Genres

Visitors Review

collipal-1 2012-05-24 15:24:24

A horrible "comedy"

After so many movies about noble teachers who inspire their students,it was already time for someone to reverse the roles. Sure, School ofRock excellently did it 8 years ago, but anyway...there is undoubtedlyenough space in the damaged world of contemporary comedy for two movieswith the same concept. Bad Teacher pretended to do that with solidactors and a talented director (Jake Kasdan, whose previous filmographyincludes the underrated Orange County and the extraordinary The TVSet); with both things, it might seem that the result will be good.But...one moment...I forgot to mention the screenplay! That does notmatter. With actors who already proved their talent for the comedy,there is no need of a good screenplay, right? Obviously no, and that isthe lesson this horrible comedy brings us.Bad Teacher is one of those movies which confuse irreverence withcomedy. There might be some humorous potential in the scenes showingCameron Diaz's character laughing at the poetries from a boy; orcalculating the balance of huge operated breasts with her hands; oradvising an ambitious girl to abandon her plans of being a President ofthe United States to become into a masseuse. However, the poorscreenplay is not vulgar or irreverent enough to subsist with thosecheap tricks; nor ingenious enough to create an interesting story as anendorsement of the humor. In fact, the story never totally "curdles",at the same time that it is very unfunny and tedious. And the worstthing of all is that co-screenwriters Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenbergdid not have the courage to reach genuinely subversive levels in theinteraction between the teacher and her students. I think that therewas pretty much potential in fulfilling with the implicit premise of a"bad teacher", but due to the fear of the scandal in the real world,Stupnitsky and Eisenberg decided to self-censor themselves, wastingvarious opportunities of creating uncomfortably humorous situations.And I am not even talking about entering into a sexual field; just thepolitical correction from the school environment, its obsession withthe psychiatric medication and the low academic levels which aresinking the North American educative system would have offered enoughsatirical material to provoke laughs and also adding a socialcommentary to the movie.Besides, the characters completely lack of any charm. The maincharacter is too antipathetic in order to ingratiate with thespectator. I generally like Diaz's work as an actress, but hercharacter is so badly written that she cannot do much with it. JustinTimberlake is talented for the comedy (like he proved in his multipleappearances in Saturday Night Live), but the screenplay betrays himwith an insipid and unfunny character. Jason Segel is adequate on hischaracteristic role of a loser, while Lucy Punch is correctly stridentin her character.In conclusion, Bad Teacher is a pathetic comedy whose main fail is abadly written and unfunny screenplay. That fatal fail is the mainreason why I hated this movie, and why I suggest you not to waste yourtime with it. If you wanna watch a great parody of the "inspiringteacher" cliché, I recommend you the previously mentioned School ofRock.

2012-05-24 07:25:17

Horrible, just horrible

Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake should have gotten married since they are perfect for each other. Both are overrated and neither can act. This movie has no redeeming qualities.

Robocop 2012-05-24 05:37:56

Painful to Watch

There was not one specific part of this movie where I laughed.Honestly, there was not one funny hit in this movie. The reason becauseI saw this movie was because Cameron Diaz is in it. She's sexy,attractive and charismatic. For me, her reputation has significantlydropped. I do not know who was the genius that thought Cameron Diaz wasa good actress for the role of Elizabeth Halsey.Justin Timberlake does it again. OH MY GOD! What an awful choice. Isn'the supposed to be a singer at least? Nope, not that either. Really badI must say. The only somewhat funny character in the movie is Ms.Squirrel. And the character is also extremely weak.It is hard to believe that this movie box offices $97,000,000. What'swrong America? By what I've heard from other reviewers, the moviedepicts America's society. I guess I just don't understand that type ofcomedy. But still, the movie is PATHETIC, BAD and PAINFUL.

tieman64 2012-05-23 12:38:41

Too tame and poorly acted to be funny

Bad acting and bad screen-writing ruin "Bad Teacher", an unfunny comedywhich tries and fails to parrot the gross-out jokes of Billy BobThornton's "Bad Santa". Mega-stars Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlakeare our leads, but they have no gift for comedy. Most of their jokesfall flat.The film's plot, in which a foul mouthed, money and body obsessedteacher learns that money and image aren't everything, is bothinconsequential and predictable. Most interesting about the film is theway Diaz's character, a 39 year old slob every bit as rude, vile andsex obsessed as Thornton's bad Santa, elicits no sympathy. Why are weuncomfortable with openly "loose", vulgar, hard-drinking, beautiful,demented, sex crazed women (Cameron's raunchiness was toned downbecause male test audience members were "turned off" by her character'sswearing, particularly her use of the "c" word, usages of which weresubsequently cut), but find such attributes in a male lovable andendearing? Use a less attractive, slobby actress for Diaz's role andsuddenly you'd have a hit movie; put a sex bomb in there, and suddenlyour brains are scrambled.Incidentally, on IMDb, female voters rate this film higher than males,suggesting that there is some kind of cathartic identification going onhere. Meanwhile, men squirm. 4/10 - Worth no viewings.

