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Reviews & Ratings for
Bad Teacher More at IMDbPro »

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164 out of 246 people found the following review useful:

This is where we are as a culture

Author: Steve from United States
28 June 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

How many millions of dollars went into this which could have been used better in some other venture? Sour premise of a dope-smoking, opportunistic junior high school teacher who skates through her job, looking for a way to fund her breast augmentation job so she can land a rich boyfriend. Ends up committing several felonies & getting a stuffy but honest co-worker blamed for everything (including drug use on school grounds) while she wins the day. The redemption is her hooking up with an angry gym teacher when he proves the affluent guy she's sharking for is a shallow imbecile.

Now, I'm not the sort of person who demands a moral message in every piece of cinema, but really? Who is the target audience here? To whom are the filmmakers attempting to appeal? This is just vile.

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190 out of 325 people found the following review useful:

Bad Teacher ?? Maybe. Bad Film? Absolutely

Author: mmccord9126 from United States
30 June 2011

I know others will disagree with me, but this has got to be in the running for the pick for the Razzies this year. What a pathetic piece of crap. The storyline was boring and the jokes either over-the-top, or, worst, not even close to funny. It never fails to amaze me when really bad ideas not only get to be screenplays, but they actually wind up getting produced. And...Timberlake's character...what was he thinking when he took this role??? Yeah, Diaz is still a hot body and all, but even that couldn't save something so downright dumb. I won't bother with any spoilers; it's not worth the effort. Save your money. This one will simply insult your intelligence. I would give it a minus one if I could.

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117 out of 187 people found the following review useful:

Let's hope they paid the actors more than the writers.....

Author: diac228 ( from Orlando, Florida
24 June 2011

Bad Teacher is a great concept that resulted in a style of humor like most of the Adult Swim cartoons you see today: When the jokes hit they hit well, but when they miss, they miss quite badly. The cast was delightful, but could only go so far with the material. As a matter of fact, it was the cast that saved the movie from being a total disaster by providing their comedic chops, their charm, and their good comic timing that you don't see enough of nowadays. Despite all that however, Bad teacher is a shiny apple with a few rotten parts.

Elizabeth Hasley (Cameron Diaz) is a foul-mouthed, bitter, and quite nasty teacher that is keeping the job only to pay the bills after her rich fiancée dumps her. Facing debt, aging, and loneliness, Elizabeth starts setting her sights on a boob job and on a new (rich) teacher (Justin Timberlake), whom has also captured the attention of a manipulative rival (Lucy Punch). The script was helmed by two veteran writers of The Office (Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg) as they use their non-television ratings boundaries to mix plenty of vulgar and raunchy humor with even some tidbits of cruel humor. Unfortunately, their lack of boundaries led to a mediocre script.

This film's biggest falters come in the form of the script. Despite the promise in the premise and the cast involved, the script was convoluted, and didn't have much structure until the second half. As a matter of fact, the film switches up the pace very unexpectedly when the next act approaches. Pretty much almost all the crude and vulgar humor failed to draw laughs, with one notable exception involving one of the odder "sex" scenes in recent memory. The movie was a great idea not exactly explored upon, and was full of smaller ideas that were not utilized. Many good smaller characters did not get enough time in the script; most notably the students, the gym teacher (Jason Segal) and the main character's roommate (Erik Stonestreet).

Despite the writing being a fickle mess, the cast was superb, from the small roles to the big ones. Cameron Diaz I can honestly say is one of the most underrated talents in Hollywood, because she rarely ever delivers a mediocre or weak performance. She has this aura, this energy that can save the worst of films (See: What Happens in Vegas) and it is no different here. Despite her smoking/drinking/vulgar/manipulative/cynical/cruel/superficial ways, we still secretly root for her to succeed in reaching her goal. Very few actresses can pull off this type of charm.

Lucy Punch, despite having a bit of questionable material, delivers as Diaz's rival. Jason Segal could have helped the movie a lot more if he was in it more often, as he delivered the laughs every time he was on-screen with his wit, sarcasm, and I-don't-care attitude. Television staples Phyllis Smith and Erik Stonestreet were hilarious in the far-too-few moments they were on-screen. The movie does indeed have its laughs, but the potential was so much greater considering all the talented actors involved.

Jake Kasdan as a director doesn't have much of a resume, but he does have the comedic chops and timing, and he proved this with the underrated Walk Hard. With Bad Teacher, he did not have as much good material to work with but could have still helped the movie if he had tightened the first third of the movie better. There was a lot more unnecessary fluff in the first half of the movie compared to the second half. Smaller plot lines were never resolved, certain jokes literally fell off without a punchline, and certain situations were brought up but never explored. Many concepts were also never explored: especially that of how shallow and shady we all become towards each other in the workforce.

