Bad, Terrible, Awful Teacher

Rating: 2/10 (14 September 2011)

¨She doesn't give an 'F'¨ I don't know what is worse: Cameron Diaz's character as a teacher, or the movie itself. This is really a very bad movie, terrible. It's supposed to be a comedy, but it really doesn't have many funny moments. Yes there is a couple here and there, but in a 95 minute long movie you expect much more laughs. This raunchy comedy had a whole lot of raunchy, but no comedy whatsoever. I really hated this film, and expected a lot more from Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, and Jason Segel who have done much better movies in the past. I can't blame it on them because the script they were given was really poor, but then I ask myself why would these actors want to be in a movie with a script as bad as this one. This isn't the first time that Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg fail as screenwriters in a comedy. These are the same guys that were responsible for the Year One fiasco starring Jack Black and Michael Cera. Director Jake Kasdan, however, has done far better in the past with funny films like Walk Hard and Orange County. Bad Teacher was a huge misstep for him, and for everyone else who was involved in this project. This could very well be the worse film of the year in my opinion. Cameron Diaz might not give an F, but I definitely will give this film an F for being the disaster it was.
Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) is not your typical High School teacher; she's not interested in her students, she smokes pot before class, and she tries to avoid teaching as much as possible. The only reason she became a teacher was because of the long summer vacations. This is her last year at the school anyway because she is getting married to her wealthy boyfriend and can now enjoy life. The only problem is that her mother-in-law points out how she is only interested in his money so he leaves her with no wedding. This means Elizabeth will have to teach yet another year until she can find a wealthy man to marry. She becomes interested in the new substitute teacher who seems to come from a wealthy family, Scott (Justin Timberlake), but he has just broken up with his long term girlfriend and doesn't feel ready for a relationship yet. Elizabeth has a rival: it's another fellow teacher named Amy (Lucy Punch) who seems to get along really well with Scott. Amy also seems to point out Elizabeth's method of teaching and tries to get her more involved with the kids. Russell (Jason Segel) is the gym teacher who has always had a thing for Elizabeth, but she never pays attention to him because he doesn't have any money. Elizabeth is more interested in winning over Scott's affection (and his money) so that she can get away from school as soon as possible. She will do whatever it takes to do this even if it revolves on getting her breasts done in order to get his attention.
The movie really doesn't know where to head. At the beginning Cameron Diaz's character is so hateful but later out of nowhere she begins to have a conscious and is nice all of a sudden. On the other hand Lucy Punch's character seems so nice at first, but then turns up being mean. It's like they switched characters so the movie could find a decent ending. These changes in character can't happen all of a sudden without explanation. The movie is full of stereotypes and it completely fails as a comedy. It is too bad because Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz, and Justin Timberlake have proved they have great talent, but none of them are able to stand out and save this movie. Timberlake's character is perhaps the worst of all. I had no idea where the director was trying to go with his character. Diaz is just way too mean to be likable. Segel on the other hand is perhaps the most decent character in the movie but he really has no screen time and it's hard to see how he could fall for someone like Diaz. This is really one of the worst films I've seen all year, and can't remember any funny moments in the movie. I was expecting a lot more from the cast and found the 95 minute movie way too long. It's hard to like a movie when you are supposed to root for a highly unlikeable character such as Elizabeth Halsey. I could care less what happens to her.
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