Raunchy and vulgar, but worth it

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2011)

Raunchy, vulgar: Those are just two of the words to describe the movie Bad Teacher. On that note, this movie is still well worth seeing. Cameron Diaz stars in the title role as Elizabeth Halsey, a middle school teacher who really doesn't care about how her students do in school. At the end of a school year, she quits so she can rely on her fiancé to be her sugar daddy. When she comes home to find that he wants nothing to do with her, she has to keep her job in order to support herself. Once Elizabeth is back in school, she could care less about her students. Instead of teaching her students, she just shows movies while she sleeps at her desk. Her motivation is to just have money to get larger breasts so she can attract a guy and turn that guy into her sugar daddy.
Elizabeth becomes attracted to the new substitute teacher Scott, played by Justin Timberlake. Timberlake is okay in this role, but he doesn't have any moments where he shines as an actor.
While Elizabeth is attracted to Scott, a gym teacher named Russell, played by Jason Segel, is attracted to her. Segel continues to show how great he is as an actor. Segel does really well at making Russell a guy who will not stop until he has Elizabeth's affection.
A performance who really stood out to me was right across the hallway from Elizabeth. This was in the form of Lucy Punch as Amy Squirrel, a sassy, overachieving teacher who is always striving to be the best. In the film when Elizabeth's motivations change so that she gets a big bonus, Amy and Elizabeth become rivals. Their rivalry is hilarious on many levels.
Director Jake Kasdan knows how to keep the humor intact to the story. He does great at making the story raunchy and vulgar, yet hilarious at the same time. The only flaw to me was that at times the screenplay is all over the place.