Bad Teacher - Una cattiva maestra

I thoroughly enjoyed this comedy which is not romantic but mercenary, vulgar and borders on sex work. I'm exactly the audience this kind of movie was designed for though it's admittedly offensive and low-brow, Bad Teacher is hilarious...like a 90 minute long SNL skit from the good 'ol days.

A gold-digging English teacher is dumped by her dorky, wealthy fiance and his mom and must return to her job as the worst middle school teacher that ever lived. Realistically, the character of Elizabeth is reminiscent of a substitute teacher who escorts or is a cam girl at night to make ends meet, but in this flick she's a full-time credentialed teacher so your suspension of disbelief will have to be pretty enormous to even accept the premise, but once you accept that it's an absurdist dark comedy and not a touching dramedy, it gets really good.

Perfect employee Amy is every obnoxious public school teacher that ever lived, and probably few college adjunct professors as well. It's implausible to love Elizabeth even if you laugh at her insane plotting to bed a math teacher who was probably a virgin until he was 25, played by a convincingly "hip youth pastor" bespectacled Justin Timberlake, but it becomes a lot easier because not hating Amy is utterly impossible.

Sick, offensive, ridiculous and predictable, I still give Bad Teacher a 6 because it's super entertaining and fun if you'e in that mood.

If I could have given zero stars I would have. This movie is absolutely not worth watching. The only remotely good thing is Jason Segel but his role was so marginal, he couldn't help anything.

The story is completely predictable with no lessons to be learned from it. There is no witty dialogue and not a single scene which would make you laugh like you should when watching a comedy. Timberlake's role is supposed to be dorky or something but if you've seen him on SNL, this one does not live up to your expectations. The dry hump scene is not even embarrassing funny but utterly lame.

The only twist in the story is so expected and poorly executed, it's just another super lame scene.

If seeing Cameron Diaz washing cars in Daisy Dukes for about five minutes is your thing watch it. Otherwise, stay away from it. This movie seriously sucked.

There is a certain energy in that movie. Especially at the beginning when Cameron Diaz seems invincible she has the time of her life (almost literally). There is a great sequence where she kinda falls down though which sets of the rest of the movie. Unfortunately even though it does make sense for her character, it does loose quite a bit of its pace from that point on.

Justin Timberlake is good in playing kind of against character and does not care about what people may think. Jason Segel is almost underused in this one and even Cameron Diaz did not really have that many great moments overall. And for a movie that tries to stay raunchy, it does even fail at combining that with the funny elements. While deliciously evil at times (and good), it also misses the point half of the time. Not really bad, but not that good either (I only watched the cinema release and not the extended cut)

First Santa, now a middle school teacher. I feel as if we're on the verge of a new trend of bad *insert occupation here*. Bad toll booth operators, bad samurai deli clerks…where will it end? Anyway, this is the latest from comedy director Jake Kasdan (WALK HARD) and a decently funny movie with some great moments but finds a major problem in its main character. 2011 hasn't been super strong with comedies; there have been some real good ones (BRIDESMAIDS) but most of them have been pretty forgettable (PAUL). This movie is pretty funny but it still ends on the low end of the spectrum. Cameron Diaz is Elizabeth Halsey, a gold-digging narcissist who has somehow made a career of being a middle school teacher. She believes she's found her way out with a rich fiancé to tend to her every need, but it falls apart when he finally realizes she's using him. Elizabeth is forced to return to her teaching job, where she proceeds to care even less than before. She fends off the advances of gym teacher Russell (Jason Segel) and focuses her attention on landing the new substitute teacher, Scott (Justin Timberlake). Elizabeth realizes that the only way she'll snag Scott's attention is a little self-improvement. Not becoming a decent person or anything, just a breast enhancement. From then on, she lies, cheats, and steals her way to the money she'll need for the surgery; and the only one who suffers is the good teacher (Lucy Punch) who just wants Elizabeth to do her job.

In A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, young Alex (Malcolm McDowell) robs, rapes, and commits horrible acts of violence but maintains a charismatic personality that allows the audience to root for him. Elizabeth Halsey in BAD TEACHER, does not. The "protagonist" in this movie also happens to be the least likable person in the film. As a result, the movie comes off as a little backwards. The character we're supposed to support (Elizabeth) is just a horrible person with absolutely no redeeming qualities presented until the final act of the film. And I mean none. She was a gold-digging fiancé, she's perpetually drunk/high on the job, and she coldly dismisses gym teacher Russell's advances without a glance in favor of stalking the new substitute with the massive bank account. It would almost make more sense if the film focused on Ms. Squirrel (Lucy Punch) living out her dream teaching career when trouble-making Elizabeth comes along and steals her thunder in underhanded ways. Punch should be the protagonist, and Elizabeth the antagonist. But it's not; instead we watch as the film's "good guy" punishes the "bad guy" for nothing other than doing her job and doing it well. Oh well, whatever…it's just a comedy after all. Antiheroes can be fun and it works as long as the film is funny, which it mostly is. The movie is good for some laughs, though it's tough to be anything but distant as you watch everything going down without ever really being drawn into the story.

Cameron Diaz really is the best person for this role. Not because she's horribly unlikeable (I assume she's not) but because she's got a decent comedic background in her films and she's still capable of pulling off drop-dead beauty. In BAD TEACHER, she's the teacher we all wished we'd had in middle school. She really drives the point home when she volunteers to work the school's charity car wash so she can pilfer funds. The supporting cast in this movie is what really makes it enjoyable. Jason Segel is always great as a lovable schlub (which pretty much sums up his gym teacher character) and Lucy Punch is hilariously eccentric as Ms. Squirrel. I've also got to give credit to Phyllis Smith as Elizabeth's friend Lynn. She's probably the funniest part of the movie as the soft-spoken conservative friend who wants so badly to be as cool as Elizabeth but can't bring herself to commit to the debauchery. Honestly, the main character may be crap but the movie does have some real funny moments. I just don't know if there's enough to save it from fading out shortly after watching it. If it helps, I find the movie is funnier the less sober you are when watching it.

You'd think this sort of humour would be right up my street, and you'd be absolutely correct. The sneering at the well-intentioned, the relentless mocking of the disadvantaged, and the courage to show us sometimes nice guys (or gals) DO finish last is like ambrosia to my ears.

However, I can't help but compare and contrast to a similar film by the name of Bad Santa, and not just because of the name. Both movies have alcoholic, drug-addled losers in the main role who are only in their current job for personal satisfaction. They steal, cheat and manipulate every good soul around them to achieve their goal, before finding some sort of minor personal redemption by the end.

But unlike the Xmas film, Bad Teacher operates to so many extremes of what it mocks it all becomes a wee bit improbable. No-one for instance, could be as sickly-sweet as Lucy Punch's character in real life... you can tell this is a comic creation all the way, and she plays it too broadly. Same with Justin Timberlake.... they make him so obnoxiously nice in his part, he is never that funny, just plain irritating. And he ditches that persona entirely for a startlingly bad dry-humping scene late on, the less said about the better.

Thank Heaven for Cameron Diaz though... She might be damaging children's delicate mental health with her corruptible influence, but at least she's a fleshed out person. All the humorous moments flow through her and her utter disdain for the goody two shoes surrounding her. A school like this, with it's right-on attitude and it's stultifying political correctness would probably be more of a nightmare to attend than a little place I know called Potterspury Lodge.

It's just a shame then, that unlike the slightly superior Bad Santa, sometimes it just gets so OTT that it crosses the line between satire and silliness. It's still generally a chucklesome affair, but I just feel like it could have been better. Ah, well... 6/10