There’s no two ways about it, Bad Teacher is consistently funny the whole way through. Released on DVD on October 18th 2011, it brings a whole new comic touch to Cameron Diaz’ acting with a lighthearted, though slightly mean spirited, delivery.
The plot follows Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) as she returns to another pained year of teaching at John Adams Middle School following a breakup from her fiance after he discovers that she’s a bit of a gold-digger. As the film’s name implies, she’s not the best molder of young minds, but to be honest, if she’d been my teacher she would have been revered in the same way that Mrs Flanders was all those years ago.
AdvertisementWhen a new year starts bringing new supply teacher, Scott Delacorte – played by Justin Timberlake (In Time) – to the school, things change for Elizabeth’s motivation levels. As soon as discovers that he’s in line to inherit the Delacorte watchmaking fortune, she suddenly has a new plan in life; fake boobs to win Scott over. With her new goal set, she kicks up her teaching activity, including an amazing car wash fund-raiser, into full throttle.
Diaz plays the self-absorbed, reprobate teacher perfectly, dropping one-liners like razor blades, and Timberlake’s weird, holier than though character makes for a lot of laughs as the fall guy. Jason Segal puts in a good performance as the not quite so bad gym teacher, Russell Gettis, but in all fairness he’s pretty much the same guy in every film he’s in.
AdvertisementApart from Diaz, the other great comic characters in Bad Teacher include pseudo-psychotic rival goody-two-shoes teacher Amy Squirrel, played brilliantly by Lucy Punch (Hot Fuzz), and frumpy, genuinely nice teacher Lynn Davies (Phyllis Smith). Both of which have some of the best off-line comedy, including the Squirrell face, which is both genuinely disturbing and laugh out loud funny, and Lynn’s reaction to talk of Chicago Bulls semen, which is genius.
Although Bad Teacher isn’t going to be judged very kindly by the majority of big name critics, that doesn’t take anything away from it. It is what it is; a really funny, silly DVD that will make you laugh every time… so long as you like that kind of thing. It’s obviously a bit of a guy film, but we genuinely defy anyone to watch the Squirrel face scene without cracking up.
Bad Teacher DVD review: 3.8/5
