Bad Teacher - Review

Cameron Diaz is a BAD teacher. Oh and there’re no end-of-movie revelations or transformations. She’s a horrible teacher, with no real sense of responsibility, character or inclination to be of any help – and that stays. If anything, maybe one can find humor in this fact, because every other gag is either lewd or more lewd.

The film is intermittently funny, but what makes Cameron Diaz a watchable film are the characters. Foul-mouthed, greedy and self-obsessed Elizabeth Hasley (Cameron Diaz) is an unapologetic character who’s returned to her teaching job at John Adams Middle School after being dumped by her fiancé. A wastrel by nature – she ends up showing movies in class for weeks at end, smokes pot in the parking lot and generally doesn’t give a rat’s... bottom.

The pace of the film picks up when the new substitute teacher Scott makes an entry (Justin Timberlake) – he’s rich, good-hearted and the best bait for Elizabeth. That’s where the theatre begins.

She does all it takes to get his attention – from competing with the goody-two-shoes Amy (Lucy Punch) to generally throwing her sexuality around. Meanwhile, she brushes off Gym teacher Russell’s advances (Jason Segal of How I Met Your Mother fame)

Even if we manage to move past the sporadic pacing of Diaz’s character – the logic behind her nature shifts between being extremely rude and sexually explicit within seconds - there’s one thing that I couldn’t overlook. Not just merely a screenplay flaw, but this just stands as common sense.

How Could Anybody Ignore Cameron Diaz (her highness hotness)? The very fact that Diaz has to fight for Timberlake’s attention is a big fat question mark on the writing or credibility of the film – especially since with this movie, Diaz is at her sexiest best.

Bad Teacher starts out as a fearless, upfront film, but somewhere it loses its plot. The film steers in many directions – at some point you’re expecting the scene to get more vulgar but it cuts to a totally unrelated scene. The characters, Timberlake and Segal included, are funny in moments but in larger scheme of things, Bad Teacher heads in no particular direction and exists just for a handful.

In the film’s defense, you can squirm around in these questions and still enjoy the movie because it doesn’t try one bit to be liked. Jake Kasdan is pretty clear in his agenda for Bad Teacher. You hate her so much, you will love the film. Unfortunately he got the first part right – but there’s a tiny flaw.

You hate Diaz but you also develop the major hots for her. That might or might not work for the film, but because I can be objective about this, I can tell you that the film is watchable for a few scenes and mostly for Cameron Diaz. She is crass, sexy and downright unapologetic – it’s a good film to watch if you’re in the mood for a sassy flick about, virtually nothing.