'BAD TEACHER' is an OK movie.

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2011)

'BAD TEACHER': Three Stars (Out of Five)
Cameron Diaz stars in this raunchy dark satire, continuing the popular trend of female powered vulgar R rated comedies. She plays an uninspired and useless Chicago junior high teacher who treats her students like annoying stepping stones to her dream life. The movie is obviously a jab at tenure but is mostly just a light hearted dark comedy rather than any kind of political commentary. Jake Kasdan directed the film and Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg wrote it. It's not the best example of it's genre but it could have been a lot worse, definitely not a bad way to spend your time.
Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey, a teacher with no passion for teaching who drinks a lot, gets stoned a lot and swears a lot (in front of her students). She's always planned on marrying rich and leaving the working life behind and as the movie opens she's all set to do that. Then her fiancé's mother catches on to her scheming ways and talks her son in to calling off the wedding. Halsey despairingly returns to work and sets her eyes on a new rich sub (Justin Timberlake) but realizes in order to impress him she's going to need a boob job. So she plots one despicable scam after another ripping her school off of money in order to pay for the expensive operation. She faces competition from a fellow teacher (brilliantly portrayed by Lucy Punch) and also has to deal with the unwanted affection of the gym teacher (Jason Segel).
The movie is most importantly funny, it might not have any huge laughs but the jokes for the most part work. Thanks in large part to a nearly flawless cast. Punch is the scene stealer but Diaz holds her own, Segel is convincingly cool and witty and Timberlake is adequate (at least he's been sticking to roles he can pull off lately). There's also nice supporting turns from John Michael Higgins and Phyllis Smith (from TV's 'THE OFFICE'). Kasdan's directing is fitting to the material and I can see why the screenplay attracted the cast it did. It's got heart here and there but the lead character is definitely too unlikeable to ever really care about and what she gets away with in the film is kind of sickening. It is a dark comedy but it would have been nice to have someone to root for (besides Segel, who's part is way too small).
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