Very disappointed :(

Powerful

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The acting in this movie is really good.

Even though 'Mr. Woodcocks' has its moments, and a relatively 'scary' premise to boot, the film fails completely in its execution and writing.Considering its premise (and most of its cast, except for Sean William Scott and Ethan Suplee), this could have been a great black comedy, but one look at the poster and the title, and you know what time it is: a(n ultimately) simplistic and in the end (confusingly) moralistic tale that really strikes no cord at all, even if the potential shines through here and there. I was warned, and I even remembered somewhere during the film that I'd tried this one before sometime...3 out of 10.

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!

In truthfulness, my rating is actually more like 6.5 stars, but the site forces you to do whole numbers. I don't watch too many comedies these days, but I thought this one was pretty well done. Somewhat predictable, but well acted. Also appreciated the fact that not every joke was about sex. Susan Sarandon is lovely and B-Bob does a solid job as does the rest of the cast. I was surprised by this since the movie poster and title seem to imply an "American Pie"-type story line with a couple of 40+ yr. old stars in leading roles, but it was pleasantly more mature than American Pie and, in my honest opinion, way funnier. By today's standards it's a fairly clean movie although I wouldn't exactly recommend watching it as a family,

"School for Scoundrels" was a pretty darn disappointing movie, but this one is WAY worse. It's also way more dull and boring, the story if it's even a story is just random and stupid. The whole time it just tries to add shock humor which doesn't even work properly with Billy Bob Thornton playing the similar psychotic mentor dude doing psychotic things to the protagonist played by Seann William Scott who doesn't really act crazy and obnoxious this time around. And while making his life a living hell, Billy Bob's character wins the trust of the people around the protagonist some who he is in love with and even gets in a engagement with his mom. Which doesn't sit right with him cause Woodcock was a crazy gym teacher when he was in elementary. Just everything about this film is predictable and has a lousy script to go with it. Like some reviewers are saying, if you seen the trailer you basically seen the movie. And the trailer wasn't even funny, but has the best parts in that trailer. Just by watching the trailer, you can tell this movie is going to suck. I guess Thorton likes playing this type of character, but if this is the direction he is going than he should just stop.3/10