2012-05-23 15:23:30

No reason to watch

Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) is a bad teacher. She has only two things sheis interested in: finding a rich husband and enhancing her breast size. The first third of this movie broadcasts: nudity, foul-mouthed raunchylanguage, drug use, and in general a deep uncaring for everythingappropriate to include her students and their concerns. The next two thirds come in calmer but the language and the uncaringare still with us. There is nothing funny in here. Everything is ascheme to get Ms Halsey what she wants and her ways know no bounds. Sheis up for everything to get a rich husband and the money to pay for thebreast implants. She cons everyone but Amy (Punch) her chief rival, butAmy is no match for this teacher.There is no reason to see this movie. It doesn't serve anyone foranything. This is just another example of Hollywood not knowing what todo anymore. This movie is on the same level as HESHER, and BAD SANTAbut not as mean-spirited, but close. Are we starting to see a trend?Perhaps, but let's hope not. The only people you cared for were the ones at the butt of Ms Halsey'sfoul mouthed barbs. The acting performances were fine -- it is the script that needed work.This could have been funny, but it just comes across as unfunnybathroom humor. There is no salvation to be found in here. At the endof the movie, Ms Halsey behaves the same as she did in the beginning.At least that is the implication I got out of it. Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: Yes. Drug use: Yes. Language: Yes.

darklydreamingrahu 2012-05-23 00:09:25

Funnier than the reviews

Bad Teacher is funny in ways it shouldn't be. Cameron Diaz owns therole of Elizabeth as the foul-mouthed, pot smoking, trashy blondeteacher with a twisted outlook on life. Obscenities and bizarre sexualinnuendo roll off her tongue perfectly. Justin Timberlake is hilariousand awkward as Scott. His character is complex and....well he's justawkward....there's no other way to describe it. Lucy Punch is theperfect counterpart to both Diaz and Timberlake's characters as AmySquirrel. Her over-the-top performance is one you will remember. JasonSegel steals every scene he's in as Russell the equally foul mouthedand dirty gym teacher. Phyllis Smith is an adorable and strangeaddition to the movie as the confused Lynn Davis, bringing her ownbrand of corkiness to the plot. All in all, the casting of Bad Teacheris flawless and is really where the movie shines. The punchlines aredelivered with punch and the characters are decently developed andcomplex in their own ways. There are some setbacks to Bad Teacher which stop it from being a greatcomedy. The plot devices used to move the story along are unconvincingand overplayed. Character transformations are equally unconvincing,uninspired, and rushed. Some scenes feel forced for the sake of cheaplaughs or shock value. None of it though is shocking enough for this tobe an effective method of comedy. Sometimes the characters feel a bittoo weird even for the universe of strange the movie sets early on.Jason Segel's Russell is the most interesting character in the movieand yet for some reason is greatly underused. He pops up in pointlessscenes simply to interject a laugh and then disappears for longstretches of time. Bad Teacher is a funny movie. The critics have not been so generouswith their reviews, but who listens to them anymore anyways? If you areinto dark comedies or a raunchy brand of humor, you will find yourselflaughing with this one. While the plot devices are forced and some ofthe humor could have been better with a more subtle approach, overallthis is a decent flick to chill out on the couch and laugh with. 7/10

prettyhands2008-105-167179 2012-05-22 03:16:14

pretty disappointing

I am a big Cameron Diaz fan and I am very saddened that she took such alow role. I lost some respect for her. But I guess every good actor hasa bad film or makes bad judgment. I see the directors/producers/writersnames and I am not surprised at the content. Insulting, degrading, andsexist bar none. If I had to summarize it, I would guess that a bunchof immature, perverted guys got together, figured out how to blackmaila few good actors and put together a raunchy, tasteless, low life film.Which I would have saved my money to get my eyebrows waxed...would havebeen a less painful experience. PASS on this one unless you are a boobloving, pot smoking pervert with no substance and lost your brainsomewhere down the line...if thats your case then I highly recommendit!!! otherwise, its 90 some odd minutes of crap.

