Mr. Woodcock

An average comedy that you can really watch, quite entertaining and fun. Not a particularly original idea, but nicely handled. A bit similar to Mama's Boy with Jon Heder, but more derivative. (12.02.2011)

Susan Sarandon appeared at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, and that same week, I saw the film Mr. Woodcock for the first time. It tells the story of a boy who had a tough gym teacher in elementary school. When this boy grows up and returns to the town where he grew up as a writing star, he discovers that the gym teacher everyone hated is now pursuing his mother. Thus, two roosters who traditionally despise each other face off, only to "grow up" in the end and realize they aren't so bad after all. It's an incredibly straightforward and simple plot that only highlights a few things—the performances, where Billy Bob Thornton and Sean William Scott deliver their typical performances that don't offend, although Scott's character gradually becomes so annoying that you don't even want to root for him. The gym teacher, on the other hand, is a demonstration that even if someone is genuinely a jerk, they can find friends and be respected by others. I would love to see how someone like that would become Teacher of the Year in America when kids nowadays file lawsuits for far lesser offenses against them. The film boasts only a few memorable lines, and the episodic characters have absolutely no significance to the plot, making the whole comedy flounder because it simply isn't funny or inventive enough. It's definitely not a film you would want to see in the movie theater and leave feeling like you could have spent your money on something better. (22.02.2013)