Mr. Woodcock

Day 94 - 4/4/09 - Movie #91

BEFORE: This may seem like an odd choice - considering that I've got some Oscar-winning movies I should watch, plus some animated classics and some movies about time-travel - but I'm in a Billy Bob Thornton groove, and a plan for next week... I like having a method to my madness, but I also want to insure that there is some madness to the method as well.

THE PLOT: a young man returns home in an effort to stop his mother from marrying his old gym teacher, a man who made school hell for generations of students.

AFTER: I'm quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie - I thought at first it would be just a stupid, throwaway comedy. I didn't care too much for gym teachers when I was a kid - P.E. was my least favorite part of school (I was a bookworm AND a fat kid, so I got a double-dose of misery...) But doesn't a gym teacher also have a personal life? Maybe they're only perceived as "evil" by the under-achievers? Billy Bob plays a quiet evil here (as opposed to the obvious evil in the last film) and it suits him. The movie strikes a middle-ground - the gym teacher is just portrayed as a tough man who is incapable of expressing emotions, and a gym class is a necessary evil, to prepare weak kids for the harsh realities of life. I may not have been able to do a chin-up in gym class, but in a weird way, I'm glad someone tried to make me do one.

RATING: 7 out of 10 corn cobs