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Greg (Zachary Gordon) is at odds with his older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick), a relentless bully who joyfully torments him at every turn. When tensions between the two brothers reach an all-time high, they are forced to spend time together as punishment. Will Greg and Rodrick manage to find common ground?

The film was followed by Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, released a year later in 2012.

The film version of Rodrick Rules provides examples of:

• Accidental Good Outcome: At the talent show, Rodrick's band Löded Diper plays a song called "Exploded Diaper" and no one appears to be interested until Susan starts dancing in the background for the fun of it. The audience loves her moves and starts cheering, and the performance becomes a hit.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Rodrick's Wild Teen Party has much more depth in the film compared to the book it was adapted from.
    • In the book, Greg is locked in the basement all night until Rodrick needs help cleaning up from it the next morning. In the movie, Rodrick locks Greg in the basement, only for him to find a phone down there and call Rowley to come rescue him (to which Rodrick finds out and also locks him). When his parents call, Greg threatens to tell their parents about the secret party if Rodrick doesn't let him and Rowley out, so Rodrick lets them both out. Both Greg and Rowley attend the party, the latter actually becoming the life of it.
    • And in the aftermath of the party, their parents don't find out until they receive a picture accidentally taken at the party in the mail. In the movie, it's a little more complicated. Susan finds out earlier when a bathroom door they had to replace has no lock on it, which their father had questioned in the book, followed by Greg revealing bits and pieces of Rodrick inviting people over. However, their party is ultimately exposed when their parents go through the camera and see multiple pictures taken at it, leading to a massive commotion from the entire Heffley family (minus Manny). This actually makes Susan and Frank's punishment toward Greg much more understandable, as Greg did help Rodrick with setting up the party and joined him alongside inviting Rowley (not to mention lying to Susan about this being a "band rehearsal"), unlike the book where Susan and Frank assumed Greg was a part of it and wrongfully accuse him.
  • The magic act is performed by Rowley, with Greg as his last-minute assistant in the talent show, unlike the book where Greg (standing in for Rowley) and Scotty don't even qualify. Even better, the audience reception (with the exception of Patty Farrell, obviously) was overwhelmingly positive.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • In the book, Greg uses the "Invisible Chirag" prank on him for no reason other than to haze him For the Evulz. Here, Chirag antagonizes Greg for his lack of progress in impressing Holly, which leads to Greg's "Invisible Chirag" prank. As a matter of fact, the rivalry between Greg and Chirag in the film intensifies to the point where the prank ends with Chirag going as far as to disguise himself as Holly and lure Greg into a Circle of Shame.
  • Bill Walter. In the books, he's merely annoying, and the worst he does is make Rodrick's parents fear that their son might take after him. Here, he's more of a prick and drops Rodrick from the band the moment keeping him becomes inconvenient.
• Adaptational Karma: Zig-Zagged. In the original book, when Susan and Frank found out about Rodrick's Wild Teen Party, they punished both him and Greg, even though the latter had nothing to do with it. In the film, since Greg did help Rodrick with setting up the party and joined him alongside inviting Rowley as well as taking the pictures, his punishment is more rightful.
• Alliterative Name: When Greg and Rowley finish their magic act near the end of the film, they call each other "the Remarkable Rowley" and "Greg the Great".
• Awkward Poetry Reading: Greg reads a poem Rodrick made about what life was like a hundred years ago. As he speaks, there are illustrations in the background describing the historical inaccuracies (such as deserts being full of snow and giant spiders roaming the planet). This gets him laughed at by his classmates and an F. His book counterpart was slightly smarter and actually read the poem on the bus before deciding not to hand it in.
• Bird-Poop Gag: Patty gets pooped on by Rowley's bird after she criticizes his and Greg's magic act.
• Bridal Carry: During the film's opening scene, Greg's dad has to do this to him while in the middle of a roller-skating rink.
• Broken Pedestal: Rodrick is ecstatic to get Bill Walter into his band, especially in preparation for the talent show. As proven by Frank, Bill is nothing more than a jerkass who kicks Rodrick out of his own band — leading Rodrick himself to kick Bill out when he is reinstated.
