Mr. Woodcock

"Mr. Woodcock" is one of those movies that sounds great on paper, but which loses something on its way to the big screen.

Jasper Woodcock is a sadistic high school PE teacher who, through the course of his career, has made life a veritable hell for most of the boys enrolled in his class. One of his students, an overweight kid by the name of John Farley, grows up to write a best-selling self-help book about letting go of one's past as a means of embracing one's future. When John returns to his small town Nebraska home for a visit, he's mortified to discover that this very same Mr. Woodcock has become his widowed mother's new boyfriend. Farley spends the rest of the movie doing everything he can think of to sabotage the romance, systematically violating all the precepts in the book that has made him so famous.

With few exceptions, "Mr. Woodcock" fails to exploit the black comedy potential of its material, settling for homogenized, crowd-pleasing pablum instead. That's not to say that there aren't some occasionally amusing moments in the film, only that they are too few and far between to turn the film into anything more than, at best, an average Hollywood comedy. Billy Bob Thornton, Susan Sarandon and Seann William Scott (Stifler in the "American Pie" movies) have all proved their talent and likability many times in the past, but they aren't allowed to go much beyond one-note performances in this film. However, it's nice to see veteran character actor Bill Macy ("Maude") again, very funny in his one scene as Woodcock's obnoxiously overbearing father.

"Take a lap!" "Set of 10!"

With a name like W-o-o-d-c-o-c-k (roll it off your tongue slowly for maximum effect), you'd have expect the jokes to come fast and furious about the appendage. Well there are, however, the best parts of Mr Woodcock are not the sexual innuendos, but come from the various gymnasium scenes, where Jasper Woodcock (Billy Bob Thorton) the PE teacher runs his classes like a sadistic drill sergeant, and all the misfits tremble in fear and loathe as he puts them through the paces, with physical, mental and emotional abuse dished out in deadpan manner. The filmmakers know this, and set the bar high enough from the get go, but only for the movie to spiral in the general southwards direction.

Thirteen years after his unforgettable years of growing up under Mr Woodcock's insults, John Farley (Seann William Scott) becomes a renowned self help guru and published a bestseller called "Letting Go: How to Get Past Your Past", because it takes one successful loser to teach the rest how to move on. During a journey back home where you're hit with a barrage of literally corny jokes, John realizes to his horror that his mother Beverly (Susan Sarandon) is now dating Mr Woodcock, and he makes it his mission to dissuade her from giving him a new stepdad, one who has been the bane of his childhood.

That basically becomes the premise of the movie, and a highly predictable one at that. You'll see from a mile away every conceivable plot development coming toward you, and it doesn't help that the short run time of under 90 minutes probably meant some material were reserved for the DVD release. You can tell by some of the continuity errors, helped in no part by John's bad haircut episode.

Billy Bob Thorton owns the movie as Woodcock, delivery his deliciously acidic remarks with aplomb. Alpha-male type roles are nothing new to Thorton, and bullying or whipping losers to shape are part of the game, just like School for Scoundrels. And here he plays the unapologetic teacher with EQ problems, taking perverse delight in seeing his charges suffer. Sean William Scott is better known unfortunately for his loud and over the top Stifler from the American Pie movies, but given a rather muted character like John Farley, he fades away quicker than you can spell l-o-s-e-r. Susan Sarandon rounds up the lead cast as the woman caught between two men, and frankly I thought it was like an extension of her mother's role in Elizabethtown. Look out for more Sarandon in an upcoming movie called Enchanted, which takes the mickey out of a Disney movie. Most of the other supporting cast like Amy Poehler and Ethan Suplee got wasted, with the former being a self-professed alcoholic Barbie doll, while the other a fanatic who had read John's book 900 times and counting.

Mr Woodcock isn't laugh out loud or laugh a minute, but it has its moments. Sadly, most of the best bits made their way to the trailers, making the movie seem like an empty shell. And given the editing fiasco of late, Mr Woodcock suffers from censorship too, with what I thought was just verbal expressions of ecstasy being snipped off and left on the cutting room floor. Pity.

I was pretty excited to see this movie because from what I saw it seemed really funny and I like Seann William Scott but I have to say I was sort of disappointed. Granted I went in expecting a funny stupid comedy but, it really wasn't all that funny. It seemed to me like they put all the funny scenes into the trailers and the rest of the movie was just filler. It's like they tried to be a really hilarious comedy but then towards the end they tried to take an emotional turn and by then I was pretty disappointed by the lack of hilarity that I didn't care anymore. And don't get me wrong, I did laugh, but I laughed at all the parts I had already seen in the trailers.

All in all, this movie wasn't a total failure, but I wouldn't bother watching it again.

I was so excited to see Mr. Woodcock today, saw the matinée this morning and I have to say that Mr. Woodcock lived up to my expectations. It was a great comedy to watch and had a lot of fun laughs. I think the reason why I love this film so much is because I could totally relate to it, in junior high I was the fat kid and had the teacher who must have been the partner of Satan, he was evil. I've changed quite a bit since then, but I still think of that teacher every once in a while. So this was just such a good comedy for everyone who has had to deal with a gym teacher like Mr. Woodcock. The actors seemed to really enjoy themselves, it was cool seeing Sean William Scott out of his normal idiotic roles and into something where he just was a normal guy, he did good. Billy Bob Thorton couldn't have been a more perfect choice, he was terrific. Together they really made the story work and was actually believable.

John Farley is a very successful author of the book "Letting Go", a book on how to let go of a rough past and rebuild your life. He comes back home to surprise his mom and get a special award for his work, but he finds out his mom is dating someone he knows. Mr. Woodcock, the evil junior high gym teacher that made John's life a living hell; and it looks like Mr. Woodcock has not changed his ways when he starts to treat "Farley" the same way he did when he was a kid. But it looks like they have to get comfortable with each other since Mr. Woodcock is marrying John's mom.

The cast looked like they just had a great time. I know this story was extremely predictable, but it was all in good fun. I loved seeing John's character just loose it as the story continued. There were some really great laughs in the film, the scene that got me was definitely the pot hole scene, I'm not going to spoil it, but I guarantee you for sure that you'll get a huge laugh once you see it. Mr. Woodcock is a fun comedy that I recommend, Billy Bob is just an awesome Mr. Woodcock, he really made the movie into a blast.

7/10

Like last year's School for Scoundrels, Woodcock is yet another movie in which Billy Bob Thornton plays a violent dick (no pun intended) and fails to be anywhere near as funny as he should be, thanks to a sloppy, almost laugh-less script. To make matters worse, he's not the only comedian whose considerable talents are wasted on this predictable mess; Ethan Suplee and Seann William Scott, two of the funniest men alive, have nearly nothing to do with their characters. Speaking of predictability, here's a cliché for you: Seen the trailer? Then you've seen the movie. Just about every truly funny part was crammed into the commercials.

I love Bad Santa and all, but it has really done more harm than good seeing as another Thornton-acts-like-a-sociopath-and-gets-away-with-it "comedy" gets released every year. He is an amazing actor and totally wasted on these forgettable carbon copies. I'm not denying that I laughed a couple of times ('cause let's face it, Thornton abusing kids is funny by default) but in the end Woodcock is just a half-baked comedy-drama which is neither hilarious nor touching.