Everyone but me seems to have read these Beverly Cleary chapter books (the first was published in 1955) as kids, or else they read them to their own kids, and they have fond, even Proustian, memories of Ramona and Beezus. My advice is to stay away from Elizabeth Allen's bland and banal adaptation, which plays like a contemporary Leave It to Beaver without irony or ingenuousness.
It's not a total waste — Joey King as nine-year-old imp Ramona isn't your standard Hollywood cutesy child, and she brings hoydenish panache to the part. Hyper and underachieving, Ramona's the kind of kid who today would be diagnosed with ADD, and she wants to outshine her lauded teenage sister Beezus (Selena Gomez).
Alas, she can't help causing unfunny disasters despite her good intentions. To the film's credit, there are no fart, poop, or pee gags (okay, some off-screen puking), but the self-satisfied ending is wearily predictable.
