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Mr. Woodcock | 2007 | PG-13 | - 6.4.5
A young man (Seann William Scott) who's become a success by writing a best-selling self-help book about letting go of the past, can't seem to let go of his own past when he returns to his home town and discovers that the man who was his abusive grade school gym teacher (Billy Bob Thornton) is now dating his mother (Susan Sarandon). Also with Kurt Fuller and Amy Poehler. Directed by Craig Gillespie. [1:27]
SEX/NUDITY 6 - A young man hides under a bed in a man's house, he hears the man and a woman get into the bed, the bed bounces up and down while the couple has sex, and he realizes the woman is his mother (we hear them moaning and hear them climax).
► A woman sprinkles salt on her neck and a man licks it off; she then places a piece of a lime in her cleavage and he retrieves it with his mouth and licks her chest.
► A man squeezes a woman's thigh underneath a table (we hear her giggle and see him reaching toward her, above the table). A man pinches a woman's buttock and she giggles.
► A man and a woman kiss in several scenes.
► A boy is forced to remove his clothes while standing in a gym, while other are boys watching; we see the boy in his jockey shorts and socks and he is then forced to do pull-ups. A woman wears a robe that reveals cleavage.
► We see a video of a young man talking about sex with another young man's mother, and he makes sexual gestures and says she's "hot." A young man lying in bed hears his mother giggling in the next room (implying that she is having sex with a man).
► Several people, including children, and using crude terms, tease a young man about a man having sex with his mother. Men in a barbershop talk about a young man's mother having sex. A woman talks about sex with a man being so good that she blacked out from the pleasure. A woman makes a sexually suggestive remark to a young man over the phone (nothing happens). A young woman talks about having a crush on an older man and that she thinks his bravado is sexy. A woman talks about being a sex addict. A man tells a young man that he must like to get spanked and that it must run in the family (suggesting similar sexual activity with his mother). A man says, "I'm known for my meat" while talking about grilling steaks. A man makes a couple of remarks that imply that he and a woman (a young man's mother) are having sex. A woman describes a man she is dating to her adult son.
► A young man suspects that a man who's dating his mother is cheating on her.
VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A man repeatedly strikes a young man in the arm with a baseball bat.
► A gym teacher strikes boys between the legs with a baseball bat to see if they are wearing athletic supporters (we hear a crack and the boys bend over in pain).
► A man throws a young man onto a wrestling mat, they fight throwing each other back and forth, one bites the other's finger, one is struck with a chair, one pins the other, straddles him and pounds on his chest until the other man lies unconscious (we see him on a stretcher in an ambulance).
► A man pushes another man in a wheelchair into a swimming pool, a young man thinks he is going to drown, jumps into the pool to save him and is elbowed in the face and knocked unconscious (we see the young man sinking to the bottom of the pool and then see him waking up after mouth-to-mouth from an elderly man with no teeth).
► A young man pushes a man on a stretcher through a parade, the stretcher gets caught in a hole in the street, it flips upright and falls over causing the man to strike his face on the street (we don't see any obvious injury).
► A man slams a young man into a locker and threatens him. A woman slaps a young man in the face.
► A young man runs on a treadmill, loses his footing, falls face first hitting his head on the tread and is then thrown into a stack of free weights (we see a bloody cut on his cheek).
► A gym teacher throws a boy onto a wrestling mat then throws him several more times. We see a boy on videotape being struck in the face by a chair that is thrown at him (we see the boy with a black eye later). A man throws a basketball hard at a boy's stomach; the boy is struck and falls to his knees. A man orders two boys to do push-ups and places his foot on the back of one. A gym teacher forces boys, one of whom has asthma (we hear him wheezing), to run laps and do push-ups as punishment. A boy is struck by several balls in the head and body.
► A young man spills coffee on a woman. A man shaves a patch of hair off the back of a young man's head (we see the bare spot throughout the rest of the movie).
► A woman yells at a young man. A man yells at and is abusive to elderly people in a swim exercise class. A young man yells at children in a restaurant. A gym teacher teases a boy about his speech impediment. Two men compete at carnival games and argue bitterly.
► We hear that a boy's parents are dead. A young man talks about his father being dead. A young girl talks about her cat having been found dead. A young man makes a remark about a gym teacher forcing them to run "until their nipples bled." A young man is being obnoxious about having won a competition, and he jumps around yelling and thrusts his hips toward a competitor. A woman tells a young man that people are potential stalkers and that one of them could "tie you up and saw your feet off." A woman tells a young man that a woman will "gut you like a fish."
► A man asks a young man if he was "the one that got the squirts." People compete in a corn-eating contest and one man has corn kernels on his face.
► A young man dips a man's gym whistle into a toilet where he has just urinated (we see liquid dripping off the mouth piece). A young man urinates and we hear the trickle.
LANGUAGE 5 - 1 F-word, 16 sexual remarks, 20 scatological terms, 24 anatomical terms, 11 mild obscenities, a young man says "effing," 5 derogatory terms for homosexuals, 1 derogatory term for a woman, name-calling ("wheezie," ladies, fat, moron, hippie, hicks, gelatinous loser, retard, screw ups, pathetic, porker), 1 religious profanity, 18 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A woman drinks alcohol in several scenes and says that she is an alcoholic, people drink alcohol in a bar scene, a woman drinks a glass of alcohol and smokes a cigarette, a woman drinks wine with dinner, and a man drinks a beer. A woman has an open pack of cigarettes next to her, she removes one and lights it.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Abusive behavior, bullying, letting go of the past, respect, boundaries, embarrassment, death of a parent, blame, self-help, infidelity, disappointment, anger, bitterness, showing strength, standing up for yourself, communication, love, believing in yourself, alcoholism, sex addiction, letting go of pain.
MESSAGE - Embrace your past. Abusive behavior can breed abusive behavior. Testing people can make them stronger.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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