Comedy

Bad Teacher

Columbia Pictures

Mosaic Media Group

United States of America

English

Cameron Diaz

Justin Timberlake

Jason Segel

Lucy Punch

Phyllis Smith

Kaitlyn Dever

John Michael Higgins

Thomas Lennon

Kathryn Newton

Molly Shannon

Eric Stonestreet

Matthew J. Evans

Dave Allen

Jillian Armenante

Igal Ben Yair

Aja Bair

Andra Nechita

Noah Munck

FINNEAS

Daniel Castro

Deirdre Lovejoy

Adrian Kali Turner

Paul Bates

Jeff Judah

Nat Faxon

Stephanie Faracy

David Paymer

Alanna Ubach

Christine Smith

Paul Feig

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

Jake Kasdan

Gene Stupnitsky

Jimmy Miller

Malosi Leonard

Kelli Barksdale

Joe Bucaro III

Matt Leonard

Terry Leonard

Brian Munce

Kimberly Shannon Murphy

K.T. Wiegman

Thom Khoury Williams

Carey Dietrich

Bill Purple

Matt Riley

Monty Rowan

Jimmy E. Jensen

Brent Egan

Joseph V. Cicio

Louie DeMarco

Tony Muller

Joseph T. Mastrolia

Katrina Mastrolia

Maggie Fung

Laurene Alvarado

Pierce Austin

Soo-Jin Yoon

Richard Thomas

Joseph Guerino

Travis Panarisi

Michael Kenner

John Morris

George Santo Pietro

Michael Herron

Gene Rizzardi

Michael Betz

Kate Galbraith

Tara Guckeen

Jill Rosenblatt

Michelle DeMayo

Rick Roesch

Chris Santini

Marty Atwell

Jeffrey A. Brooks

Carmine Goglia

James E. Tocci

Josh Sheppard

Bruce Luizzi

John Herrera McElroy

Josue Rodriguez

Chela Fiorini

Amy Cohn

Audrey Clark Austin

Steve Windle

Rhana Alhaid

Heinz Healey

Ebner Sobalvarro

Nathan Kelly

Yulia Gershenzon

Robin Fredriksz

Lona Vigi

Jesse Lutz

Catherine Burt

Isaac Kellman Carlen

Katy Galow

Howie E. Kremer

Jason Kumalo

Gavin McGuire

Francine Moss

Joshua Sankar

Chad Witt

Henry Wyler

Juliet Seniff

Nick Mestrundrea

Tom Goodrich

Craig Fehrman

Melvin Langford, Jr.

Bethany Orlemann

John Dietrick

Douglas I. Schwartz

Shaughnessy Hare

Sarah Monat

Robin Harlan

Randy K. Singer

Howard London

Wendy Hoffman

Ranjani Brow

Bruce Botnick

Tom Calderaro

Stephen Kaye

Jonathan Leahy

Gina Zimmitti

Jamie Dixon

Michelle Eisenreich

Tara Timpone

Jefferson Sage

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

Official Trailer

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Bad Teacher

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Cast

Cameron Diaz

Justin Timberlake

Jason Segel

Lucy Punch

Phyllis Smith

Kaitlyn Dever

John Michael Higgins

Thomas Lennon

Kathryn Newton

Molly Shannon

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