• Climax Boss: The peak of Greg and Rodrick's bonding has them running away from Coach Malone after mistakenly pulling a prank on him. However, the following scene has everything fall apart between Greg and Rodrick's friendship when their forbidden Wild Teen Party is exposed.
• A Day in the Limelight: Like the book it's named after, the movie focuses more on... well, Rodrick.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: When Rodrick cleans the house after a party, he sprinkles some pretzel crumbs on the carpet so the house's condition isn't suspiciously good.
• Foot in the Face: Rowley and Greg have a sleepover, and Greg puts on a horror movie called "The Foot", which is about a man and woman who spend a night in an abandoned mansion and encounter an evil, disembodied foot that hops around. At one point, when the woman is in bed, she discovers the foot is in bed with her, and it jumps on her face and sticks one of its toes in her nostril, causing her to scream in horror.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Rodrick's defense attempt after Susan grounds him is by telling his parents that Loded Diper is taking off now that Bill Walter is in the band; Frank isn't fazed, outright stating that "Bill's kind of a jerk." He is proven right when Bill abandons Rodrick in the talent show, enough for the latter to kick him out when he is reinstated.
  • Rowley attempts to show Greg his newfound interest in magic, even asking him to be his assistant in his Talent Show magic act — only for Greg to turn it down out of fear of embarrassing himself. When Scotty ditches Rowley in the Talent Show out of stage fright, guess who ends up replacing him in the act?
  • Holly Hills outright mentions how much of a jerkass her sister Heather is when she bonds with Greg at the retirement home. Boy, was she right when Heather is introduced in the next movie.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: During The Stinger, when Greg and Rowley are checking out their YouTube video, you can see that while the video only got 4 views, it received 24,963 comments.
• Gassy Gastronomy: In a deleted scene, Susan asks her son Greg if he drank all the soda. He burps while trying to say no.
• Generation Xerox: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment during the corn dog scene shows three kids similar to Greg, Rowley and Fregley sitting on the cafeteria floor like they did in the first movie.
• Gross Gum Gag: At the start of the movie, Fregley offers some pizza to Greg and Rowley, but they don't know until after they start eating it that it was used pizza found on the floor. Greg suddenly finds a used wad of gum in his mouth, which Fregley takes off of him and sticks behind his ear, saying he'll keep it for later.
• Grossout Fakeout: Greg goes to church, having sat on a candy bar. A little girl (the same one that got her birthday cake accidentally ruined by Greg at the roller rink at the beginning of the film) notices the stain and exclaims, "Poop! He's pooped his pants!".
• Humiliation Conga: Greg suffers one at the beginning of the movie, which finishes with him falling into a cake and subsequently getting beaten up by the irate birthday girl and her friends.
• Implausible Deniability:
  Frank: (displaying a photo of Rodrick's party on the TV screen) Rodrick, can you explain what you're doing in this photo?
  Rodrick: That's not me.
  Frank: (lowers eyes) That's not you?
  (Beat)
  Rodrick: (averts eyes) Nope.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Greg and Rowley get a successful viral video out of Susan and Löded Diper, "Lame Band with Crazy Mom Dancing!" Rodrick is enraged.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Chirag Gupta is actually the one who gets the last laugh in Greg's "invisible Chirag" prank by tricking Greg into acknowledging him by pretending to have Holly want to meet Greg, only for it to be Chirag dressed like Holly instead. The result is Greg losing the little game as Chirag celebrates and the nearby Circle of Shame laughs at him.
  • Patty Farrell actually gets her comeuppance when she is pooped on by Rowley's bird after all those years antagonizing Greg, most recently unnecessarily criticizing his magic performance.
  • Bill Walter gets a taste of his own medicine when a reinstated Rodrick kicks him out of Loded Diper after Walter himself initially abandons Rodrick in the talent show. And Rodrick echoes it back word-for-word.
    Rodrick: Hey, Bill! Know what? When we're done tonight, you're out of the band!
    Bill: What?
    Rodrick: That's Rock n' Roll, bro!
