series and is based off the fifth and sixth book.

Act 1: The Ugly Truth
The story begins with Greg explaining that since he and his best friend Rowley have had a big fight, their friendship has been "history".

Susan Heffley, Greg's mother, announces that she will be going back to college for a few months in order to stimulate her mind. As a result, the Heffley men must take care of themselves, and most stability falls apart. Food is often ruined, and since Susan usually does the chores around the house, Greg is left with little clean clothes to wear.

Greg is also given the responsibility of waking himself up. He tries a better alarm clock than his older one, which didn't work, a wind-up clock. He put it under his bed so he would have to get out of bed to find it. But with the clock ticking loudly under his bed, he feels like he is on top of a bomb and therefore gets no sleep. As a result, Greg accidentally sets off the fire alarm at school in his sleep-deprived state. The entire school has to evacuate, and the fire brigade is called. After everyone goes back in, the head teacher says that whoever set off the alarm will be suspended and should turn themselves in. Greg does not get caught, but a rumor goes around that the fire alarm squirts out an invisible liquid when you pull the handle and the teachers could detect it with a special wand. Then everyone thinks that the teachers used this as a trick to see which kid goes to wash his hands first. No one goes to wash their hands, and since it is the middle of flu season, the school has to close early. Susan then announces to the family that they will get a maid named Isabella, since both parents are busy, who will help take care of the kids after school. However, instead of doing her responsibilities, such as doing the laundry, Isabella spends her time watching T.V. and eating the Heffleys' snacks, leaving Greg and the rest of the family with extra work.

Meanwhile, Greg gets ready for his annual dentist appointment, but Frank takes Greg to his dentist because he thinks Greg is too old for his usual dentist. Greg bites on the dentist's finger, making Greg wear headgear. The next day, Greg lost his headgear. After school, Greg finds Manny wearing it.

Later, Greg finds out that the school is having a "lock-in" for Saturday night, in which participants would sleep over and spend time doing activities. Greg signs up, but when he arrives, he is surprised that Rowley is also there as well. During the night, however, angry parents arrive at the school, because the kids weren't able to answer their cell phones, since one chaperone named Mr. Tanner took them away, making the parents worried. As a result, most of the kids go home early, leaving only Greg and Rowley.

The following week, Greg becomes sick because he couldn't get any sleep at the Lock-In. Susan leaves him with Isabella. Greg later falls asleep and wakes up because of noise coming from downstairs and looks out his window to see cars parked in front of the house. Susan comes home to take care of Greg and finds out Isabella invited all the maids in the neighborhood to watch soap operas. Susan fires Isabella afterward. The next day, Greg sees Rowley with a zit on his forehead and he tells Greg that his mom says he's becoming a man, in which irks Greg. Afterwards, Greg finds out he is growing slower than Rowley. At home, Susan and Frank talk about being late bloomers. The next day, Rowley shows off his zit to some girls, which Greg thinks is dumb so he writes a fake note to Rowley signed "The Girls" about no one liking his zit which works. Later, Greg and Rowley are invited to a party by an older kid named Jordan Jury. Greg is excited because there are going to be girls there. After Greg tells Susan about Jordan's party, she forbids him from going because Gary Heffley (also known as Uncle Gary) is having a fourth wedding the same day. Greg calls Rowley because he can't go to the party and asks if Rowley won't go without him, but Rowley still wants to go. Greg is worried about being the reader of the Old Testament because adults think it's cute when a kid can't pronounce a word.

On Saturday the Heffleys prepare for the wedding and Greg is nervous about getting "The Talk" from Gammie. Meanwhile, in the car, Susan calls Gammie about being late because they have to pick up Greg's tuxedo. Greg is thrilled because he thinks he's going to be a groomsman. After they arrive at Gammie's, Greg meets multiple family members including Uncle Gary and his fiancee Sonja. Later that evening, Greg has to sleep in a crowded room in a group called "The Bachelors" which include Rodrick, Manny, Uncle Gary, Benjy Heffley, Charlie Heffley (also known as Uncle Charlie), Terrance Heffley, and Arthur Heffley. Greg sneaks out and sleeps in the bathroom.

