Mr. Woodcock Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Mr. Woodcock Blu-ray Movie Review

This funny but ultimately underwhelming comedy looks marvelous on Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 18, 2008

Can you believe it? The ‘Woodcock Pan Pizza!’ What’s next, the ‘Hitler Calzone?’

Billy Bob Thornton is my favorite actor working in Hollywood today. His portrayal of Karl Childers in Sling Blade won me over. That remains the finest performance I’ve ever seen in perhaps the best movie I’ve ever seen. I’m a huge fan of his work, and even his movies that are the polar opposites of Sling Blade like Bad Santa and Bad News Bears rank among my favorite “guilty pleasure” films due in large part to the presence and skill of Thornton as an actor. He does seem to have drifted away from more serious material to becoming typecast as cold, heartless type characters on the surface with an underlying sensitivity below. That’s the type of character he plays in Mr. Woodcock, portraying a tough, no nonsense middle school gym teacher who is hated by all but proves to be an inspiration to those same people later in life by teaching them the importance of hard work and self respect that makes them better individuals.

I like them french fried potaters.

Most middle school students can't wait to throw on the gym shorts for a game of kickball after long mornings of boring life science classes, repetitious calculations involving fractions and decimals, and diagraming sentences. Not so for students of the Forrest Meadow Elementary School in Nebraska. Their gym teacher is Jasper Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), a no holds barred instructor in the vein of famous movie drill sergeants like R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, but without the abundance of crude language. He's seemingly cruel to the point of teetering on physical abuse, checking for the presence of cups with the whack of a whiffle ball bat or nailing unsuspecting students in the gut with a basketball. Do anything to anger him, from speaking out of line to forgetting to tie your shoe, and get ready to drop down and give him ten.

One of his ex-students, John Farley (Sean William Scott, Ice Age: The Meltdown), grows up to be the best selling author of a self help book. Farley decides to return home to accept an award known as the "Corn Cob Key" from the community and finds that his mother (Susan Sarandon, Enchanted) is dating the fearsome Mr. Woodcock, source of his childhood trauma and ultimately the reason he wrote the book. Woodcock's presence brings his childhood memories flooding back, reminding John of all that once was and causing him to struggle to subdue his primal instincts that tell him hatred and revenge against Woodcock should be the order of the day in favor of the more reasoned lessons of acceptance and forgiveness he himself teaches in his best selling book. When he discovers that Mr. Woodcock is to be honored as "educator of the year," John must choose whether to abandon his life's work and hurt Mr. Woodcock, ignoring the lessons he's painfully learned, and also jeopardizing his own mother's happiness.

I'm not completely sure what to make of Mr. Woodcock. On the one hand, Billy Bob Thornton is once again terrific. He's nailed the character of Jasper Woodcock as well as he can with a PG-13 rating, managing to tightrope the fine line between tough love and physical abuse and playing the part with a bravado only he can pull off. He's the crude, inhumane gym teacher one minute and is seen delivering flowers to his girlfriend the next. Right from the get-go (or at least after the opening gym sequence of the movie), we have to believe he's done some good in the lives of his students. After all, John is a Nebraska nobody who returns home on a private jet, author of a best seller and suddenly both a local and national hero, thanks in part to Woodcock's incessant abuse. Others around town counteract this notion; it seems all of Woodcock's other former students are living the high life as employees of a local pizza shop. When Woodcock is announced as "educator of the year," we have to believe that no matter how backwards the town is portrayed, there must be some credence to the nomination. Ultimately, I found the movie funny if not a tad bit predictable. It never had me rolling on the floor, so to speak, but the jokes come fast and furious. Some work; some fall flat. I was hoping to see more of the movie actually take place in the gymnasium, but unfortunately we are privy to all of these scenes in flashbacks, save for one. This a pretty average film saved only by the presence of Thornton, who brings with him instant credibility and appeal. Despite appearing in more serious work like The Astronaut Farmer recently, he's usually typecast as just this kind of character. That's not a bad thing, because he's just so darn good at playing it.

