Synopsis
Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) is ruthless, wildly inappropriate and says exactly what’s on her mind. She may be working as a teacher, but her real occupation is to find a rich man to support her and get her out of the middle school for good. When she’s dumped by her fiancé, she sets her plan in motion to win over a rich, handsome substitute (Justin Timberlake) – competing for his affections with an overly energetic colleague, Amy (Lucy Punch), while disregarding the advances of the school’s irreverent gym teacher (Jason Segel). Elizabeth’s schemes and their wild consequences prove that she truly doesn’t give an “F.”
Okay, so this film wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be. It’s got some great moxie to it that creates a solid story with loads of funny moments. Not many comedies these days concentrate on the story, as most are more worried about how much comedy they can put into their trailer (see Grown Ups for example). The end result of those movies usually equals out to box office bombs. Thankfully, Bad Teacher shows some good effort into building a solid story and inserting the comedy appropriately. The idea of a bitter woman not really wanting to teach, and the teaching system not immediately detecting that, isn’t out of the ordinary in this day and age. There are quite a lot of bitter teachers in the country, who would rather be doing something else with their life. With that said, I’m sure the main concern of those teachers isn’t finding a husband and affording new boobs, which is the driving device for Cameron Diaz’s Elizabeth. That driving point leads to her character doing dastardly things like stealing money from a school car wash and getting her kids answers for a Illinois state test. For the most part the story and ‘goal’ in the film is believable for Elizabeth, as she is just a very shallow person, which make is fine to accept.
The problem with the film is that three-fourths of it is solid. The ending, when she’s getting the results and the consequences that come after her ‘deeds’ doesn’t seem well thought out. While I’m not going to give away what goes down at the end, I didn’t like how the film concluded. It felt rushed and a bit empty. It seemed like they found a very thin logical solution to get Elizabeth out of trouble, and left holes in the story that should be plugged up some way. Again, after the initial set up, it all seems very thin in substance at the end. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the film. Also, Justin Timberlake’s Scott is a useless gimmick. Don’t get me wrong, the kid is fun to watch onscreen (he’s funny as hell), but much like the ending you’ll find him quite thin in substance in the overall scheme of things. His conclusion with Elizabeth is a bit empty as well.
Still, Diaz breathes new life into her acting career thanks to this lead role. She has always played a good ‘bitch’ in films like this, and it works for her. She hits her cues right, she brings passion into this comedic role, and she’s just fun to watch. It brings me back to the Something About Mary days where she could deliver some brilliant comedy and play off other people. Speaking of other people, Lucy Punch and Jason Segel were fantastic. Punch, who I first saw briefly in Hot Fuzz, knows how to bring the comedy. She plays a great goofy teacher that is viciously sweet. She is fun to watch with Timberlake’s Scott, and even more fun when she gets really pissed and turns to physical comedy. She did a great job as the antagonist of the film. Segel is equally as enjoyable. He plays P.E. teacher Russell Gettis like he was actually a gym teacher at one point of his life. He’s relaxed, believable and fun to watch. My only complaint is that I wish the film had more of him.
At the end of the day, Bad Teacher is a fun film that is flawed. It certainly is one of the better comedies to come out in recent memory, but it still has some loose ends that don’t get tied. Check it out, though, as it’s very much worth your time.
The Blu-ray portion of this film looked and sounded great. The scenes were crisp, clean and sharp. There were no artifacts or bits of graininess in the HD picture, which is great. Regretfully, there was no graininess and artifacts in the dry humping scene with Timberlake and Diaz, which totally could of used it (kidding, kidding! Sort of…). In all seriousness, the Blu-ray portion of the movie was pretty solid. It added a bit more sexiness to Diaz and a bit more enjoyment in the over-the-top scenes in the film. To add to all this, including the dry humping scene, the audio was equally was good, as it came mastered in 5.1 DTS-HD. It sports a good soundtrack as well.
In the special features department, here’s what you should expect:
· Deleted Scenes
· Outtakes
· Way Behind The Scenes with Jason and Justin featurette
· Raising More Than Funds featurette
· Gag Reel
· JAMS Yearbook-Hidden Moments Interactive yearbook featuring outtakes with the cast.
· Three additional behind-the-scenes featurettes:
o A Very Odd Blacksmith Story
o Swimming With The Dolphins
o Good Teacher
The features are pretty solid in relation to the film. The featurettes are very entertaining, especially the dolphin one. The gag reel is hilarious, as are the outtakes. Overall, the features do a great job with extending the life of the movie, which needs it a bit. Some features seem thrown onto Blu-rays so they looked packed, but these seem very purposeful. Good stuff.