Bad Teacher | Review
‘Bad Teacher’ stars Cameron Diaz as Elizabeth Halsey, a blatantly superficial, foul-mouthed middle school teacher. In order to impress and win over a fellow teacher, Elizabeth does whatever she can to raise money for breast implants. The premise of the film has a lot of potential as a great comedy film, but ‘Bad Teacher’ ultimately falters from a weak and uneven script, one-note performances, and many hit-and-miss jokes.
Cameron Diaz’s character is forced back into teaching after her super rich fiance dumps her. The school she teaches at, James Madison Middle (or JAMS, as it’s called in the film), has a variety of other fun teachers who add to the film. With Elizabeth are: Lynn Davies (played by Phyllis Smith of ‘The Office’), an awkward but funny woman; Amy Squirrel, the over-achieving and passionate teacher who is the total opposite of Elizabeth, portrayed wonderfully by Lucy Punch; Russell Gettis (Jason Segal), the almost-charming gym teacher with a thing for Elizabeth; and Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake), the teacher Elizabeth is trying to woo over.
Though Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake are the biggest stars in ‘Bad Teacher’, the supporting cast ultimately steal the show. Phyllis Smith has a lot of small, but great comedic moments in the film, and the same goes for Jason Segal. Lucy Punch as the hilariously quirky Amy Squirrel absolutely takes the cake. As the biggest highlight of the film, Punch’s character is just really enlightening, entertaining, and charming. Squirrel has many funny moments, but the character’s hyper-activeness and optimism is fun to take in.
Don’t get me wrong, though, Cameron Diaz is still great as the main character. Her character’s drug-abusing, foul-mouthed ways could have gotten old fast, but it never does. Diaz is a deligh as Elizabeth, and the moments where the character’s emotional side comes out is a treat. However, Diaz’s character switches back and forth between emotions a lot, causing uneven and flip-floppy character development.
Justin Timberlake’s character is just plain weird (What’s up with the dry-humping?). At first his character of Scott Delacorte seems straight-laced and normal, but he quickly degrades into a strange and ultimately one-note character. Timberlake’s character never makes a full circle, and in the end it’s realized he doesn’t really add anything to the film other than a human-MacGuffin.
Though ‘Bad Teacher’ features some big laughs, the majority of the film is only mildly funny – You know, the “grunt laugh” kind of funny. There are just as many un-funny moments, too. I love the Michael Jordan-Lebron James argument between Jason Segal’s character and a student. Eric Stonestreet (from ‘Modern Family’), even with his limited screen time, adds a lot of humor to the film as Elizabeth’s roommate whom she found on Craigslist.
‘Bad Teacher’ isn’t that bad of a comedy film, but it’s not really a good one either. It’s really miss-able. If the students were more involved in the film, and if the characters were more fleshed out, the film probably would have been great. There’s a better R-rated, female-driven comedy film out there right now called ‘Bridesmaids‘. I highly recommend those who haven’t seen ‘Bridesmaids’ yet to go see it.
