Cameron Diaz stars as Elizabeth Halsey - the worst teacher in the history of education (OK, maybe Mary Kay Letourneau, Pamela Smart and Debra Lafave were worse). Not excited to be working, and eager to find a rich husband to take care of her and her spendthrift ways, Halsey shows movies to her kids all day, while carrying out all sorts of schemes to fund her desired breast augmentation surgery (you know, a boob job). However, her interest in the new teacher, who also happens to be the heir to a large fortune, Scott (Justin Timberlake), has inspired her to appear to care, along with a new plot to come up with some big cash. How does Elizabeth keep her job?
Will she get the guy who can help her retire from teaching forever?
Bad Teacher is more like a rebellious teen acting out against her parents than a truly rotten to the core degenerate kid. I guess you could say it's Kim Kardashian instead of being Lindsay Lohan.
Writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg find moments to make the movie as outrageous and raunchy as it should be, but don't quite commit all the way. Thankfully, they avoid the played out, cliché twist where she learns a lesson and changes her life around to let Elizabeth be a nasty woman the entire way through, but Diaz has much the same problem as the rest of the movie.
Bad Teacher and Cameron Diaz are funny, but you almost wish Diaz took a page out of Billy Bob Thornton's book in Bad Santa. She isn't angry and vile enough often enough. Sure, Diaz knows how to inject some of that into Elizabeth, and she knows how to make the most of the most shocking and outrageous moments (especially when she lets good material speak for itself instead of overselling it), but it needs to be more.
You'll enjoy her interactions with Lucy Punch, who plays the goody two shoes teacher, Amy Squirrel, but even this rivalry needs more fighting, more attempts by each to outdo the other and more pain for all involved. Punch is one of the funniest and unknown actors in the business, so it's great to see her playing such a large role in a big summer movie. Along with Jason Segel, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins and Thomas Lennon, this group constitutes one of the strongest comedic supporting casts assembled, and each will give you at least one moment to remember fondly.
Bad Teacher will make you laugh, so why not buy a ticket?
2 ½ Waffles (Out of 4)
Bad Teacher is rated R for sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use
Writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg find moments to make the movie as outrageous and raunchy as it should be, but don't quite commit all the way. Thankfully, they avoid the played out, cliché twist where she learns a lesson and changes her life around to let Elizabeth be a nasty woman the entire way through, but Diaz has much the same problem as the rest of the movie.
Bad Teacher and Cameron Diaz are funny, but you almost wish Diaz took a page out of Billy Bob Thornton's book in Bad Santa. She isn't angry and vile enough often enough. Sure, Diaz knows how to inject some of that into Elizabeth, and she knows how to make the most of the most shocking and outrageous moments (especially when she lets good material speak for itself instead of overselling it), but it needs to be more.
You'll enjoy her interactions with Lucy Punch, who plays the goody two shoes teacher, Amy Squirrel, but even this rivalry needs more fighting, more attempts by each to outdo the other and more pain for all involved. Punch is one of the funniest and unknown actors in the business, so it's great to see her playing such a large role in a big summer movie. Along with Jason Segel, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins and Thomas Lennon, this group constitutes one of the strongest comedic supporting casts assembled, and each will give you at least one moment to remember fondly.
Bad Teacher will make you laugh, so why not buy a ticket?
2 ½ Waffles (Out of 4)
Bad Teacher is rated R for sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use
