Bad Movie, Bad Cast, Bad everything...and yes Bad Teacher

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2011)

I have to start by mentioning a review I read that called out how they related to the lead character in Bad Teacher...yah that would make you a masochist and psychotic. I know that rude and over the top crude comedies are all the rage right now and its easy to see why because sadly they are insanely popular (Bridesmaids, Hangover etc.) but this is just plain stupid. Bad Teacher gives us one of the most unlikable, stupid, main characters I've ever seen in a film. You expect that something profound will happen that will change her and make her a better person but that never happens and then just to add to the stupidity someone actually falls for her which makes no sense because the character does not have a single redeemable or attractive quality. She lies, cheats, steals, does drugs, sleeps her way through men...and somehow that's supposed to be funny? The only redeemingly funny part of the film is the over the top performances by some of the supporting cast because otherwise this would literally be the worst movie I have seen in MONTHS, maybe years. I can't believe this trash made money.
I am not a big Cameron Diaz fan but she has done some really good films. She is better than this absolute crap where she plays the bad girl and looks ridiculous doing it. She's too old to be playing this sort of juvenile and stupid character. There's Something About Mary was probably one of the grossest crude comedies I've ever seen and even that was miles above her performance in this crapfest. She should be given every Razzie award for giving us this awful character. Lucy Punch plays the high strong, annoying fellow teacher who is optimistic about everything except Diaz. Her performance at least gives you some smiles although she really grates on the nerves by the end of it. Justin Timberlake plays the shy and insatiably positive substitute teacher and is probably the single only redeeming performance. Timberlake is a great comedian and its unfortunate he got caught up in this trash. Jason Segal is a master of gross out comedy but he is completely underused in this film and he is stuck with a character who blindly falls for this beast of a 'woman' for no reason at all. What does he like about her? Her violent streak? Her acting like a whore? The drug problem? The romance is dead in this film completely and their chemistry is less than zero. The best part of the film are the small roles played by supporting cast members Phyllis Smith and John Michael Higgins who are actually funny in their roles. Unlike most public school comedies, the kids are hardly used whatsoever but that's not surprising giving how adult the comedy is in the film. But they still manage to be completely inappropriate towards children in the film.
Director Jake Kasdan helms the picture and I'm genuinely surprised because he comes from a lengthy career in directing Television with cult favorite 'school' dramedy Freaks and Geeks. He's also one of the minds behind this seasons terrific new comedy New Girl. I can only imagine he was tricked into this as was everyone else involved. You can't really blame the writers either because co-writers Gene Stupnitsky, and Lee Eisenberg come from writing The Office but after this garbage turn Ghostbusters fans should be really afraid that these two are writing that screenplay next. Bad Teacher is utter crap and I hope to never see it again. There is some very minor moments of guilty laughter but my only hope in mankind is that this is only scored a 5.8 on IMDb which is still too high. Do yourself a favor and seek out something much better. 4/10