• Left in the Storm: When Susan Heffley gets a call from the PTA, she asks Greg to pick up the phone and tell them that she's not here. However, since Greg promised Susan he wouldn't lie under any circumstances, he makes Susan stand outside during a storm before telling the PTA that Susan isn't in the house.
• Oh, Crap!: Greg and Rowley at the end of the movie when Rodrick finds out that they uploaded his talent show performance to YouTube with Susan dancing on stage.
• Outfit Decoy:
  • Chirag completely fools Greg by dressing up as Holly with a wig, girls' clothing, and props to match the height and skin color. For extra measure, he wins the "Invisible Chirag" prank in the process.
  • To trick Coach Malone, who is chasing Greg and Rodrick, they put their hoodies on a clothes stand in the mall. Sure enough, Malone sees the hoodies from behind and tackles them to the ground, only to find that they're mannequins.
• Prank Gone Too Far: During their night of bonding, Greg and Rodrick pull pranks on unsuspecting people with fake vomit on their car trunks. One of their pranks ends up being on Coach Malone, who chases them into a mall. They escape by tricking him at Plainview Mall and placing their jackets onto mannequins.
• Properly Paranoid: While Frank sounded unsmympathetic when telling Rodrick that Bill's "kind of a jerk" when grounding him, he's proven right when the latter kicks the former out of his own band.
• "Pulling Out Scarves" Trick: Rowley's magic act involves him pulling a scarf out of his mouth.
• Race to Clean Up: Rodrick and Greg clean up the house after the Wild Teen Party they throw. They have to prevent the couch from getting hit by a lawn sprinkler, kicking out sleeping party guests, etc. They still get caught afterwards when it's revealed that photos of the party were taken.
• The Reveal: There is a scene where, prior to the Heffleys going to church, Manny calls out "poopy" to Greg, revealing a chocolate stain on Greg's pants as a result of a smooshed Snickers bar placed under him. Greg immediately accuses Manny (understandably so), but then the next shot reveals Rodrick putting the wrapper in his pocket with a smug smile to complement it.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Terence, a character from the horror film The Foot is shown to do this when he sees the titular disembodied foot.
• Shout-Out: Patty sings "Memory" as her talent show act.
• Something Else Also Rises: When he meets Greg at the roller rink, Rowley is holding a magician’s wand. Later, when Holly Hills introduces herself to him and Greg, flowers suddenly pop out of his wand.
• Title Drop: A non-verbal one; when Greg and Rodrick scramble to clean up the house before their parents get home, they discover to their mutual horror that one of Rodrick's friends has scribbled "Rodrick Rules" on the Heffleys' bathroom door.
• Too Dumb to Live: Inverted. Despite the obviously fake prosthetic legs, the large cartoonish cardboard saw and the fact that this is easily one of the most famously "exposed" tricks in the entire history of magic, Greg genuinely thinks during Rowley's "Saw the Lady In Half" trick that Rowley is going to try to saw him in half and ends up breaking the box trying to wriggle out of it. And apparently, Rowley’s rehearsal with Scotty went much worse. The audience still applauds them.
• Unconventional Food Usage: Rodrick puts a chocolate bar on Greg's car seat to make it look like he crapped his pants (in The Last Straw, the book the scene was adapted from, Greg sat on it by accident).
• Wham Shot: This whole gem.
  A photo shows Rodrick's party on the TV. Frank grimaces.
  Frank: Rodrick, can you explain what you're doing in this photo?
  Rodrick: That's not me.
  Frank: That's not you?
  Rodrick: Nope.
  Frank: Okay. How 'bout these?
  Frank flips through more photos, exposing the party. Susan looks shocked, Greg and Rodrick's eyes widen.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Chirag dresses up as Holly to play a prank on Greg.
• Wrong Bathroom Incident: Greg steals his diary back from Rodrick in Leisure Towers and hides in the first bathroom he comes across so he can rip out the pages. He sees a woman's legs in the stall next to him and realizes he's in the wrong bathroom. He is then mistaken for a "peeping tom" and the very angry old ladies start to attack him until he swaps himself with one of the other women and sneaks out.