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Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, and Susan Sarandon star in the outrageous comedy Mr. Woodcock. Scott stars as John Farley, a self-help author who returns to his hometown only to discover that his mother (Sarandon) has fallen in love with his old high school nemesis, Mr. Woodcock (Thornton) -- the gruff, no-nonsense gym teacher who had put him through years of mental and physical humiliation. Determined to prevent history from repeating itself, John sets out to stop his mother from marrying the man who had made life miserable for him and his classmates. Mr. Woodcock also features a strong supporting cast including Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live) and Ethan Suplee (My Name is Earl).
"The insult comedy is sometimes brilliant." Kyle Smith, New York Post
"...a great premise...expert performances." Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter
Editor's Note
With BAD SANTA, Billy Bob Thornton proved he was willing to go all the way--no holds barred--in portraying unsympathetic, foulmouthed jerks. Here he brings that same skill to bear as the title character, a sadistic junior high school gym teacher who is every uncoordinated or overweight student's worst nightmare. Best-selling author of self-help books, Farley (Sean William Scott) thinks the tortures he's suffered at the hands of Woodcock are just the stuff of traumatic childhood memory (such as being told, "You are a disgrace to fat, gelatinous kids the world over"), until he goes home to Nebraska to pick up an award and learns his widowed mother (Susan Sarandon) is in love with the man who made him miserable all those years ago. Farley recruits his unkempt buddy (Ethan Suplee) in a series of backfiring schemes to wreak some belated vengeance and expose Woodcock before the nuptials are sealed. There's plenty of nasty repartee between Scott and Thornton and some funny-disturbing bits from side characters, like Farley's ferocious publicist (Amy Poehler) and Bill Macy as Woodcock's even more sadistic father. Sarandon brings a lot of touching innocence to the table as a sheltered widow daring to feel love again, and Scott does some nice squirming and pratfalls. But of course it's Thornton's movie all the way--he grabs the ball and never lets it go, unless of course it's to hurl it at some poor kid's head.
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| Entertainment Reviews
 | Mr. Woodcock - DVD Review By: Chris Cabin - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 1/4/2008 6:59 PM | |
For half of the last decade, Billy Bob Thornton has been filling the scumbag/jerk quotient to dwindling effect, culminating in last year's abysmal School for Scoundrels. One half-expected him to try and nab a role in a Catherine Breillat film just to get the taste out of his mouth. It seems this was all wishful thinking: Thornton's latest retread into berating fat kids, retards, and asthma victims, Mr. Woodcock, is at once both completely aimless and without the slightest sense of fun. Pushed back and up for almost a year now, Woodcock comes from a lineage of productions so misguided that studios eventually release them just to wash their hands of them....read the full review |
| Mr. Woodcock - DVD Review By: Ed Perkis - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 1/18/2008 12:31 PM | | Thornton gives his usual good performance and seems to be able to play this sort of knowing jerk in his sleep. Sarandon and Scott actually seem to be sleeping and don't interact as if they even know each other, much less act as mother and son. My Name is Earl's Ethan Sulpee plays the grown up version of Farley's gym class buddy and fellow victim, but doesn't have much to do. ...read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 1/15/2008 |
| Running Time: 88 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 1000036716 | | UPC: 00794043112980 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"MR. WOODCOCK has an excellent premise and some funny one-liners....Susan Sarandon plays the mother, Beverly, just right." 12/01/2007 p.82Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Billy Bob Thornton is in full "Bad Santa" mode in "Mr. Woodcock," an uneasy comedy about an adult who returns home to discover his mother is planning to marry the gym teacher who made his high school days a living hell. The thing about Thornton is, he makes no compromises and takes no prisoners when he plays guys like Woodcock. He's a hateful bastard, and he means it...To laugh at parts of this film would indicate one has a streak of Woodcockism in oneself. But to gaze in stupefied fascination is perfectly understandable. That's what makes Thornton such a complex actor. He can play a tough coach like the one in "Friday Night Lights" as a three-dimensional human being, and then make Mr. Woodcock into a monster. And hey, why, after all these years, hasn't Woodcock ever been promoted to a coaching position? Maybe because he likes to be a bully and the football players might beat him bloody...Anyway, all is resolved in a rather contrived ending that might have something to do with the film's three weeks of reshoots, as reported by Patrick Goldstein in the L.A. Times and documented on IMDb. I would have been happier if young John Farley had torn his positive thinking book to shreds, slammed Mr. Woodcock in the gut with a medicine ball, and told him to drop and give him 50 quick ones or he'd do it again. - Roger Ebert
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