Monday, June 27, 2011

Review: Bad Teacher

Grade: C-

Elizabeth is a teacher at John Adams Middle School and she really doesn’t care about her job. She planned on marrying her fiancé, who is very wealthy, and living easy off his money after that. However, when he figures out her plans, he dumps her forcing her to take her job back at the school. She wants to try to find another wealthy man and to do so she feels that she needs to raise money to get a boob job. She doesn’t care about teaching and does horrible things to get money. Then, when she finds out that whichever teacher’s students score the highest on the state test, that teacher gets a large bonus, She kicks things into high gear in order to get that bonus and to try to land the new substitute teacher, Scott Delacorte.

Bad Teacher is a raunchy R-rated comedy that falls short in so many different areas. While it does have some pretty funny parts, the writing is pretty bad and there aren’t as many as there should be and many of the moments are just so stupid that you can’t help but laugh. The main character of Elizabeth is a horrible person so you never sympathize with her. While (slight spoilers ahead) the movie does have a happy ending, of sorts, she never faces any repercussions for the many horrible and immoral things that she does. In fact, any repercussions that do happen, she manages to push off on to another person, thus making her an even worse person. It astounds me that anybody would want to be with her at the end of the movie because of how she acts and treats people throughout.

Cameron Diaz (Green Hornet, Knight and Day) plays the lead role of Elizabeth, a horrible person who I have to wonder how she ever got a job as a teacher in the first place much less kept her job. Diaz was hired mostly because she is hot and looks the part of what they wanted. She had a couple funny lines but again, her character is such a horrible person you never really find what she’s doing all that funny. Justin Timberlake (Social Network, Southland Tales) plays the role of Scott, a substitute teacher with rich parents who Elizabeth is desperate to marry or whatever. Timberlake was alright in this movie but he has definitely been better and more enjoyable. Jason Segel (I Love You Man, Knocked Up) plays Russell, a gym teacher who, for some reason, really wants to start a relationship with Elizabeth. I normally don’t like Jason Segel much but he was really the only funny part of this movie. He had a bunch of great one-liners and his sarcastic demeanor through the movie was great. Lucy Punch (Take Me Home Tonight, Diner for Schmucks) plays Amy, a rival teacher who begins to go insane trying to prove Elizabeth is a bad person. She was pretty entertaining and really funny at times in this movie. The movie also features Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins and more.

Bad Teacher got it half right, it is a bad movie. I really can’t recommend seeing this movie anytime soon. I would suggest waiting for DVD then renting it. It has its moments, but overall it in poorly written, has a lose premise and an extremely unlikable main character who never learns her lesson.

Great quote: “Don’t throw it at her, through it THROUGH her.”

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