The day before the wedding, Greg complains about no entertainment at Gammie's, and how old and valuable her belongings are. The year before, Greg ate some old taffy and got sick. Then he finds a photo of his father, Frank eating it when he was a kid. Later Greg finds out during the wedding rehearsal, he was going to be assistant flower boy to Manny, and not a groomsman. On the day of the wedding, after the ceremony, the Heffleys go into the hall where food was getting served and Uncle Gary's best man Leonard gave a toast of how Uncle Gary and Sonja got engaged. When Gary and Sonja went to a baseball game, Gary was about to break up with Sonja so he could date her sister. But then an airplane with a banner reading "Marry me Sonja?" coincidently flew over the stadium and Sonja reacted to it. Sonja is upset after hearing that and Greg thinks they will divorce soon.

After the wedding, Greg realizes that it's ultimately a good thing he didn't go to Jordan's party because it turns out that the only reason he invited kids from Greg and Rowley's grade was to basically use them as servants. Greg and Rowley ultimately go back to being friends again when Greg chooses to make the first move in patching things instead of just waiting for Rowley to come to him.

Act 2: Cabin Fever
The story starts before Christmas, and Greg wants to behave well to get really good gifts for the holiday. In addition, his mother obtains a doll which she calls "Santa's Scout" that is meant to keep track of how he behaves and make his behavior better. Greg is afraid of this doll because his brother makes fun of him using it.

Greg starts playing a game called "Net Kritterz" that is based on treating a virtual pet and requires paid features. Susan doesn't want to give Greg money for that purpose so he has to earn money on his own. Greg tries some bad ideas for getting money until he finds out that he can buy "Drummies", tasty fried chicken snacks that are sold in his school's holiday bazaar, for less than his school sells them for, so he decides to start his own holiday bazaar and invites his best friend Rowley to do it with him. They first try to build a cardboard home-made version of Pac-Man, but their plan fails as the cardboard of the game falls apart. They then realize they need to advertise their bazaar and they try to ask the local newspaper to do it. However, they find out that this is very expensive, so they try to establish their own newspaper. Their newspaper doesn't succeed, so they decide to hang up posters that advertise their bazaar in their town, starting with the school, but rain causes all the ink to bleed on the school's walls, leaving multicolored stains that won't come off. The school administrators and police start looking for the cause of the "vandalism": they ask the whole student body to tell them who did it anonymously. Rowley leaves a note at the principles desk anonymously saying "Me and Greg Heffley vandalised the school" (due to Rowley's naivety and stupidity) so the only one who gets in trouble is Greg. As a punishment, the principal makes Greg clean the walls, which takes him two hours.

A sudden blizzard hits their town so all of Greg's family have to stay home, except for his father who can't return home from work, so he stays in a hotel near the highway. The electricity goes off and his family becomes extremely cold. After several days of no power, Rowley comes and tells Greg that everyone else in their street has electricity, so Greg checks the power box. Greg realizes that the power is shut down in all of the rooms except for Manny's room. Greg finds Manny living luxuriously in his room surrounded by food, warmth, and toys without notifying his family because, as Manny claims, nobody taught him how to tie his shoes. Susan switches the power back on, and the blizzard soon ends, but Manny escapes punishment, to Greg's dismay. Greg's father returns home with food.

Afterwards, Christmas comes and Greg looks for the gift for which he asked in the giving tree of his church by shoveling all the snow near the church. This results in an article in the local newspaper praising him for helping residents by shoveling off all the snow.

Sequel
A Sequel was released by 20th Century Fox and Fox 2000 Pictures on July 15, 2014, named Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, based off the seventh and eighth books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.