Bad Teacher

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Lucy Punch, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins
Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A lazy, selfish teacher (Cameron Diaz) tries to save enough money for a breast enlargement so she can win the heart of the new substitute teacher (Justin Timberlake).

Review:

Tim: I am always very critical of a film when it features a protagonist who I simply don't like. It is so crucial for a film to have a lead whom we can identify with and actually care about. Bad Teacher doesn't just give us an unlikable lead, it gives us a despicable, hateable one. I couldn't stand the lead character, which made the rest of the movie that much worse.

I suppose Cameron Diaz deserves some credit for taking such a racy, tough role. However, the character was just awful. There was no redeeming quality to her. Even when the film suggests some change in the character, she's still just as unlikable as before. This movie really suffers because we can't root for the main character- she absolutely is a "bad teacher" and does despicable things throughout the film. I know this is a comedy, and if the actions were legitimately funny, I might have been more forgiving. Sadly, there's too few laughs here.

Diaz is believable a character who is just too easy to hate. She is somewhat to blame, though, for making her so awful. The supporting cast deserves some blame as well. Lucy Punch did have some of the film's funnier moments, but she also had too many of the more ridiculous ones. I felt like her character could have been a classic, but she went too over-the-top. Her character grew increasingly annoying as the movie went on. Punch absolutely did add to the film, but there was so much more opportunity that was lost here.

I thought Justin Timberlake added next to nothing in the film. He wasn't very good. He was unforgettable and not funny. I'm still not convinced of his acting ability. I do want to mention Jason Segel for a minute. I love Segel and think he is hilarious. I also understand that for an actor like him, there aren't exactly hundreds of great roles waiting for him. I get that he has to take roles in films that may be beneath him. I felt like this was one of those movies. That being said, Segel is absolutely the best part of this movie. He was really funny, has some of the best lines, and maintained a sense of class in an otherwise classic affair. Nice work, Segel.

I was surprised at how unfunny the entire film was. Yes, there were a few good, humorous moments sprinkled throughout the movie. Sadly, these were too few and came too seldom. This was not a very enjoyable movie. I hated the characters, I didn't care about the story, there weren't very many good laughs, and it was occasionally boring. This movie was a bit of a chore to get through. This is disappointing because I truly believed this was going to be a funny movie. Here is one aspect of the film that illustrates how bad it was. One of the funniest sequences in the film is a short conversation Segel has with a student about who is better- Jordan or Lebron James. It was illustrated in many of the commercials. It's one of the funniest scenes, and yet, it had no real point for being in the movie. It was completely unrelated to everything that happened in the movie of any consequence. It featured a supporting character and another character making his only appearance. It added nothing to the story or the development of characters. It probably shouldn't have been included- but it was, and it is funnier than 90% of the jokes in the rest of the film.

I wanted to like Bad Teacher, and I was willing to be forgiving. Unfortunately, this is a complete mess of a movie that does so little right, it's almost astounding. Opportunities are squandered left and right. Jokes fall flat all over the place. The movie plods along with its uninteresting, awful story (is the heart of the story really about a woman getting a boob job to impress a wealthy man for his money?). This is a disappointing, crap movie. Shame on everyone involved.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5



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