Bad Teacher

It's become quite a struggle to find time to watch movies, and it's even harder to find time to write reviews. I still appreciate the fact that I still can do this despite my crazy schedule and intense work. Unfortunately, that also means that I won't be able to post as much as I used to; but, as I always say, I'll always try to keep this blog up cause I do enjoy doing this.

Bad Teacher was a 2011 comedy film starring Cameron Diaz as a non-typical teacher. Also part of the cast were Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel, Lucy Punch, Matthew J. Evans, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins, Thomas Lennon, Molly Shannon, and more. It was directed by Jake Kasdan and the screenplay was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. It became a box office success, earning more than 200 million dollars worldwide.

The basic premise of the movie was simple. There's a girl who quit teaching to marry a rich man who she thought could support her through life. After the said man saw through her, the wedding was called off and she found herself teaching in the same school. That's when she decided that to get a rich man, she needed to have bigger boobs. Thus started her quest to gather enough money to get the job done, which will, in effect, get her a nice, rich man. Pretty simple, right? Also from the premise, there's a promise of how funny the movie could be, and how it should be.

I did expect more from this movie. It was one of the biggest comedy hits of last year that going into it I had the bar set high. I thought since it was a box-office hit, and because a lot of people seemed to like it, that it will be a lot funnier. It was funny, just not as funny as I thought it would be. It's one of those cases of expecting too much, which I know's a big crime. I just couldn't help it, and during the first half of the movie, I just wasn't being involved in the movie. I even stopped watching it, then just continued watching it the next day. Another thing that bothered me a bit was how the movie underutilized Segel's comic abilities. We all know how funny Marshall Eriksen is in How I met Your Mother, but I didn't think the movie capitalized on that. Sure, his character was one of a supporting role, but I thought the other supporting characters had so much more to do than him, which I thought was a great shame.

The second half of the movie served as its redemption. The second part of the movie was more entertaining and funnier. The exchange of dialogues became more effective, and I thought the material did improve, which made it easier for the actors to translate it to a comedic manner. It did end good.

I know Diaz and Timberlake were the main stars of the movie, but there were two people who definitely stole the show. One was Lucy Punch, who I consider to be the best part of the movie. Her character and the way she portrayed it earned her that title because she truly made the movie more exciting. The scenes I consider to be the best mostly involved her and her awesome yet troubling discomfort towards Diaz's character. It was really funny. The other scene-stealer was Matthew J. Evans. The kid's awkwardness added a sense of light comedy to he movie. He played his "dork" role really well. The funny thing was, he didn't seem like an awkward dork, yet he managed to play it in a very believable manner. Also, another trivia, he's an award-winning filmmaker as well. This kid's got all the right ingredients to make it big in Hollywood.

Cameron Diaz definitely turned it up here. I mentioned how the movie wasn't all that funny, especially in the first half, but Cameron took what she had and made it work to the best of her abilities. She really was a good bad teacher. Her scenes with Lucy Punch were hilarious! Just for those scenes alone, they should do a sequel to this movie. Bad Teacher 2: The Battle, or something like that, where Diaz and Punch would battle it out as they teach two different schools. I just had a lot of ideas how these two would make the sequel better! Timberlake's character was a little mild and reserved, yet a little sleazy as well. It was a bit different though.

One last thing I'll say: it's a shame they deleted some of the scenes from the movie. I saw one deleted scene clip and I thought it would have been the best scene in the movie. If you have time, search for the robot dance on Youtube. I thought that was pretty awesome, but they chose not to show include it on its theatrical release.

It;s a good Sunday movie, probably. Not exactly for the kids though. But it was a pretty good movie. You'll just have to let go of any expectations you might have. Who knows? You probably might like it more than I did. I still liked it though. You can follow me on twitter @sirfilmreviewer or email me at mrfilmreviewer@yahoo.com. You can also follow this blog by checking the right side of the page.