Mr. Woodcock Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mr. Woodcock is presented on Blu-ray in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This is a great transfer that borders on perfection. The first thing I noticed is the absolutely perfect black levels. They are deep, solid, and dark with absolutely no artificial manipulation. This is perhaps the best and more importantly consistent black level I've seen so far on Blu-ray. The image is very true to life with excellent depth and attention to detail. Skin tones are reproduced with a seemingly realistic flair. The image is devoid of overly bright colors. Dark reds, maroons, grays, and tans are the dominant colors. They don't pop off the screen, but color reproduction and accuracy appear spot-on nonetheless. The image lacks total sharpness and is somewhat soft in appearance in a few places with a miniscule amount of grain here and there, but that's undoubtedly due to the nature of the film stock used. All in all, Mr. Woodcock looks excellent on Blu-ray.

Mr. Woodcock Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Blu-ray version of Mr. Woodcock only offers viewers a DTS-HD MA 7.1 track. Despite the lossless nature of the track, the film's sound design is fairly subdued, offering only terse moments of sonic wonderment that make the inclusion of a high powered soundtrack almost a moot point. Nevertheless, it's great to have, and I appreciate the inclusion of it. I've never liked the argument that comedies "don't need" the best soundtrack available, even if I do agree that sometimes the audible difference isn't as noticeable as it is on a film of the caliber of a Spider-Man 3 or Casino Royale. That said, the movie starts with a couple of "wow!" moments on the soundtrack. Jasper Woodcock blows his whistle and I want to stand up at attention. It's lifelike, clear, high pitched, and loud. He bounces a basketball several times with an authority that makes the subwoofer sweat. It's great sound design, and it had me grinning from ear to ear. After that, however, the track takes on a mostly bland tone. This is obviously a dialogue driven comedy and there is little else that wowed me. The dialogue sounds just fine with a natural tone and volume, sounding real rather than processed. Most of the track is spread across the front speakers, focused mainly in the center, and there is a fairly nice ebb and flow of sound across the front. Surrounds are used sparsely with only discernible ambience heard here and there. This is a perfectly fine track that recreates the experience with a mostly lifelike delivery. Don't go in expecting Black Hawk Down-like sonic immersion, and you won't be disappointed with this soundtrack.

Mr. Woodcock Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray edition of Mr. Woodcock is unfortunately rather sparse on supplemental material. First up are ten deleted and alternate scenes presented in 1080p with a combined runtime of 12:58. These scenes look as good, if not slightly better, than the actual movie. The Making of 'Mr. Woodcock' (1080i, 15:31) features the cast and crew discussing the movie. There are not a whole lot of actual "making of" segments in this. It's mostly actors discussing characters, their motivations, and their place in the movie with a few funny jokes here and there. P.E. Trauma Tales (1080i, 12:01) showcases a veteran gym teacher named Terry Sobel sharing his daily routine with us and his thoughts on physical discipline and training in the gym. Intermixed are cast and crew members discussing their memories of physical education growing up. This is a really nice piece. Finally, this film's theatrical trailer (1080p, 2:32) rounds out the extras.

Mr. Woodcock Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mr. Woodock is a great premise for a movie that only turned out as well as it did because of the presence of Billy Bob Thornton. The movie just doesn't work all the time, relying on several tired and clichéd scenes to move the plot along. The jokes are hit or miss and about evenly distributed across that crude scale. Perhaps the real problem with this movie is that it didn't hop on the take-no-prisoners express that Bad Santa rode to critical and box office success. Crude films aren't necessarily my "thing," but they work really well when an actor can run with that sort of material, and Thornton can. I ultimately found him too restrained in this role. Refusing to turn him loose to do what he does best (other than Karl Childers) is what makes this movie a minor letdown. Newly Blu-ray exclusive New Line delivers a nice looking and sounding disc here that won't wow anyone from start to finish but allows for a proper high definition enjoyment of the film. The supplements are pretty thin and underwhelming. Despite my reservations about the movie, you just can't go wrong with Billy Bob Thornton. Recommended.