Mr. Woodcock (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Deleted Scenes Featurette-Making Of Featurette-PE Trauma Tales Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	83:59
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (0:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Craig Gillespie
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Billy Bob Thornton Seann William Scott Susan Sarandon Amy Poehler Melissa Sagemiller Ethan Suplee Jacob Davich
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Theodore Shapiro

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.30:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    John Farley (Seann William Scott) is a self-help guru, who is riding a wave of success on the back of his book "Getting Past Your Past". He is offered the "corn cob key to the city" from the town he grew up in (a corn growin' town, that'll make for far too many corny jokes...) and heads home to collect it, planning to surprise his mum (Susan Sarandon) with a visit. Alas when he arrives he discovers that the particular past that he struggled to get past, his jackass high school PE teacher Mr Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), is now dating his mum and is about to be crowned "educator of the year" at the same ceremony he is to be rewarded at. With the aid of a friend from high school who was equally picked on by Woodcock (Ethan Suplee), Farley sets out to show the world how evil Woodcock really is.

    Mr. Woodcock pretty much exactly what it promises and not an ounce more or less. Every major member of the cast plays the same typecast character they always do in these sort of flicks. Each does their part quite well, but there are no surprises in sight at any point.

    The movie is broad and largely inoffensive to the point that it is bland. That is not to say it isn't entertaining. It is filled with enough chuckle-worthy moments to tide over its short runtime (77 minutes before the credits roll), but its lack of belly laughs and forgettable plot virtually guarantee that viewers will have forgotten everything about it a day after watching it. Make this one a hire before you entertain thoughts of a buy.

Video

    The film is presented in its theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video looks excellent. The image is razor sharp and free from low level noise. Mild film grain is present throughout, though it will only be noticeable on particularly large displays. There is an excellent level of detail in dark areas and shadows.

    The colour in the transfer is particularly vivid and skin tones quite natural.

    There is no sign of compression related artefacts or film artefacts in the transfer.

    English subtitles for the hearing impaired are present for the feature. They appear to be quite accurate and reasonably well timed.

    This is a RSDL disc, but the layer break has been placed between scenes during the deleted scenes rather than during the main feature.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio tracks are present for the film. Each track is of a high standard, particularly for a routine Hollywood comedy.

    The dialogue is at a good level in the mix throughout the film and is easy to understand. The dialogue appears to be well synchronised to the video, save for a handful of points at which ADR is noticeable.

    The film features a fairly by-the-numbers orchestral score from Theodore Shapiro.

    The surround speakers get a reasonably good workout in the mix, used primarily for environmental effects, and create a surprisingly engaging sound field. The subwoofer doesn't get much of a workout, but there really isn't much call for it.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The disc opens with an anti-piracy trailer that can't be skipped and trailers for Run Fatboy Run, Be Kind Rewind and The Ex that can be skipped.

Making Of Featurette (15:48)

    A rather bland press-kit "Making Of" featurette, that promotes the film more than it deconstructs it.

PE Trauma Tales Featurette (12:18)

    The cast and crew talk about their PE horror stories and a real life mean PE teacher talks about being a mean PE teacher.

Deleted Scenes (12:50)

    A set of 10 deleted and alternate scenes that can be played together or individually. There are a few chuckles to be had here, but it is mostly a case of excised padding.

Theatrical Trailer (2:19)

    A typical theatrical trailer that manages to show most of the good bits from the movie in under three minutes.

    The Region 1 edition includes Spanish Subtitles, but is otherwise identical to the Region 4 edition. This one is a draw.

    A by-the-numbers Hollywood comedy featuring Sean William Scott and Billy Bob Thornton. Completely forgettable, but amiable stuff.

    Technically the disc is excellent and it features a decent assortment of extras to boot.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall