Bad Teacher

Release date: June 23, 2011
Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Screenplay by: Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Lucy Punch, Justin Timberlake, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins, Eric Stonestreet, Molly Shannon, Thomas Lennon

Adding to the already lengthy list of less than mediocre comedies this year, Bad Teacher needs no more warning than the word “bad” being in its own title. Sporting some of the most superficial characters and a script that should make most women cringe from the use of stereotypes, Bad Teacher should not be considered a comedy, but a tragedy for comedy films everywhere.

It’s simple to see within the first few minutes of the film that Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) is a gold-digger. All she wants is a man who will support her and use his cash. When her fiancé works out the truth and leaves her, she is forced to return to her job as a school teacher. Joining her in the school are a collection of characters: the vivacious Amy Squirrel (Punch), the timid Lynn Davies (Smith), the dolphin obsessed Principal Snur (Higgins), and the lovable gym coach Russell (Segel). Even worse about Halsey is that she could not care less about her students, her co-workers, or – quite frankly – herself.

In order to achieve her gold-digging dream life, Elizabeth Halsey plans on buying her a new pair of breasts – seeing as that is the only thing that she believes she’s missing. Soon enough, a rich and handsome substitute (Timberlake) comes into the picture and she must compete with her colleague Squirrel to win his affection. However, she must also engage in another competition with her fellow teacher to win the $5,700 bonus given to the teacher with the best academic results on the Illinois State Test.

You’d think with a cast like this, there would be a good movie, but the overwhelmingly bad writing job truly kicks most of the comedic aspect out of the film. Brought to you by the writers of Year One, you have a screenplay that delivers barely any laughs and has some of the most obnoxious characters of all time. Although they attempted to add in plenty of subplots, not a single one went anywhere. At one point, Elizabeth offers to tutor the students in an attempt to extort money from their parents, but it goes nowhere after a short scene. Even more disappointing was the continuous mention of something that happened in the past with Amy Squirrel causing her peculiar nature, but that isn’t revealed whatsoever throughout the film.

Aside from Diaz’s character being completely unlikable, she had literally no depth. She is ruthless, narcissistic, and it boggles the mind to figure out how exactly she got into education with an attitude like that. Drinking in class, smoking marijuana in the parking lot, and playing Stand and Deliver to her students on the first day – she is a prime example of a terrible teacher. This would all be fine and dandy if there were any sort of redemption for her, but she goes on like this without a single consequence for her many flaws. Cameron Diaz does her best as Elizabeth, but a good performance can only do so much when you have terrible writing – one that just happens to involve a trashy car wash replica of the famous Cool Hand Luke scene.

Segel and Punch both deserve to be rewarded for truly bringing some appeal to the movie, delivering some of the only good lines in the film and establishing relatively solid characters – even if Punch’s over the top character tires out after about an hour. Thomas Lennon also delivers plenty of laughs as he usually does, but the writing for some of his other films, such as 17 Again and I Love You, Man, have worked far better for him. Timberlake didn’t do too bad, but he’s done surprisingly better when it comes to acting, and he seems to be fine with making fun of himself. Smith would do better off staying with the decent writing that The Office gives her character instead of submitting herself to this, and although Molly Shannon and Eric Stonestreet were barely included in the film, they definitely gave my favorite performances as an overly supportive mother and a reckless roommate. Honestly, it’s a wonder how any actor in this cast could ever have thought that it would be a good idea to take on a film with a script as terrible as this one.

This is a classic case of good premise gone bad. The story of a completely inadequate, money-hungry teacher marketed as a raunchy comedy that achieved a red band trailer? Sounds pretty entertaining to me. Unfortunately enough, not even the extreme effort for a cast of good actors could actually bring what was advertised. Even with my extremely low expectations, this left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Then again, if you’re just out for a movie that’s desperate for laughs and poor attempts at vulgar humor, you might just actually enjoy the bad excuse for a comedy, Bad Teacher.

Rating: ★½☆☆☆ 


Juan Barquin

Just yer average twenty-something college student with no time on his hands who ends up watching (and writing) too many movies and shows for his own good.

7 Responses

  1. Rodrigo says:

    I saw the trailer for this film while watching Hangover II. I’m not surprised it’s a lousy film. I feel bad for Stonestreet being part of this, but glad you consider him as one of the best parts of this film.

    • Juan Barquin says:

      @Rodrigo, he’s really barely in it and his lines are short and simple, but there’s a scene between him and Lennon that actually made me laugh plenty just because of their interactions. I kind of felt like at that point they were just fucking around with each other and improvising, but that might just be me not wanting to give any credit at all to the writers.

  2. Julili says:

    What I want to know is how Timberlake was in this, and if it was awkward between him and Diaz.

    • Juan Barquin says:

      @Julili, They honestly didn’t even interact all that much. It was a little awkward at a few points because they purposely made it that way and the writing between them was disappointing. I think he’s done a lot better in other movies this year, like Friends with Benefits, which isn’t exactly out yet lol.

    • amy says:

      @Julili, haha. You should read Timberlake’s Playboy interview. xD

      Also, as of right now… Cars 2 has worse reviews than Bad Teacher. LOL

  3. Camiele says:

    All I can say…put JT in a movie and it’s bound to be a film yearning for people to come and see it. But, that’s just my own bias. I just don’t think he’s good at very much…except SNL skits! Dude’s unbelievably hilarious in SNL skits.

  4. Dan O. says:

    It does have some chuckles but there are just way too many punch lines that fall flat on their faces and not enough of Jason Segel’s effortless hilarity to balance out everything else that’s trying too hard. ‘Bad Teacher’ had the potential for greatness but ended up being pretty forgettable. Good Review!

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