galahadfairlight 2012-05-21 09:27:56

For a comedy, its woefully short on laughs

I was looking forward to this one, from the trailer it looked like alot of fun, almost a Bad Santa but in the classroom.That comparison is unfair to Bad Santa.With a couple of exceptions, this movie is another case of everythingthats funny was shown in the trailer.Considering me and the missus watched Hangover Part II a couple ofweeks ago, we were laughing every minute with that one, but in BadTeacher, just massive expanses of silence.The character of Miss Squirrel got wearing quite quickly, and generallythe movie only lit up when Jason Segel came on screen, at least hissmall part was consistently funny.Diaz would have been much better served by a wittier script, insteadthe director was happy just to have her swear a lot instead, whichagain, wears out its welcome.All in all, this is a movie I really wanted to like, but found myselfsimply tolerating.I regret paying a small fortune to see it at the theatre, and Icertainly wouldn't recommend buying it on DVD or Bluray, whats thepoint of buying something you'll only scrape through once?

2012-05-20 17:53:27

Bad Teacher gets a B+!!!!

I didn't enjoy this movie the first time I viewed it was a few months ago. I watched it again two weeks ago, and I thought it was really funny. The first time I was expecting more, but now I just accept for what it is. It is very funny and original and Cameron Diaz plays a great part! There are definitely plenty of laugh out loud moments and Cameron Diaz is very convincing as a BAD teacher. If you want to see a very funny movie or a Cameron Diaz fan, see it!!!

2012-05-20 10:02:01

Hot for teacher

This review is from: Bad Teacher UNRATED (Amazon Instant Video) She is hot and steamy. She is a terrible person totaly self centered. She is nt aboving using her assets to get what she wants. Totally believable.

2012-05-20 00:37:36

Funny? So-so.

I was really surprised that some critic called this the funniest film of the year and how it was as funny as Bridesmaids. I don't think so! Sure, this had a few funny parts but it was nowhere near as funny as "Bridesmaids." The main thing was that Diaz's character was despicable and, as a viewer, I had absolutely no compassion or concern for her, so that you don't root for her. I was hoping she would fail miserably, in fact. Not to say Lucy Punch's character was good either, but it just wasn't that good of a film. The best person/character in the film was (no surprise) Jason Segel. He had the best lines and part.

aharmas 2012-05-19 15:11:14

Cameron vs Lucy

I can only imagine what this would have been like if the writers hadbeen inspired enough to give these gifted ladies the material to havethe match of the century. Diaz has already proved herself as a giftedcomedian. She employs her witty delivery and couples it with some veryfunny physical turns. She is not afraid to take chances and handle someraunchy material; somehow taking a detached and naive approach. She wasreally wonderful in "There's something about Mary" and "The Mask", andI had great hopes for "Bad Teacher".The worst about the movie is the typical easy way out of thefilmmakers, relying on some material that borders on the vulgar andtired. We understand Cameron's character is well, flawed. There isreally not much of a need to use the language she uses, and thesituations she becomes involved in. There is even more disappointmentwhen one sees how much Lucy Punch is trying throughout the film, andshe's genuinely funny, delivering bad line after bad line, with muchgusto, sometimes even saving some of the material. There are momentswhen one can't believe how great she is, and whether her scenes belongin other movie.Of course, all of this takes place in a Middle School, what could havebeen an endless supply of types, situations, stereotypes, etc., etc.There are a couple of funny moments, and those are given away in thepreview, leaving us with pretty much nothing to experience in the film.There is also Timberlake, who well, has much potential, but can't domuch with his role.I would probably say this should have gone straight to video...

2012-05-19 00:21:03

Trailers were funnier than the movie

The trailers were skillfully editted and presented a funny and cute movie. The title is accurate - "bad teacher" - language, sex, drugs, shallow nature all of which would be inappropriate for a young audience. A more mature audience would probably not appreciate this movie. Teenage boys will likely give this movie 5 stars. Where as an adult might rate this at 2-3 stars. Teachers may find this movie offensive.

2012-05-18 12:48:41

ENTERTAINMENT AT ITS FINEST!!!

This movie was HYSTERICAL!!! Cameron was super funny and I would NEVER view it as anything remotely close to reality. It had me laughing and that's all that matters!! Love her! If you have a face and body like hers, why not use it! I am SOOOO buying this DVD!!!

