Good comedy, but not without it's faults...

Rating: 6/10 (27 June 2011)

I must say that my hopes were kind of high after seeing the red band trailer for Bad Teacher. In Bad Teacher, we are shown the story of Elisabeth Huksey (Cameron Diaz), who is a teacher in a junior high. She smokes pot, drinks alcohol in class, swears like a sailor and doesn't care about the education of her students (makes them watch movies like ''Scream'' instead). She's just in it for the money. Throughout the film, her goal is to save up as much money as possible in order to pay for her breast implants, which she desires a lot in order to seduce Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake), a new substitute teacher, even though Russell Gettis, the gym teacher (played by Jason Segel), has a crush on her. Meanwhile, the state bonus for the best teacher in the state could help Elisabeth get her breast implants, but she will have to tough it out with Amy Squirrel (played by Lucy Punch)...
In short, I guess that anyone who read the above synopsis knows where the movie is going. Although the film isn't always predictable, there are many times where it is. In fact, I predicted what the ending would be 35 minutes into the film (well at least part of it, because another part of the ending is totally random). The gags are, for the most part, hit-and-miss: when the gags are funny, they make you laugh, and I mean they make you laugh a lot. But there are times where they miss, and when you can easily hear a little cricket sound throughout the silence of the audience. Elsewhere, Lucy Punch's character was probably meant to be shown as an obnoxious woman, but she got onto my nerves so fast that when her jokes appeared, she just didn't make me laugh so much (although I don't blame Punch for that: Maybe directing???)
But my main complaint with this film is that the story really seems to go nowhere. The story focuses on Elisabeth trying to get her implants all along. It never/rarely does anything constructive or creative to elaborate on her situation. There isn't much of a story in there, just a bunch of situations here and there where Elisabeth is in some kind of a pickle. Also in the story, the character of Russell Gettis (pleasant though is, all thanks to Jason Segel) wasn't necessary at all to keep the story going. As far as I can tell, he's pretty much there as a minor tool to make sure the movie keeps going on. And what about the kids? The movie is called Bad Teacher but we rarely see what's become of her students except for two of them. I was expecting something a bit (yes that's a bit of a broad comparison) like School of Rock, where the children do play a role in the story: maybe her kids helping her get the money for her implants would have actually brought the story somewhere.
However, as much as I am bashing about it, there are a lot of positive things to say about this movie too. Cameron Diaz as Elisabeth Hulsey was perfect: The role seemed written for her. She shines in this film. Timberlake, Segel, and Punch also shine in their roles due to roles that also seem to be written directly for them, which sort of makes you realize how natural they feel in their characters's shoes. And just like I mentioned before, there is some pretty funny stuff in this film, and when it's funny, you will laugh out loud quite a bit.
That being said, this film is far from being a masterpiece. I felt it was lacking pace and that it lacked a real story to interest the viewer. If you're a teen (movie's target audience) and are searching for a raunchy comedy, then maybe you should go see it. But for anyone else, I'd recommend to wait for the DVD release or for it to air on TV. All in all, a disappointing film, but still one that shines in some places thanks to the performances of it's actors and some clever jokes here and there.