Movie Review: Bad Teacher

If you enjoyed Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa, you’ll enjoy Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher. That is to say, if sarcastic and mildly raunchy is your brand of comedy (as opposed to, say, goofy) this certainly won’t disappoint. It’s often hilarious—one of the increasingly rare decent comedies these days, and fairly reminiscent of “School of Rock.”

As mentioned in this review’s title, it’s a film about kids that’s not for kids. That said, the opening sets the stage beautifully with a montage of nostalgic old photos and home-movie footage of teachers and children. One is struck by what a truly honorable profession and solemn responsibility the teaching and guiding of young children is.

Segue to a cast of rather clichéd geeky teachers with armpit stains and fervent rah-rah zealousness.

Throw into this mix a classic, former high school mean-girl babe, who’s botched her latest gold-digging attempt and now has to go back to work. It’s the nasty narcissist versus the nice nerds.

Cameron’s main objective throughout is to find another rich fool to drain, but in order to do that she figures she needs, um, expensive surgical enhancement. As we know, having the proper motivation can produce miracles—you just have to know what you want, and then nothing can get in your way. That’s a good message for kids ... right?

Justin Timberlake shows up as a nerdy new teacher with a hefty trust fund, which produces a catfight faceoff between the bad teacher and the goody-goody one. It turns the goody bad, and puts the baddy on the path to ... better.

But first, wanting to win the cash bonus awarded to the teacher of the most accomplished class, bad teacher pulls out all the stops in her quest to manifest her surgical obsession.

This sets up the rare moments when her compassion shines through. She imparts her true talent—helping nerdy kids and teachers alike to negotiate the foreign language of romance.

Justin Timberlake is very funny here, and Jason Segel of Forgetting Sarah Marshall is always effortlessly hysterical. In comedy, one of the situations humans enjoy laughing at is ego-deflation. Diaz is the rare gamine with the willingness and ability to “take the hit,” that is, to sacrifice her dignity, thereby allowing us to holler at the ensuing ego-pratfall.

“Bad Teacher” is probably not for grandma, and an appropriate R-rating will keep some kids out. While it’s full of kids and largely about kids—it’s not for kids. Naturally, hoards of kids will find a way to see it. Does it have a good message for kids? Not really. Will anything said here keep kids from seeing it? Not in this day and age. Sigh.

You can go see the movie, laugh yourself silly, go home, and be Good Teacher. Teach your kids how to find their own gold—without digging for it.

[etRating value=“ 3”]