Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher

“We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family.  Then we expect them to educate our children”.  ~John Sculley

A saying that is supposed to be the role of a good teacher. But in a movie that I’ve watched the Bad Teacher, it reflected the opposite.

Once everybody heard the title and saw the trailer for this, they automatically thought of “Bad Santa”.

This movie centered on a blasphemous, junior high teacher who, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, begins to woo a colleague -- a move that pits her against a well-loved teacher. This is the type of all-embracing comedy that is generally funny, kind of delicate, but definitely crowd-pleasing.  The film is also the sort of comedy that’s nearly perfect for whiling away a summer afternoon: mostly funny, mostly superficial, and easy to forget after you leave the theater.  At least it stars two really funny women, though.

The basic principle of the movie is the fact that Elizabeth is so ill-suited for the profession of teaching (almost to the point of it being criminal) is never explored.  With a cast as talented as this one, those sorts of plot holes almost don’t matter. She's foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can't wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her spurious day job. And aside from that, hands down the funniest movie of the year so far, thanks to Cameron Diaz's larky, yet alluring performance, the absolutely marvelous supporting cast, and last but not least - the smart and witty script full of clever jokes and amusingly awkward situations that bring tons of laughs.

Bad Teacher had me laughing. The cast makes this a somewhat enjoyable dark comedy.