Movie Review: Bad Teacher

September 1, 2011
Glorietta 4

MTRCB Rating: R-13
Genre: Comedy

Starring:
Cameron Diaz
Justin Timberlake
Lucy Punch
Jason Segel

I first saw the trailer in a Jollibee store near the office. Jollibee fastfood chain frequently showed the trailer in their flat screen TVs along with their food products. Any movie with Cameron Diaz in it excites me. The movie seemed hilarious so I decided to watch it.

Elizabeth was a middle school teacher who used marijuana, drank alcohol, foul-mouthed her students and showed movies in her class while she slept during the whole period. She planned to quit her job to marry her wealthy fiance but her fiance dumped her leaving with no choice but to resume her teaching post. Elizabeth fancied Scott, a wealthy substitute teacher. But Scott treated her only as a friend because he liked Amy, their co-teacher and Elizabeth's rival. Russell, the gym teacher, expressed his crush on her but she rejected him. Elizabeth wanted her boobs to be augmented but she needed $10,000 for the operation. She participated in the 7th grade car wash wearing sexy attire and kept the money for her own. She manipulated the parents of her students and made them believe their children needed more supplies and tutoring, of course all for a fee. Amy tried to ruin her reputation by exposing her schemes and continuous violation of school rules to the school principal but the principal ditched the idea.

When Elizabeth learned that the teacher who gets the highest score in the state exam would get $5,700 bonus, she became involved in her students studies and forced them to study intensely. But their efforts fell short when they got low quiz scores. She impersonated a journalist and drugged the person who was in charge with the state exam and stole the test papers. When the result of the exam came out, she got the bonus.

On a field trip, Elizabeth seduced Scott but later got turned off by his behavior. Meanwhile, Amy switched her desk with Elizabeth's. She discovered an evidence that Elizabeth cheated with the exam. She informed the principal about it and the principal invited the person in charge with the exam to testify against Elizabeth. But Elizabeth blackmailed him and scrapped Elizabeth's involvement with the leakage. Elizabeth discovered her desk was switched with Amy's and informed some teachers were into drugs. A police K-9 sniffed drugs in Elizabeth's desk... in Amy's classroom. Amy was transfered to another school. Scott wooed Elizabeth but rejected him in favor of Russel, the gym teacher. Her schedule for her breast augmentation was set but she changed her mind. She became nicer to everybody and became the school's new guidance counselor.

Positive: Cameron Diaz. Every comedic role given to her, she always nails it. The characterization of the cast made this a likeable film. Russel was loveable. This is one film that makes a righteous character bitchy ang unlikeable, just like in the case of Amy who had a knack of following rules. There were few good laughs, undeniably.

Negative: The plot was thin. The story seemed to be going nowhere. Elizabeth got away with everything wrong that she did. It would be better if she got caught, took remorse then redeemed herself. I thought it told me that it is OK to do wrong because eventually, you can get around, if not away with it. That's not nice.

Overall: It is entertaining and funny at times. The plot maybe thin but the cast did a good job with their performances which makes this film an enjoyable one. Maybe not that great but still, I was entertained. And that's all that matters.

Rating: