Review: BAD TEACHER
BAD TEACHER
reviewer Harry Davenport
Rated: 15 (UK)
Release Date: June 17th, 2011(UK)
Director: Jake Kasdan
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Lucy Punch, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Phyllis Smith
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Bad Teacher tells the story of Elisabeth Halsey, a teacher who behaves disgracefully as she tries to buy herself new boobs. The film tries to be a mixture of Bad Santa and School of Rock, but unlike those it fails to tell a coherent story or be funny.
The film stars Cameron Diaz who plays a character who is indeed a bad teacher and one who is also distinctly nasty and selfish. She is rude to both co-workers and children and is repelling to watch. Via scenes showing his loneliness and depression, Billy Bob Thorton in Bad Santa is watchable and even occasionally likeable, Diaz’s character is constantly awful and fails to be relateable. Miss Halsey gets by on her good looks, and never gains insight or has a change of heart. The closest she comes to being nice is giving a boy her bra in a particularly unbelievable sequence.
Diaz fails to be funny, as does most of the cast. Justin Timberlake, who was so good in The Social Network, is dull as a sexy supply teacher. John Michael Higgins, known for his excellent and hilarious work on the Christopher Guest’s mockumentary films, is given little to work with. British actress Lucy Punch, who thus far has mainly played ditsy slutty blondes in films such as Hot Fuzz and Festival, plays Diaz’s foil; a quirky teacher who is good at her job. Punch is quite funny and it’s nice to see her play a slightly different character but much like Diaz’s it is not a likeable one.
The best performance comes from Jason Segel, who plays the gym teacher who fancies Diaz. His timing is good and does a good job at bringing some much-needed humour to the film. The major inconsistency with the character is that he likes Diaz, whom he knows to be rude and bad at her job. It is depressing to watch a nice guy strive to get the affection of a horrible woman.
Segal first made a name for himself on the TV show Freaks and Geeks, which is set in a high school during the 1980s. Jake Kasdan, who directed Bad Teacher, directed several episodes of the show including the pilot, and this is another reason the film is so disappointing. Freaks and Geeks captured the feeling of school life and, most importantly, was funny. His last film Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story was also amusing and featured a selfish character who we still happen to warm to.
One of the strangest things about the film is that, unlike School of Rock, Diaz isn’t a newcomer to the school she teaches in. She used to work there and left to marry a rich man but returned when it didn’t work out. Throughout the film she struggles to keep her job and you wonder how she survived before, or why she was rehired …
You can have a comedy with an unlikeable lead character, but you better make sure that the film is funny. Bad Teacher is unfunny and unpleasant.
MOVIE RATING: 1.5/5
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
[vodpod id=Video.5630180&w=640&h=350&fv=]
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
It does have some chuckles but there are just way too many punch lines that fall flat on their faces and not enough of Jason Segel’s effortless hilarity to balance out everything else that’s trying too hard. ‘Bad Teacher’ had the potential for greatness but ended up being pretty forgettable. Good Review!
it did, i think the british version was different from american as a lot of things seen in the american trailer were cut from british movie though it wouldn’t have made it any better
Just came from the advance screening here in Ottawa, Canada, and you pretty much hit the nail on the head. There was a lot of the red banner trailer you have with your review that wasn’t even in the movie, and had it, it might have been a little funnier. Sadly, though, this movie had potential and squandered it…and not even for the ske of special effects or gratuitous nudity. They just opened the garbage chute and dropped it in. Anything even remotely approaching redemption for Diaz’s character was too little too late. Luckily Cameron Diaz is easy on the eyes, but most importantly, I’m lucky the advance screening was free.