Bad Teacher (2011): Dir: Jake Kasdan / Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, Phyllis Smith: She is indeed, bad. She sleeps during class while the students are watching movies. She grades tests using profane vocabulary. To top it off she uses a student car wash to raise money for a boob job. She is played with great flair by Cameron Diaz and the film opens with her leaving teaching to settle down in married life only to be dumped by her fiancée whose mother sees through her greedy intentions. She returns to teaching the following year and sets her sights on a new teacher, played by Justin Timberlake but his affections are being competed for by the uptight Miss Squirrel, played by Lucy Punch. Director Jake Kasdan made the music mockumentary masterpiece Walk Hard: A Dewey Cox Story. He doesn't match that greatness here but he does create a fantastic stage for the comic talents of Diaz who is merciless in her quest for success. She will manipulate and scam until luck favors her. Jason Segel as the gym teacher whom she ignores is well played but flat. Timberlake is quite different as the nerdy teacher unsmittened with Diaz. He will learn a lesson or two that will leave him with no romantic resources. Punch steals her scenes as she competes with Diaz and seemingly wins until her quests for sabotage backfires. Phyllis Smith plays another teacher who befriends Diaz but she cannot steal scenes here the way that Punch seems able to. It is a crude yet often funny take on an individual unable to fit in within an area where she is clearly no good. Score: 7 ½ / 10
Review of Bad Teacher
