Culture

Director: Jake Kasdan, (2/5).

You can be certain that with Bad Teacher – keeping in mind the title, the seductive advertising campaign and of course, Cameron Diaz – what you see is definitely what you get. Diaz stars in her stereotypical role as Elizabeth, a school teacher with a hot body, botoxed lips and zero teaching ability. Things begin to change when Scott (Justin Timberlake), takes a job at her school. Scott, attractive in a geeky bespectacled, knitted jersey kind of way, instantly becomes the target of romantic infatuation for Elizabeth. After being shown a photograph of his ex-girlfriend with breasts the size of basketballs, Elizabeth becomes convinced that the way to Scott’s heart is by surgically increasing her cup size.  This new-found direction, combined with the substantial bonus received by the teacher whose class gets the highest grade-average in the upcoming tests, sees Elizabeth’s dedication to her students increase dramatically as their success becomes the only road to cosmetic surgery. 
 
The film is made up of a series of average short skits, connected by this relatively weak underlying plot line. The story spins on as Elizabeth tries numerous money making schemes and teaching tactics to accumulate the funds she needs, attempting to drill into the students knowledge she barely has a grasp on herself.
 
The humor is accessible and guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.  It is often hard to tell if you are laughing with the film or at it, but this is largely irrelevant, as it is entertaining nevertheless!  Diaz has her role down-pat (as you would hope she would after playing the same ditzy blonde in at least 50 films) and even manages to squeeze in her trade mark dancing scene with a outrageous slow-motion carwash spectacle. 
 
Bad Teacher is nothing special but if you feel like an easy laugh along the lines of The Sweetest Thing with your girlfriends, or had a crush on a school teacher in your not so distant past, then this is the film for you. Bad Teacher isn’t trying to be anything else other than exactly what it is; a low IQ comedy with equal parts blonde, sexual and toilet humor, filled with clichéd characters and a happy ending.