Bad Teacher

As an educator, I was particularly excited about seeing this movie.  I thought it would be awesome to see a teacher just do whatever she wanted.  I thought it would be even more awesome to see the administration try to crack down and mess up.  I was super excited to see the shenanigans that the kids got up to in the classroom.  I was utterly disappointed.

The kids sat quietly in the classroom and watched the movies that she showed.  They even complained a little that they had to watch movies instead of learn.  What a joke.  The people who made this film have obviously never sat in a classroom.  Sure after a month of nothing but movies kids would definitely speak up, but not on the first day.  They would love it.

The only good thing about this film was Jason Segel.  Good lord do I love that man.  They did not give him nearly enough screen time.  They devoted more time to Justin Timberlake, who did an admirable job bringing a poorly written character to life.  He worked well in the construct he was given, but JT has major acting chops.  Don't pin him in like that, let his timing and brilliance shine through.  Jason's role fit him much better, the sarcastic gym teacher who mocked everyone else.  I loved it.  Cameron Diaz fell flat as the shallow teacher who didn't care.

Bad Teacher implies that she truly is terrible.  At worst she was negligent.  She drank in class and slept while her one class watched films.  Seriously writers, have you been to a middle school before?  She taught middle school English, where were her other classes?  The story says that all she wanted was to get enough money to get a boob job so that she could find a rich person to marry her and she wouldn't have to work anymore.  She falls for JT's character, the substitute who comes from money.

I laughed at the appropriate parts, but all in all this movie is what was really bad.  You had a talented cast of comedic actors, yet their skills were not really showcased.  One of the things that I think makes a comedy great is spontaneity.  When the actors know the general direction the scene should go, but then they are allowed to explore their characters a little by ad-libbing lines.  It felt like everyone stuck precisely to the script on this one.

All in all, I say skip this film.  There are much better and funnier movies out there.  If you really want to see it wait for it to come to the redbox, it might be worth a dollar.