Mr. Woodcock stars Billy Bob Thorton (Sling Blade, Bad Santa), Sean William Scott (American Pie, Dukes of Hazzard (remake), Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, Stepmom (silly chick-flick movie that actually almost made me cry) and a much underrated actor named Ethan Suplee.  Suplee starred in one of my favorite comedies of all time, Mallrats, and easily has the best scene of the entire film.  When he yells at that little kid about their being no Easter Bunny, I almost lose it every time.  You may also recognize him from “My Name is Earl.”

The Plot: Mr. Woodcock has a plot line which is actually summed in the first ten minutes of the film.  Mr. Woodcock (played by Thorton) is a hard-ass gym teacher at a little school in a little town in the state of Nebraska.  He basically picks on kids all day, whether it is because they are fat, have asthma or have stuttering problems.  John Farley (played by Scott) was picked on all the time when he was in elementary school by Mr. Woodcock because he never came prepared to gym class.  Woodcock would make him the center of attention and humiliate him in front of the entire class. 

The film skips ahead thirteen years and now Farley is a best selling author whose new book, “Letting Go,” is selling like crazy.  He hears that his hometown wants to give him the “Corn Cob Key,” which apparently is a big deal where he is from, for all of his successes.  He goes home to find out that the Mr. Woodcock is now dating Farley’s mother (played by Sarandon).  Ironically, Farley’s book is all about letting go of your past and learning to move on.  Yet, he cannot get over the fact that his mom is dating Woodcock.  He spends the rest of the film trying to figure out how to break them up.  Even thirteen years later, Woodcock is still this hard-ass gym teacher and it is just hilarious watching him interact with Farley now that he is all grown up. 

The Review: Overall, the movie did make me laugh out loud more than a few times, but it is not worth spending the cash to see it in theatres.  A lot of the humor is slapstick, involving people getting hurt for humor, which we have all seen before. 

The best part about the film is the amazingly funny dialogue they give to Thorton.  He just says the most classic things at the most perfect moments.  Even though the film is a comedy and shouldn’t be judged on its predictability, it just became a little ridiculous at times.  Some of the jokes were based on surprise, but if you already knew what was coming, it ended up not being funny.  Maybe I just watch too many movies. 

One of the scenes that I wanted to point out was where Thorton and Scott are both running on a treadmill.  They are both looking down at each others speeds and trying to outdo each other.  That just reminded me of myself in the gym.  I always look to the right or left of my treadmill to see what speeds people are on.  It is always embarrassing if the person next to you is going way faster than you.