Review of Bad Teacher (2011) by Dawdlingpoet — 23 Nov 2021

This is a very 'sexy' movie, certainly one male fans of Cameron Diaz will be likely to enjoy.

The comedy is quite teenage and infantile of course - I found it was quite amusing to watch the way Elizabeth interacts with Amy Squirrel (a fellow teacher) and Lynn (an older, very self aware and rather shy teacher), with her clearly rather over the top behaviour and talk of personal matters given so matter-of-fact.

The characters are all rather exaggerated and stereotyped, as you might imagine but certainly Elizabeth comes off worst, in terms of being seen as a selfish, fiesty woman who really isn't interested in helping kids learn, let alone being a part of the closed knit school community. I had a bit of a wry smile at seeing the **** of the more rather unassuming members of staff coming out during the movie.

I thought it was funny having Justin Timberlake playing a glasses wearing, rather unassuming geek type (called Scott Delacorte), since thats not his usual type of character to portray.

Dangerous Minds this is clearly not but I found some scenes, some of the scenarios and the plot quite amusing overall, partly due to the absurdity I suppose.

I guess in a way it reminded me of the recent BBC comedy drama 'Big School' starring David Walliams, only of course its American. Actually Lucy Punch (who plays Amy) even resembles Catherine Tate (who is in Big School) to a fair extent. It certainly doesn't take itself seriously and its rather cheesy and perhaps unoriginal but it still provides some good (if cheap) laughs and is an easy watch. As far as running time is concerned, its not very long at around an hour and a half long, which may be seen as a plus.

As far as content is concerned, there are obviously many sexual references and a sex scene which would make for awkward viewing, as well as scenes of drug taking and very strong language, so its not for the faint hearted or easily offended. This movie carries a 15 rating, which is about the target audience level I suppose lol. I can't say I didn't find some scenes and situations amusing none the less though.

Plot wise, there's the odd twist, particularly towards the end - with the final scene ending with a big twist just before the credits roll. This I thought was quite amusing. Its a bit sickly sweet in terms of what the ultimate outcome was but I liked that it seemed to give out a good message in terms of self acceptance but I won't go into details for fear of giving out too much of a spoiler.

The cast are all pretty decent and give good comic performances - my favourite character is Lynn, the reserved older teacher, as she's quite accepting of Elizabeth and has a sort of naivety that I liked. Of course Cameron Diaz comes across as very headstrong and feisty and looks the part as a self absorbed but very attractive woman but that's hardly surprising (that she looks good on screen, rather than that she's especially self absorbed as such, of course I wouldn't know!).

I would recommend this film, although it really won't appeal to some at all and its not exactly a greatly original movie but it does have a few laughs and its fairly entertaining, plus certainly easy to watch. If it appeals from a storyline point of view, then you'll likely enjoy it - there's plenty of 'eye candy' for fans of Cameron Diaz at least, for those that would appeal to.