Taken aback by his mother's wedding announcement, a young man returns home in an effort to stop her from marrying his old high school gym teacher, a man who made high school hell for generations of students.
Genre(s): Comedy, Sport
Runtime: 87 minutes
Rating: 5.2/10 (12,532 votes)
Release Date: 14 September 2007
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Avery Pix
Sound: Dolby Digital, SDDS, DTS
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, thematic material, language and a mild drug reference.
Director(s): Craig Gillespie
Producer(s):
Kent Alterman – executive producer
Bob Cooper – producer
David Dobkin – producer
Toby Emmerich – executive producer
Keith Goldberg – co-executive producer
Brian Inerfeld – co-producer
Karen Lunder – executive producer
Diana Pokorny – executive producer
Michele Weiss – co-executive producer
Writer(s):
Michael Carnes – (written by) &
Josh Gilbert – (written by)
Cast:
Billy Bob Thornton – Jasper Woodcock
Seann William Scott – John Farley
Susan Sarandon – Beverly Farley
Amy Poehler – Maggie
Melissa Sagemiller – Tracy
Ethan Suplee – Nedderman
Jacob Davich – Nedderman's Brother
Kyley Baldridge – Young Farley
Alec George – Young Nedderman
Joseph Michael Sargent – Young Watson
Music: Theodore Shapiro
Tagline: Letting Go Of Your Past Is Hard… Especially When It's Dating Your Mom.
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I suppose the fact that,to the best of my knowledge,I've never had asadistic,mean gym teacher(I had a few kinda dense ones,but they werebasically fair)in my schooling might color my skepticism as to theshow's tag-line(or one of them)–"Everyone has to take P.E.;Noteveryone survives it"–or the contention that EVERYONE has had asadistic gym teacher. Having said that,I was intrigued by this littleoffering,given the talent involved.
While this movie isn't bad enough to be even really close to beingcrap,this movie seems rushed and short-sighted,particularly in thescripting.
First,the things that went right: Billy Bob Thornotn may be gettingtypecast(by his own volition,it would seem)as theun-sentimental,hard-ass sadist,but you gotta hand it to him he DOES doit well! His Woodcock(O MAN this is going to be a minefield ofentendre!)is spot-on as a sadistic,tough-minded,criticism addict whoseems to get some quiet pleasure out of intimidating his students,muchof them being scared middle school boys. Also,Seann William Scott–asan adult former student who has become a best-selling self-help authorwho discovers to his great horror that aforementioned gym teacher isgetting into his long-widowed mom's life–is effectively a goodphysical comedy foil for the situation. There are laughs here,and the"joust" between Thornton and Scott is compelling enough to keep with.
The things that are wrong or could be better is pretty much the rest ofthe film: Susan Sarandon is breath-takingly beautiful and sexystill,but she is pretty much relegated to being either a helpless"straight man" to the either male principals or she's there to be coylyhumiliated by the situation at hand(not to mention her character'sbreathless,apparent naiveté). The potential love interest of FArley's(Melissa Sagemiller)is almost a head-scratcher as to the fact thatshe's not much to the plot,Amy Poehler's sharp bitch whose in charge ofFArley's publicity is played for exactly one note,and the friendshipbetween FArley and a dim,single-minded classmate(Ethan Suplee) isclumsily laid-out and is a rough fit. Some logistic questions(oneexample: How does a twenty-six year old with no apparent professionaldegree or distinction of any sort becomes a best-selling self-helpauthor?)also tend to distract and possibly siphon credibility from thisshow. Granted,it is basically a broad comedy,but it still seems to besort of short-sighted in making a kind of story,not certain if it wantsto be a "Everything is going wrong!" type comedy or a "This is war!"type farce. Much of that blame probably goes to the script,which thewriters seemed to be so in love with the concept of the movie that theyforgot to fill in the minor(or no-so-minor)details.
I feel like the basic recipe was good,and the ingredients work wellenough to be watchable,but this is a renter at best. A movie abouthaving to deal with a tough,cruel teacher from one's past can probablybe something special,interesting and above-average,but this movie justsimply falls short of most of those standards.
I only saw 5 minuets of this trash heep and thats all i need. Here areall the reasons why i hate it.
1. The main character is such a freaking unlikable little pussy thatthis
can even be called an anti-hero film.
2. The mom is a clueless whore and deserves to die.
3. When a movie has a good vs. evil thing going on, it helps to havethe good side represent something of it's self other than it just beingthe good side.
