A Review of Bad San-- I mean Teacher

Bad Teacher

When I went in , I had really low expectations for this movie. The trailer did nothing to make me think that this was going to be worth my time and money. I thought the only funny scene in the trailer was the one with Jason Segel arguing with the little kid about LeBron James. I went to see it because I was bored and a friend asked me if I wanted to go see it. I wasn't expecting to see it in the theaters, but since I did, here's my review.

The movie stars Cameron Díaz as Elizabeth Halsey. She is a high school teacher who was about to marry a very rich guy and never teach again. The rich guy finally figured her out and Elizabeth is forced to go back to the school. It's obvious that she never really enjoyed teaching and that she felt that she deserved more. She's a bitch, a gold digger, a drunk, completely insensitive and really has no redeeming qualities... and that's the reason why I liked the character and because of that, the movie.

Teacher Amy Squirrel is played really insanely by the damn crazy hot Lucy Punch. She goes a little bit overboard with the character and I'm not sure how the kids are learning anything with the short times we see her interacting with the students in class. Justin Timberlake plays substitute teacher Scott Delacorte, an heir to a big fortune which Elizabeth is trying to seduce. We never really know if Squirrel is just using him or if she really has feelings for him, but I guess that doesn't really matter. I liked the scene at the bar with the band because Timberlake is sort of winking at us with his terrible singing.

Jason Segel plays Russell Gettis, the school's gym teacher. This is a character that really saved the movie for me. Why he was attracted to Elizabeth was beyond me, but he is probably the one that feels like a real person you would meet. A guy that takes his job seriously but can also let loose and have fun.

If only Cameron Díaz looked like this... Now THIS is a very bad teacher.

I think the movie's trailer kind of misled me. I never really noticed it was an R rated movie until I actually saw it. I thought it was one of those teenager friendly comedies that don't really take any chances and this one does a little bit. The drug use and the car wash scenes were interesting because I wasn't expecting them.

Jake Kasdan directed Walk Hard a couple of days before this and it was a movie that I actually enjoyed. He does a serviceable job here to get something that is an ok story and manage to end up with a somewhat funny movie. My biggest problem with it is that it goes a bit too far in terms of how crazy these people are acting. Nobody gets murdered, but you feel that given thirty more minutes, the bodies would start piling up.

In the end, this is an ok movie that is probably better than it had any right to be. I'm not a huge fan of Cameron Díaz, so I thought she was ok, but what I think saved the movie was the fact that they kept her somewhat reprehensible throughout. She doesn't undergo some great transformation after an epiphany, but she does start to see the error of some of her ways... of course, all this while doing some pretty reprehensible stuff. This movie wanted to be Bad Santa and while it failed to do that, it was still funny enough.

6 out of 10