Bad Teacher, Worse Movie

Rating: 5/10 (30 June 2011)

A truly uninspired comedy with lackluster writing, weak plotting, and very little comedy. Apparently conceived to capitalize on the bathroom-humor fad, this entry by the makers of The Office should have gone through more rewrites, and perhaps -- dare I suggest it -- given to some other writers for some fresher comedy and character arcs that actually make sense.
Cameron Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey who has no interest in teaching. When the movie opens, she's already been there a full year. I can't imagine how she made it through the first year without anyone realizing how horrible she was. She quits the job because she's found a rich boyfriend and is using him for his money, but her boyfriend's mother wises up and their pending wedding is canceled. So she must return to her dreaded job, and based on what we see on screen she's so incompetent that it seems ridiculous that the principal and the school board never notice.
It would have been far more believable if she had been a new teacher who was forced into the role for some clever reason. Maybe she should have been trying to make moves on the principal, who became love blind and pulled strings to get her the position -- which she didn't want but needed to take in order to get something out of the principal she needed. She's a user in the extreme, superficial to the last, with no moral values that I can see. So it makes no sense for her to have ever pursued teaching as a career.
Now, it is normal for characters to grow and transform as the story progresses. That is what story's are all about, in fact. But Halsey doesn't grow or transform at all. She only "tries harder" at teaching so that she can win a contest to get money to pay for a boob-job, which she believes she needs to attract another teacher who comes from a wealthy family. When her students seem to be failing to meet the standards she needs, she finds a way to steal the answers to the school tests so that she can train up her students on how to pass it (they don't show how she manages this). This plot works, but she is caught by another teacher. Does this teach her a lesson? No, she adds blackmail and other tricks to her list of crimes and wins that battle too.
By the end of the movie she has not redeemed herself at all, and I had to wonder how these writers can consider themselves professionals.
I'm giving the movie a 5, which is being nice. Cameron Diaz is too good for roles like this, she needs to choose more carefully.