Bottom Line: Bad Teacher was a great idea, poorly executed, but relentlessly saved by the energetic cast. This movie could have mixed the dark charm of Bad Santa with the subtle workforce ridiculousness humor of Office Space to become something very, very special. But neither style of humor was dwelled upon deep enough. The first half had its laughs, but was far too convoluted and was salvaged mainly because of the hilarity of Cameron Diaz. The movie definitely picks up later, but by then its too late, the potential was wasted. Either way, you will certainly laugh, you will remain entertained, but will also be bothered by what it could have been.

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59 out of 88 people found the following review useful:

Funnier than the reviews

Author: darklydreamingrahu from United States
6 August 2011

Bad Teacher is funny in ways it shouldn't be. Cameron Diaz owns the role of Elizabeth as the foul-mouthed, pot smoking, trashy blonde teacher with a twisted outlook on life. Obscenities and bizarre sexual innuendo roll off her tongue perfectly. Justin Timberlake is hilarious and awkward as Scott. His character is complex and....well he's just awkward....there's no other way to describe it. Lucy Punch is the perfect counterpart to both Diaz and Timberlake's characters as Amy Squirrel. Her over-the-top performance is one you will remember. Jason Segel steals every scene he's in as Russell the equally foul mouthed and dirty gym teacher. Phyllis Smith is an adorable and strange addition to the movie as the confused Lynn Davis, bringing her own brand of corkiness to the plot. All in all, the casting of Bad Teacher is flawless and is really where the movie shines. The punchlines are delivered with punch and the characters are decently developed and complex in their own ways.

There are some setbacks to Bad Teacher which stop it from being a great comedy. The plot devices used to move the story along are unconvincing and overplayed. Character transformations are equally unconvincing, uninspired, and rushed. Some scenes feel forced for the sake of cheap laughs or shock value. None of it though is shocking enough for this to be an effective method of comedy. Sometimes the characters feel a bit too weird even for the universe of strange the movie sets early on. Jason Segel's Russell is the most interesting character in the movie and yet for some reason is greatly underused. He pops up in pointless scenes simply to interject a laugh and then disappears for long stretches of time.

Bad Teacher is a funny movie. The critics have not been so generous with their reviews, but who listens to them anymore anyways? If you are into dark comedies or a raunchy brand of humor, you will find yourself laughing with this one. While the plot devices are forced and some of the humor could have been better with a more subtle approach, overall this is a decent flick to chill out on the couch and laugh with. 7/10

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73 out of 119 people found the following review useful:


Author: evening1 from United States
9 July 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

What was the point of this movie? Cameron Diaz has been in some great stuff. Why would she humiliate herself with this pathetic script? Perhaps she liked the idea of showing off her body for an hour and a half. Because she is exceptionally hammy here in that respect.

Every single character in this movie is unlikeable, with perhaps the exception of the school superintendent, who occupies about three minutes of screen time. Diaz plays an obnoxious character who uses and abuses others, children foremost among them. Jason Timberlake starts out being a refreshing contrast to Diaz, but after awhile he's as unpleasant as all the rest.

The plot is exceptionally poorly constructed. We're supposed to care about how a psychopath drums up the $9,000 necessary for breast implants? Admittedly, I'm older than the target audience of this film. I admit I felt a bit of justice when the acne-faced teacher (unfunnily named Squirrel) caught Diaz at her game. But the plot disappoints again when Diaz out-cons everyone anew. The unlikely ending seems as if it were slapped on because the writer couldn't think of any other way to release the audience from its misery.

This movie is pure detritus and I'm really sorry my family wasted $38.50 (including food) to see it.

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23 out of 32 people found the following review useful:

mildly amoral, refreshingly different.

Author: RetroRick from United Kingdom
7 October 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Am reviewing this to counter-balance the far too many negative reviews out there. This is a funny, not hilarious, but funny and sometimes cruel film about a bad teacher, who is funny because she is bad. Just like bad santa she isn't being held up an examplar for teaching or a role-model for young women (actually I'm not too sure about that). What she is is an anti-dote to the righteous, touchy-feely, moralising lesson preaching,heart-in-the-right-place films that normally dominate this genre, or at least do whenever there is a female in the lead. God knows the world would suffer if every film was like this, but a little bit of gentle cynicism is good thing in a world that is full of fraudulent fictional xmas cheer. Spoiler: As for the sensitive little boy not getting the girl, isn't about time that movies stopped lying to teenage boys that being nice & sensitive will get you laid.

