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See the rest of the reviews here.

Mr Woodcock

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon, Amy Poehler, Ethan Suplee, Melissa Sagemiller. Directed by Craig Gillespie. Story: Vindictive PE teacher dates an ex-pupil's mum. Running Time: 1hr 27 minutes. UK Certificate 12A.

It's Billy Bob Thornton in gruff mode again, but that won't be enough to save Mr Woodcock from being picked last in class. Fortunately there's more to it than that.

I expect every man has a memory of a PE teacher who thought he was Hitler, one who mocked the fat kids and revelled in his authority over a group of schoolboys. Mine was called Mr Atkin. He shot himself in the eye with a starting pistol once, I nearly died laughing. It was one of those classic comedy moments - gun doesn't fire, knobhead looks into the barrel and pulls the trigger again, knobhead emerges stunned from a cloud of smoke with a blackened face. Well, I made up the last bit - that's just how I like to remember it - but I bet he winces when he watches athletics now. Rest assured that no knobheads were seriously harmed in this anecdote, except to his vastly inflated ego. He never could start a race after that without somebody sniggering.

Billy Bob Thornton steps up to fill the shoes of this particular knobhead. Mr Woodcock (great name) has been bullying his PE class for the past eon, one of which grows up to be a successful self-help author. When Woodcock starts dating this ex-pupil's mother (Susan Sarandon), things start to get messy, and spookily reminiscent at times of Billy Bob's last tough-guy outing School For Scoundrels. The comedy is pitched at a similar level too, with the rather predictable story given as much screen time as the gags. Seann William Scott, who will forever be Stiffler, lifts the tone immensely in his role as the self-help writer, Billy Bob does his Bad Santa routine that we know him so well for, and Susan Sarandon is criminally underused in a part that could have been given to anyone, so light is the character's involvement. I was all ready to give Mr Woodcock a mediocre rating for its ordinariness, but then I was converted by some excellent moments of slapstick, which were laugh-out-loud funny in their brashness. We all knew Stiffler was going to fall off the running machine, but it was done so well that we all guffawed anyway.

Mr Woodcock isn't the best comedy you'll see this year - both Knocked Up and Superbad are far superior - but it's still good enough to recommend, and it's suitable for the whole family too. B+.

I enjoyed this film: 4/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 4/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 0/5 - some light swearing, that's all.

To enjoy this film you should: laugh at people getting hurt.