Review of Mr. Woodcock (2007) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

I think alot of people, especially those with weight issues at a guess, will have some negative memories of PE/Gym class at school and so might think of this as being good for a laugh, to see a now much fitter guy come back and kick his old Gym teachers uh butt lol although I'm not sure it totally works, considering its not as easy as that and more often than not, its the other way around, with Woodcock getting the better over John. That just makes us more frustrated to see the tables reversed of course! Watching how he treats some of the kids at the start of the movie, including one young boy who has asthma and is told to go run a mile or something similar, you certainly do feel sorry for them to a fair extent.

Some of the comedy is fairly funny but I think overall, the major let down of this movie is that the story just felt a bit too weak. Its all based on the basic premise, like I say, that a once somewhat chubby kid grows up and becomes successful, then comes home to stop his mother dating the old men gym teacher... and thats all... and does he even succeed? well you'll have to watch it to find out. It isn't the longest movie either, which is probably a good thing, it felt a little too stretched out already at 1 hour 20 and that pretty much says it all... it needed more to it I think.

There is also a moral side present, which is a bit too cheesy in my eyes. This is mainly where John gets to give a speech as the winner of his award and decides to rant about Mr. Woodcock in front of the local community. Thats definitely one of the cringeworthy moments in this movie, even more so when he learns that something he thought wasn't even true, in that scene. Funny? sort of... but im not totally convinced by it.

Its easy enough to like John and to want to boo everytime Mr. Woodcock appears on screen and to know where you want the story to go but its all just a bit too weak really... There are some daft moments and some laughs to be had and it probably will make you think back to your school days and what your gym class was like. Its ok as a fairly short comedy but nothing too remarkable really ...