4. I honestly don't find it amusing when more than half the movie isjust mean spirited humor on the main character, and thats not because iave a faint heart or anything, i actually can withstand watchingtorture in movies but nor when its played for laughs.
5. The score is so lame and annoying.
6. A complete WAST of Susan Sarandon' talent.
7. I honestly don't find any of the 6 characters i stayed to see at alllikable.
8. billy bob Thornton is so annoying in this movie.
9. I didn't see the ending but I think its safe to say that no onekilled mr. woodcock in the end. i don't see why the main characterdidn't just kill him in the kitchen the morning after mr. woodcock beathim with a baseball bat.
Please folks do not wast your time with this awful wast of film andmoney.
The most unfortunate thing about this movie is the waste of,particularly, an excellent actress like Susan Sarandon but also forwasting Seann William Scott, who has been far better in other comedies(even the American Pie series had more humor and came across as morerealistic than Mr. Woodcock) and has also done well in somedramatic/action movies, with comedic qualities in his performance, asin Bulletproof Monk and the Rundown. The only actor in the movie who isenhanced by this entire affair is Amy Poehler, who is far better usedhere than she ever was in Blade of Glory. She gives an excellent,scene-stealing, scene-chewing performance as Maggie, the press agentand "handler" for Scott's inspirational How To book author character,John Farley.
Sarandon plays his mom and its an age appropriate role for her and shelooks fabulous even as a past middle age adult mother in a small,mid-west town. Her over the top roles in projects like Enchanted, orChildren of Dune are better 'paycheck' roles for her than projects suchas this or say Speed Racer.
The movie is technically proficient from a mainstream studio releasepoint of view. However, it suffers from being a movie that, at leasttheatrically, barely made its production budget back (approximately$24M, not counting the cost of prints or promotion) — and you have towonder how much of that cost went to the director, who clearly did a bythe numbers performance (many TV movies, even on basic cable, have moreinteresting elements in them) and a script that took every simple oreasy way out. The script is credited on screen to two writers. It feelsand comes across as if they sat around one afternoon thumbing throughtheir old yearbooks, calling a few friends up for some more diversegym-teacher horror stories, cobbled together the most basic ofson/former boyfriend/co-worker/next door neighbor attempts to breakcouple that seem unsuitable at the start, succeeds, but in thestandard-issue feel good ending, they must be brought back together atthe last possible moment so the credits can roll on a happy popcornsatiated crowd.
It's predictable, its boring, it's not even mildly funny. There is onepart where I laughed out loud, towards the end, a physical bit ofcomedy involving a pot hole and the Thorton character, Woodcock.However, laughing out loud was reflexive to what was otherwise a set upand joke that one could see a mile away. Just like a pie in the face,one laughs, but it's not what one wants to pay $10 for, plus parking,baby-sitter, gas, popcorn, etc.
Best to avoid, even on basic cable for free.
Just watched this movie on a whim and it is brilliant. No, not becauseSean William Scott is in it but just because Billy Bob Thornton is! Itmore than lives up-to the trailer and the talk i've heard about it!Billy Bob is a terrific comic actor, Pushing Tin, Bandits, Bad Santaand School for Scoundrels are some of his best comedic performances!Just his manner and even his facial expressions will have you laughing!I challenge anyone to watch this or any other Billy Bob Thornton comedyand say "He just isn't a comedy person" cause if you do you are WRONG!Also i highly recommend other movies of Billy Bob Thorntons and they Asimple plan, Friday night lights, One false move and U-turn. Thesetitles show how versatile he can be!
I've seen some pretty awful films with IMDb ratings better than 5/10 -its current rating is way off beam.
In Mr Woodcock, John Farley, an apparently together writer of a topselling self-help book "Letting go", (ably played by Sean WilliamScott), returns to his hometown to find that the gym teacher whotortured him through childhood is now dating his mother. It's soonclear that when the chips are down Farley is going to find it difficultto practise what he has preached in his book.
There are problems. The central character is a little whiny. Some ofthe scenes are played pretty straight dramatic and cut straight intoother scenes played pretty broadly for laughs, but there are also somekiller scenes – I defy you to not laugh at the scene where Farley isintroduced to Mr Woodcock's father and his opinion abouts about watersports.
Finally, I just don't get the criticism of the Billy Bob Thornton'sperformance – all the scenes in the gymnasium are to die for. Thorntonproduces a perfect mixture of boredom, deadly seriousness about how toplay kickball with a thick top coat at delight in torturing fat kidsand asthmatics. All played believably and with restraint. Screw thecriticism – could this be his best work since Sling Blade?