By Jennifer Larson

Mr. Woodcock has finally made it to your local theatre. It was a rough road for this crotchety PE teacher and his movie. In fact, there were rumors that the movie may not come out at all. But against all odds, including “being on the shelf for more than two years, going through multiple release dates and being largely overhauled after test audiences turned their noses up at an early cut,” according to Popwatch, Billy Bob Thornton will now be seen terrorizing school children in theatres throughout the country.

With all this early bad press, Mr. Woodcock may have a hard time catching an audience. That being said, the studio picked a good time to release it. The months between Labor Day and the start of the holiday season are widely known for being a slow time of year for the movie industry. But that may be exactly what this movie needs, to catch attention. Everybody has already seen the good stuff that’s come out, so they may actually be desperate enough to give a movie with bad early buzz a try. Personally, the clips I’ve seen look pretty funny, but after seeing KNOCKED UP and SUPERBAD, it’s going to take a lot to impress me.

Sadly, for the makers of this film, Judd Apatow and his crew have really raised the bar on farcical comedy. Of course, that’s a good thing for the audience; if everybody else works hard to keep up with them, that is. It also doesn’t hurt to know that Susan Sarandon plays the love interest in this movie. She’s so good, she could probably make ZOOLANDER bearable to watch, if she were in it. But, while Susan is an amazing actress, she’s not what you would call a hot box office commodity, nowadays. Neither is Billy Bob Thornton, after the disastrous remake of THE BAD NEWS BEARS that he was in. The lack of heat that either of them generates at the box office may be one of the reasons for the delay of this movie. If that’s the case, it’s too bad, because it may be a comedic masterpiece that doesn’t get a shot because it doesn’t star the train wreck we know of as Lindsey Lohan.

Ultimately, we will all find out the answer to those questions and more. In fact, we’ll find out at the end of the weekend, when the numbers come in.