Cameron Diaz

Jason Segel

Justin Timberlake

Lucy Punch

John Michael Higgins

Phyllis Smith

Thomas Lennon

Molly Shannon

Eric Stonestreet

Dave Allen

Matthew J. Evans

Kaitlyn Dever

Jillian Armenante

Kathryn Newton

Igal Ben Yair

Aja Bair

Andra Nechita

Noah Munck

FINNEAS

Daniel Castro

Adrian Kali Turner

Paul Bates

Jeff Judah

Nat Faxon

Stephanie Faracy

David Paymer

Alanna Ubach

Christine Smith

Paul Feig

Deirdre Lovejoy

Melvin Mar

Rose Abdoo

Jerry Lambert

Jennifer Irwin

Christopher Rockwell

David Doty

Rick Overton

Danny Trapp

Matt Besser

Lee Eisenberg

Bruno Gunn

Jordan Van Vranken

Kadee Noel Brown

Jennifer Holloway

Christina Gabrielle

Gene Stupnitsky

Jake Kasdan

Jimmy Miller

Terry Leonard

Carey Dietrich

Bill Purple

Michael Herron

Steve Windle

Pierce Austin

Travis Panarisi

Chris Santini

Malosi Leonard

Joseph V. Cicio

Kimberly Shannon Murphy

Matt Riley

Gene Rizzardi

Chela Fiorini

John Morris

Michael Betz

Marty Atwell

Brent Egan

Tony Muller

Soo-Jin Yoon

Bruce Luizzi

Josue Rodriguez

Sarah Monat

Jonathan Leahy

Katrina Mastrolia

Douglas I. Schwartz

Randy K. Singer

Thom Khoury Williams

Jimmy E. Jensen

George Santo Pietro

Carmine Goglia

Josh Sheppard

Howie E. Kremer

Craig Fehrman

Jamie Dixon

Joseph Guerino

Jill Rosenblatt

Jeffrey A. Brooks

Jesse Lutz

Isaac Kellman Carlen

Ranjani Brow

Tom Calderaro

Joe Bucaro III

Matt Leonard

Brian Munce

Richard Thomas

Rick Roesch

John Herrera McElroy

Kelli Barksdale

K.T. Wiegman

Louie DeMarco

Michael Kenner

Audrey Clark Austin

Maggie Fung

James E. Tocci

Robin Harlan

Michelle Eisenreich

Laurene Alvarado

Henry Wyler

Tom Goodrich

Monty Rowan

Joseph T. Mastrolia

Kate Galbraith

Tara Guckeen

Michelle DeMayo

Amy Cohn

Rhana Alhaid

Juliet Seniff

Catherine Burt

Chad Witt

Melvin Langford, Jr.

John Dietrick

Gavin McGuire

Bethany Orlemann

Stephen Kaye

Heinz Healey

Nathan Kelly

Jason Kumalo

Shaughnessy Hare

Bruce Botnick

Yulia Gershenzon

Nick Mestrundrea

Ebner Sobalvarro

Robin Fredriksz

Francine Moss

Howard London

Gina Zimmitti

Lona Vigi

Katy Galow

Joshua Sankar

Wendy Hoffman

Jillian Giacomini

Comedy

Bad Teacher

Columbia Pictures

Mosaic Media Group

United States of America

Charles Tatum

Cameron Diaz has made a lot of crappy movies in her career, to the point that I would not consider myself a fan at all (sit through "The Other Woman" sometime, and then argue its merits- there aren't any). Here, Diaz finds a meaty, funny role and gives it her all.

Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) is a gold-digging teacher leaving her middle school after a year to marry Mark (Nat Faxon). She is dumped, and realizes the only way to score a rich guy is through ginormous breasts. She returns to teach at the middle school, determined to score the ten grand needed to get her boob job, and another rich guy in the form of long-term substitute teacher Scott (Justin Timberlake), who is eyeing goody-goody teaching vet Amy (a hysterical Lucy Punch). Elizabeth is also deflecting the passes of the nice guy gym teacher Russell (Jason Segel), and begins a campaign of dishonesty in order to reach her goals.

While the script does go off the rails once in a while, Elizabeth thankfully doesn't lose her crudeness due to any life lessons learned throughout the story. She's not a lot of fun to be around, treating her coworkers and students with equal disdain, but the viewer somehow finds themselves riding this out just to see what she is going to do next. Diaz wouldn't have been my first choice for this (Melissa McCarthy would have nailed this), but she surprised me with how funny she was in an unglamourous role. The supporting cast are hot and cold, I didn't get a lot of chemistry with Diaz from either Segel or Timberlake, but the most fun was watching Elizabeth square off against Amy. Lucy Punch never takes a false step in her performance, and watching Elizabeth blithely deal with her is fantastic. The supporting student actors are also good, Elizabeth's withering honesty about their lives is almost refreshing in this day and age.

Jake Kasdan directs with his usual confidence, getting laughs in almost every scene. The screenplay spins its wheels in the midsection. Once we set up that Elizabeth is a bad teacher, we sit through a lot of unnecessary scenes that feel the need to drive the point home again and again (the Christmas dinner at one student's home).

All in all, "Bad Teacher" is a pleasant surprise, and it's too bad Diaz couldn't give us more Elizabeth Halsey thanks to a closing scene that could have generated a funny sequel. A brief television series emerged from this but way too much was changed to make it successful. A definite (* * * 1/2) out of five stars.

The Unrated version contains some physical violence, strong profanity, sexual content, some female nudity, brief male nudity, adult situations, alcohol and tobacco use, drug abuse

English

Official Trailer