Bad Teacher

With next weeks "Bridesmaids" and this weeks "Bad Teacher", armchair pundits all over Hollywood are proclaiming 2011 to be the year of the 'funny gal'. Of course this is utter ridiculousness - women have always been funny. However, if this is the year of funny women, then it is off to a most unfunny start. "Bad Teacher" follows on much like "Bad Santa" did eight years ago; a person in authority working with children is bad mouthed, bad mannered and a generally bad person. The joke is that children should be the last people they should be around. However while initial trailers seemed very raucously funny indeed, something seems to have got lost in the mix. Namely Cameron Diaz's comic timing. The plot, as slight as it is, follows professional gold digger Elizabeth (Diaz) as she works as a teacher while trying to find a sugar daddy to leech off for the rest of her life. When new hunky and rich substitute Justin Timberlake shows up, she thinks she has found the man of her dreams, but only if she can get him to like her.......namely by raising enough money to get breast implants. Jason Segel shows up along the way, as the gym teacher she should really be with, but it as the story suggest, is all very forgettable stuff. It's not that there is only a bare bones of plot to work with; in other hands it could have been the perfect frame on which to hang some cracking jokes, rather that the film seems completely lost and gormless. Writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg may have hit a gold mine as the creators of the US Office, but after this and their previous effort "Year One" they are nought for nought on cinema screens. Cameron Diaz has been funny before and will be again I suspect, but here she seems uncoordinated and confused as to how to make the supremely unlikeable Elizabeth likeable. Timberlake tries too hard to make his jokes soar, but ends up going no where with his character and it is only Jason Segel who effortlessly seems to steal the film. Bringing charm and humour to his brief time means he is missed whenever he is not around. Overall the film thinks that Cameron Diaz cussin' is funny and over relies on this too much, when it it is plainly anything but. In other hands the film could have been the filthy and crude laugh riot that was suggested, instead of just floundering from one scene to the next. "Bad Teacher" is just plain bad.

Verdict: 3/10

A waste of talent both in front and behind the camera, everyone here seems as confused as the next in trying to make this film work. Actors are miscast and gags fall flat as the experience just ends up leaving a bad taste in your mouth. This teacher deserves an F.

"Bad Teacher" Trailer