Perfectly adorable

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

A different way of telling a story

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Well cast. Seann William Scott fans will like it. Doesn't bite off more than can chew. Sarandon and Thornton brilliant in otherwise light-weight movie. Thornton humanizes the main character. Some reviewers feel he underplays it, but I thought it a very good performance. Kinda miss movies like this that just are what they are...

I am sure that I saw clips and trailers for this film during the time it was playing at cinemas, I had a feeling it wasn't going to get the greatest of reviews from critics, and I was right, but because of the cast I went against their advice and watched it. Basically as a child John Farley (Seann William Scott) and all his other physical education students were almost tortured by the abusive and bully like behaviour of gym teacher Jasper Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), grown up John has become a successful self-help book author and is returning to his hometown in Nebraska to receive an award. Arriving home he is happy to hear that his widowed mother Beverly (Susan Sarandon) is dating again, but he is both shocked and angered when he finds out it is Mr. Woodcock, and it gets worse when they announce they are engaged to be married, so now the son is trying to think of ways to break them up. John becomes obsessed trying to beat Woodcock in a series of competitions, and trying to find evidence that Woodcock has been disloyal to his fiancée, and his behaviour is becoming so childish and over the top that he is pushing away his former classmate and love interest Tracy (Melissa Sagemiller). His friend Nedderman (Ethan Suplee) is the only one willing to help him end the relationship of his former gym teacher and his mother, as he agrees that the teacher was evil towards them as children, and they believe that they have found evidence of his having an affair in his former marriage, and currently cheating at the moment. At the same award ceremony he is attending, John is appalled to see Woodcock receiving "Educator of the Year" and being praised by all who know him, so John uses his acceptance speech as an excuse to explain why Woodcock is an "asshole", he presents what he thinks is evidence of an affair and cheating, but this is explained away. Beverly is appalled at both her son and fiancé's behaviour, especially when they challenge each other to a fight, she breaks up with Woodcock, John eventually reconciles with his mother in a heart to heart conversation, but Woodcock and he still want to have a proper fight with gloves, but after a few moments of this it ends when Woodcock suffers concussion, in hospital all are around to make peace with each other. In the end John realises that if you are to move on into the future you have to sometime relive the past, he accepts that Woodcock made him the man he is today in some respects, Woodcock and Beverly get married, and John writes a new self-help book called Backbone: The Definite Guide to Self Confidence. Also starring Amy Poehler as Maggie, Jacob Davich as Nedderman's Brother, Kyley Baldridge as Young Farley, Alec George as Young Nedderman, Lost's M.C. Gainey as Hal - Barber #1 and The Fighter's Melissa Leo as Sally Jansen. Scott has only a hint of his jock character in his role as the formerly chubby boy turned thin teacher hating author, Thornton is certainly a good choice as the sadistic seeming teacher who may be trying to be nice but you're not sure, and Sarandon hardly has anything to do, the plot is pretty straight forward, a guy with a grudge on his nasty teacher trying to ruin the relationship with him and his mother, there are not many overly funny moments, it is a slightly disappointing comedy. Okay!

There are two kinds of films that can be made from the concept of a brutal, cut-throat gym teacher's impact on several underweight, feeble children. One film could look at the issue from the self-esteem side, painting a picture of an unfairly underestimated child who was manipulated in school and grew up to be a sad, neurotic adult. Then there's one that could do nothing but point fingers and make a mockery out of the entire material, with few laughs to be and boast nothing but a handful of unutilized talent.Take a guess which one of the above categories Mr. Woodcock falls into. Without wasting your time, the film is a lame comedy predicated off of the traditionalist slapstick, bargain-bin humor such as weight, sex, and weakness, all of which I've seen exercised in a much funnier manner before. However, Mr. Woodcock's screenplay feels as if it was devised by a group of teenage boys who knew no world outside of comic books, Playboys, sugary junk food, and Saturday morning cartoons.The story concerns John Farley (Seann William Scott), a once overweight child that grew up to be a very successful self-help author. Farley's ideology emphasizes the method of "letting go" of the negatives in your past in order to have a more fulfilled, more realized future (if this is the best contemporary self-help authors can come up with and still make millions, I see no hope for their audience, but I digress). Farley, however, has always been traumatized by his middle school gym teacher Mr. Jasper Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), who acts just like Billy Bob Thornton in a red gym suit. He is mean, horribly abusive, and mocks his students for their weight, their conditions, and many other things. We'll say he's the typical, mean gym teacher stereotype that doesn't really exist outside of our worst nightmares.Farley returns to his hometown of Nebraska to accept a prestigious award to realize that his widowed mother Beverly (Susan Sarandon) is in a relationship with Woodcock and, worse, sees him as one of the kindest souls she has ever known. Farley now must come up with a plan to expose Woodcock as the abusive soul he actually is, teaming up with his old middle school friend (Ethan Suplee) who recalls the torment all too well. After watching Seann William Scott in three American Pie pictures, up until this point, we almost want to see the character of Steve Stifler show up uninvited to pulverize the lame and simply uncharismatic John Farley. Much like his own name, Farley is vanilla and weak, who is made even more forgettable and grating when we see just how in love with his corny self-help nonsense he is. Making your movie character a self-help guru is never a good idea, mainly because they either have to be smarmy in the regard that they don't believe what they're preaching, dense because they only believe a small part of it and act like they hold the secrets of the world because of it, or naive because they seem to genuinely believe every single they say or publish. Farley is the naive one, who has seemed to publish nonsense for so long he has actually began to believe what he is saying. Billy Bob Thornton is also surprisingly vanilla here, given little to say or do that is very funny. This comes as a shock to me because Thornton always finds ways to make the most questionable material funny, given his track record including Bad Santa and School for Scoundrels. Take a look at the latter film and see how Thornton played a very similar character in that film, often being manipulative, passive-aggressive, easily-angered, and always looking for a competition no matter how meaningless. Here, Thornton more often than not looks tired, uninspired, and uninterested in his character or his material, which is just depressing to say about a veteran actor like himself. On the other hand, Susan Sarandon is given a pretty thankless role, stuck in the middle between two male leads who always seem to be fighting for their turn on screen. Amy Poehler, as well, is clearly aiming to do ,pretty strong things with her character, comically, but more often than not (take the scene at the bar when she's on the phone with Farley for example) she's just awkward and trying to hard. The biggest tragedy about Mr. Woodcock is its repetition. In seventy-nine minutes, it finds ways to constantly repeat jokes, and for a lead character who doesn't believe in holding onto the past, writers Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert sure seem to enjoy recycling old jokes. Mr. Woodcock has about two or three laughs in it, all of which coming from Billy Bob Thornton, which says more about him than any other actor at hand here as it shows he can still not even try to half his potential yet still succeed in being funny every now and then.Starring: Seann William Scott, Billy Bob Thornton, Susan Sarandon, Ethan Suplee, and Amy Poehler. Directed by: Craig Gillespie.

I know Billy Bob Thornton has played this type of role before, a la Bad Santa, but a lot of people won't care, because they go to the movies to be entertained, right? Although Woodcock's engagement to this poor kid's mom wasn't really necessary, it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the picture. I would of preferred something unexpected. Basically, Susan Sarandon isn't given anything to do other than get caught in the middle of this feud, or more specifically, war. She's just cashing in a paycheck. If you're looking for anything remotely realistic, this movie is not for you. When Mr. Woodcock pushes an old man (in a wheelchair), into the pool, you know this is one screwed-up gym teacher.*** out of ****