Hi Bryan Here….

When I first saw the red band trailer for ‘Bad Teacher’ I’ll admit that I laughed quite a bit.  It was extremely vulgar in the way of language.  It reminded me of Bad Santa.  It seemed like one of those films that the comedy was going to come from the use of vulgar language.  And I was totally right.  After seeing the film, the comedy is built on the use of vulgar language.  But sadly the film doesn’t work.  Cameron Diaz is a wretched mess throughout the whole film while Justin Timberlake’s amazing talent is wasted on horrible dialogue and story.  The only good part of the film is Jason Segel which unfortunately only has about 10 or 15 minutes of screen time.  But every time he is on film, it is comedic gold.

The film follows Cameron Diaz who plays Elizabeth, a gold digging married woman who is only interested in money.  She happens to be a teacher at a middle school on the last day of class before summer.  She goes home to find that her husband has found out that she has spent $16,000 dollars on her self  of his money in one month.  He realizes she is only out for money and gives her the boot.  Cut to the first day of class for the following school year and we see her eye a new substitute teacher played by Timberlake who we find out is the heir to a multi million dollar family who makes wrist watches.  Elizabeth wants his money and so she lays on the charm big time only to find out he  just got out of a relationship with a girl who has enormous breasts.  Elizabeth thinks by getting fake breasts, she will get the rich guy, but she does not have the money to do so.

But this does not stop her.  Cue the plot of the movie.  Pretty much all of the jokes run dry and bland with the exception of every time Jason Segel is on screen.  Yes the movie is vulgar, but it does not hold a candle to ‘Bad Santa’ and Cameron Diaz just doesn’t sell the whole ‘Bad Teacher’ role.   It’s one of the movies that all the good moments are wasted in the trailer.  I do respect however what they were trying to go for here, but ultimately it failed due to Cameron Diaz not being able to carry a film and plot.

I have no doubt people will enjoy this film, but with ‘Bridesmaids’, ‘Hangover 2’, and ‘Horrible Bosses’, ‘Bad Teacher’ will fall flat and not be remembered.  It’s sad because Jason Segel is so good in it.  See it for him.  It’s worth it.  ‘Bad Teacher’ is funny throughout, but it never hits that high point you want it too.

“I’ll get back to you at my earliest inconvenience”

Bryan Kluger