2012-05-17 21:49:21

Hot for teacher

This review is from: Bad Teacher (Unrated) (Amazon Instant Video) She is hot and steamy. She is a terrible person totaly self centered. She is nt aboving using her assets to get what she wants. Totally believable.

xminusone 2012-05-17 01:58:10

It truly is a statement of our times~

Film was directed and produced adequately enough. Script isn'tabsolutely horrible, I know I wouldn't want to have to try to get humorout of the embarrassing abomination our education system has becomebut, just the same, it's surprising to me to read so many negativereviews of this movie by such (sincerely) smart, observant, and astuteviewers, film fans, and film-goers.The obvious point is to enjoy watching Ms. Diaz; I freely admit I wouldbe riveted watching a black-and-white film of her reading the phonebook. She just has that appeal to some of us. One cannot deny hersexual magnetism and charisma in the most generic of gestures andexclamations. She's just a joy to watch. Additionally, I'm sure all ofus have a person like her character within our social circle, it's justthat they don't usually say the things she says or do the things shesays quite so obviously (or perhaps simply within our purview).So, either you get it or you don't: she's pretty, she's sexy, so puther up on the screen to . . . well, do something, anything--who cares?Maybe her private life does tend to pull the wrong way on most people'smoral compasses; what the heck do I care? It's not like she's gonnacall me or anything.

2012-05-16 15:34:09

Better than I thought it would be

This movie was about as ridiculous as I expected it to be, but it actually turned out to be better. I managed to get through the whole film, something I did not expect to happen when I reserved it. I kept reserving it and changing my mind but finally watched it on cable. Cameron Diaz is actually quite funny, and I wasn't quite sure she could pull off anything past "pretty" or "sexy." She proved me wrong. I already knew Justin Timberlake could be funny from watching him in "Friends With Benefits" and his interviews with George Lopez and the beginning of "Futuresex/Loveshow."The movie is about a gold-digging superficial teacher who got dumped by her boyfriend. She wants fake boobs and needs a job, so she takes on teaching. No long introductions and syllabus planning for her. Everyday she has the television and brings in inspirational teaching movies like "Lean on Me" and "Dangerous Minds." This is all while she looks at fake boob magazines, including studying Travel magazine to see African women with big breasts. Oh, yeah, this movie is dumb funny. Then here comes another hot teacher, Justin Timberlake's character, only he's more clumsy and uncomfortably bad at flirting. But look at him. Women swoon anyway, especially the do-gooder teacher (I've worked with this real-life character; I've seen this character in grad school, high school and elementary school; and I HATE this character) who is determined to one-up Cameron Diaz's character.Up until Timberlake's character, Diaz's character was more concerned with smoking weed, fake breasts, money and getting through the school day without having to learn a student's name. But she does observe some of her own childhood (and adulthood) similarities that make her rethink her ideas about relationships. This definitely isn't the type of movie that makes characters do a 180, but incidents like dodge ball and the Chicago Tribune reporter scam are great entertainment.

norcalgal64 2012-05-16 10:51:14

This move is not worth your time

Most movies move through a plot where the characters go through ajourney to an end. This movie is all about crass language (includingthe "C" bomb), a woman with no redeeming features and just poor tastejokes at the expense of children. And the main character doesn't learna thing... She's just as crass and tasteless at the end as she was atthe beginning.I have lost a lot of respect for Cameron Diaz for choosing to be partof such a tasteless script. There's really no message in this film, nostory, no resolution and definitely no morals.Hated this movie completely.

2012-05-16 00:06:24

Could of, Should of not watched the whole moview

This review is from: Bad Teacher (Amazon Instant Video) Very Slow at times with no plot and not very funny. There were plenty of opportunities for much better scenes and lines but the writers just missed it all.

2012-05-15 12:11:25

Pretty funny film

Cameron Diaz hauls out her comedic chops in this pretty funny film. While she may be no Kristen Wiig or Tina Fey, she's a pretty good substitute for physical comedy. And come on, she's hot! Although not really a romantic comedy, it leans in that direction. Unfortunately Jason Segel just kind of stands around in the background. Justin Timberlake plays against type as an agreeable dweeb whose romance with Elizabeth (Diaz) is limited to dry humping in a hotel room. Lucy Punch as fellow teacher Amy Squirrel (yep) and Phyllis Smith (The Office) come off much better. This isn't a great movie but I have to admit I did get my $6 worth of laughs so a mild recommendation.