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28 out of 42 people found the following review useful:

Not a perfect movie, but much better than some reviews suggest.

Author: xyz72 from Germany
6 November 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Let's face it, the reason many people call Bad Teacher the "worst movie ever shot" is not rational, it doesn't have to do with the movie itself in any way. From the reviews I have read on here the main problem seems to be the moral values in this film leading many "oh so shocked" viewers to give bad reviews, question people's sanity for producing this movie and hate everything about it - whether they admit it's the reason they dislike it or pretend to hate everything about an objectively well crafted film. But this movie is not supposed to teach anyone life lessons, it's not supposed to have some big, moral message about how to live your life in a good way. This is a film for adults. And films for adults do not have to follow certain morals because an adult is expected to judge morals on their own without needing guidelines. An adult can enjoy movies with main characters doing things they would never find acceptable because it's not about agreeing with the character's actions.

Normally, I would rate this film 6 stars, but I rated it 8 to keep some of the irrational reviews on here from bringing the score down too far. It has solid jokes, a mostly good cast, OK direction but also some really bad moments and the main character goes completely out of character towards the end to achieve the usual Hollywood "we need a kiss! FAST!!!" Happy Ending, but overall a good comedy I would watch again with a great performance from Cameron Diaz.

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36 out of 59 people found the following review useful:

Politically Incorrect, Brainless but Hilarious

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11 January 2012

The gold digger Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) quits her job as a teacher at the JAM High School expecting to marry her wealthy fiancé. However, he calls off their engagement and Elizabeth returns to the school.

Elizabeth is reckless, incompetent, pothead and does not give any attention to the students and her coworkers, and she shows movies to her students along the classes. The envious teacher Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch) hates Elizabeth and they are estranged to each other.

When Elizabeth meets the substitute teacher Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake), she discovers that he is very rich and she flirts with him. Further, she learns that Scott likes big breasts and she decides to have a surgery of silicone-implant. She needs to raise US$ 10,000.00 for the breast-implant, and she learns that the teacher that gets the best scores in the state exam would receive US$ 5,700.00 bonus. Elizabeth changes her attitude and teaches her students to prepare them for the exams. However, Elizabeth uses an unethical means to win the competition and Amy seeks evidences to prove that Elizabeth has cheated the exams.

"Bad Teacher" is a politically incorrect, brainless but very hilarious film. Cameron Diaz performs the most awful teacher of cinema history, the opposite of Sidney Poitier in "To Sir with Love"; Edward James Olmos in "Stand and Deliver" or Michelle Pfeiffer in "Dangerous Minds". Elizabeth Halsey is a slut, pothead, reckless, gold digger, corrupter, cheater, blackmailer and everything that is not good. But I Laughed a lot with this forgettable film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Professora sem Classe" ("Teacher without Class")

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14 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

Bad Apple

Author: kosmasp
5 March 2012

There is a certain energy in that movie. Especially at the beginning when Cameron Diaz seems invincible she has the time of her life (almost literally). There is a great sequence where she kinda falls down though which sets of the rest of the movie. Unfortunately even though it does make sense for her character, it does loose quite a bit of its pace from that point on.

Justin Timberlake is good in playing kind of against character and does not care about what people may think. Jason Segel is almost underused in this one and even Cameron Diaz did not really have that many great moments overall. And for a movie that tries to stay raunchy, it does even fail at combining that with the funny elements. While deliciously evil at times (and good), it also misses the point half of the time. Not really bad, but not that good either (I only watched the cinema release and not the extended cut)

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17 out of 27 people found the following review useful:

As far as raunchy comedies go, it works pretty well

Author: sciencedog777 from United States
23 October 2011

While it's not an excellent film, it has it's moments. Cameron Diaz plays a wonderful rendition of an attractive woman who gets a job as a teacher but doesn't take it seriously until she hears about the prize money for a state test, money she plans to use for a breast enlargement. Much of the humor comes from the students being aroused by this woman and the trouble this causes to the school, which is all played well, but genuinely funny moments tend to be lacking here and there. The whole film it's share of adult humor, from nudity to drug use. One scene even involves the main character suducing a man to further her own agenda. Aside from dirty moments like this, there is also a small bit of heart from Timberlake and the children. These touching moments provide some relief from the overall raunchy tone of the film, but also tend to be quite short. Overall, it's good for a rental if you want a mildly funny yet dirty film.

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