Mr. Woodcock (2007)

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 middle school hell for generations of students.

Director:

Craig Gillespie

Writers:

Michael Carnes, Josh Gilbert

Stars:

Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
M.C. Gainey	...	Hal - Barber #1
Brent Briscoe	...	Barber #2
Dave Kuhr	...	Bookish Guy
Lisa K. Wyatt	...	Housewife
Kurt Fuller	...	Councilman Luke

Storyline

Fatherless John Farley's youth frustration, even trauma, like many his school kids' in his Nebraska small town home, was the constant abuse and humiliation in sadistic Jasper Woodcock's gym class. After college, doting son John became a motivational bestseller author and returns during a book signing tour to receive the backwater's highest honor. To John's horror, his devoted mother Beverly announces her plans to marry the hated coach and he's to be celebrated on the same event as John. Only ridiculous fatso Nedderman and his strange brother try to help Farley stop Woodcock, but that keeps backfiring.

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Plot Keywords:

neo screwball comedy | gym class | humiliation | small town | nebraska | 

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Taglines:

Letting Go Of Your Past Is Hard... Especially When It's Dating Your Mom.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, thematic material, language and a mild drug reference

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Adivina con quién salgo

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,761,369, 16 September 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$25,628,629, 4 November 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Landscape Entertainment, Avery Pix

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

David Dobkin directed three weeks of re-shoots, according to Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times 10 August 2007

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Goofs

In the pizza shop after John is jogging he is talking to Nedderman his shirt is covered in sweat, but in the next shot it is not, and then in the next shot the sweat is back, then the sweat is bigger and then it gets smaller.

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Quotes

Maggie Hoffman: Look, I don't care if your granny is on fire.
Maggie Hoffman: This is Oprah! She farts on a book and it magically sells a million copies.

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Connections

References The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986)

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Soundtracks

Daeya
Written by Donna Rowlins and Eliot Waldhorn
Performed by Donatella
Courtesy of Imaginary Friends Music Partners

User Reviews

a wheel-spinning comedy

"Mr. Woodcock" is one of those movies that sounds great on paper, but which loses something on its way to the big screen.

Jasper Woodcock is a sadistic high school PE teacher who, through the course of his career, has made life a veritable hell for most of the boys enrolled in his class. One of his students, an overweight kid by the name of John Farley, grows up to write a best-selling self-help book about letting go of one's past as a means of embracing one's future. When John returns to his small town Nebraska home for a visit, he's mortified to discover that this very same Mr. Woodcock has become his widowed mother's new boyfriend. Farley spends the rest of the movie doing everything he can think of to sabotage the romance, systematically violating all the precepts in the book that has made him so famous.

With few exceptions, "Mr. Woodcock" fails to exploit the black comedy potential of its material, settling for homogenized, crowd-pleasing pablum instead. That's not to say that there aren't some occasionally amusing moments in the film, only that they are too few and far between to turn the film into anything more than, at best, an average Hollywood comedy. Billy Bob Thornton, Susan Sarandon and Seann William Scott (Stifler in the "American Pie" movies) have all proved their talent and likability many times in the past, but they aren't allowed to go much beyond one-note performances in this film. However, it's nice to see veteran character actor Bill Macy ("Maude") again, very funny in his one scene as Woodcock's obnoxiously overbearing father.