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—— After Earth May 31
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100% The Kings of Summer May 31

Bad Teacher (2011)

tomatometer

44

Average Rating: 5.3/10
Reviews Counted: 174
Fresh: 76 | Rotten: 98

In spite of a promising concept and a charmingly brazen performance from Cameron Diaz, Bad Teacher is never as funny as it should be.

32

Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 26

In spite of a promising concept and a charmingly brazen performance from Cameron Diaz, Bad Teacher is never as funny as it should be.

audience

36

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 77,092

My Rating

Movie Info

Some teachers just don't give an F. For example, there's Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz). She's foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can't wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her bogus day job. 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). When Elizabeth also finds herself fighting off the

R,

Comedy

Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg

Oct 18, 2011

$100.3M

Sony Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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Cast

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All Critics (174) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (79) | Rotten (98) | DVD (8)

If you can see past the dismal sexual politics of "Bad Teacher," which I couldn't, you might applaud the gall of a film that expends so little effort in forcing us to like its central character.

June 27, 2011 Full Review Source: New Yorker
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A frustrating mix of smart flash and smirking impudence.

June 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hard to root for such a selfish lead, but "Bad Teacher" has just enough politically incorrect humor to warrant a grade of B.

June 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Richard Roeper.com
Richard Roeper.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If you're looking for a funny comedy about a cynical, hard-partying school teacher transformed by his students into a paragon of pedagogical awesomeness, skip Bad Teacher and go rent School of Rock instead.

June 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Slate | Comments (9)
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There are plenty of quality gags seeping through from the margins.

June 24, 2011 Full Review Source: NPR
NPR
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Has its lewd funniness, though not often enough to make it worthy of not only Bad Santa but, more to the point, School of Rock.

June 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Cameron Diaz eats the screen up in Bad Teacher but can't withstand the enormously dim-witted script.

March 2, 2013 Full Review Source: We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered

A raunchy comedy that promises, from its title to its casting, a "Bad Santa" riff on a sacred institution...But they don't deliver.

January 2, 2013 Full Review Source: McClatchy-Tribune News Service
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Crass, charmless and not especially funny, Bad Teacher is like a school kid trying to be cool.

September 28, 2012 Full Review Source: TheShiznit.co.uk
TheShiznit.co.uk

In the end, despite how thinly-plotted the film is, there are several laughs to be had, and that goes a long way.

September 20, 2012 Full Review Source: Examiner.com
Examiner.com

Bad Teacher doesn't quite get an F. But an acceptable C+ is pretty fair.

January 29, 2012 Full Review Source: IGN DVD
IGN DVD

Kadan's direction is adequate with everything competently done, but there's nothing here that manages to make you laugh out loud. Could someone tell the current crop of Hollywood filmmakers to find some new jokes?

December 13, 2011 Full Review Source: The Baltic Times

The problem isn't that Diaz's character is such a mean-spirited person, it's that her motives for being that way are completely contrived.It might have been a good short film, but that's about it.

October 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Scene-Stealers.com
Scene-Stealers.com

Provided you're in the mood for salacious fare, this titillating teensploit does deliver the requisite number of raunchy rib ticklers to be worth the investment.

October 23, 2011 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment (1)
NewsBlaze

Sets back feminism a few centuries, but who cares. Because if we're talking self-criticism of the species, some women are let's face it, what can only be termed female chauvinists. And Diaz reinforces every single negative female stereotype with relish.

October 11, 2011 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

ena biastiko kai xiliopathmeno trabhgmeno sxoini kwmikoy romantzoy, panw sto opoio prepei na balei prwtagwnistria kai yposthriktikoys ermhneytes na kanoyn akrobatika gia na gemisei h eytyxws syntomh diarkeia toy panhgyrioy toy

September 29, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | Comment (1)
Movies for the Masses

Gross-out comedy big on cheap laughs, short on depth

August 4, 2011 Full Review Source: MovieFIX
MovieFIX

The story is predictably thin and the jokes suitably unsophisticated, but the clever characterisations help this paint-by-numbers comedy limp over the line to "watchable".

July 28, 2011 Full Review Source: The Mercury
The Mercury

Weirdly ill-conceived. Diaz is good and very believable as ... the most dislikable character I've encountered in a film in a long time ... [which] makes for a lousy movie.

July 27, 2011 Full Review Source: ABC Radio (Australia) | Comment (1)
ABC Radio (Australia)

The only way to understand this movie's argument about performance pay is to imagine Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker watching it.

July 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Film Snobs
Film Snobs

She's not somewhat bad, she's not repentantly bad and she's certainly not sympathetically bad. Nope, she's just plain ol' bad. And that is a thing of rare beauty.

July 25, 2011 Full Review Source: Moviedex | Comments (2)
Moviedex

... more interesting (albeit disheartening) for what it seems to say about public-school teachers ...

July 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

This is too easy, but I'm going to do it anyway: Bad Teacher? Bad movie.

July 21, 2011 Full Review Source: The Standard | Comments (7)

Somehow, surprisingly, without things ever turning schmaltzy, we end up caring about this selfish, foul-mouthed teacher, even if it's just a smidgen. And in hindsight, that's a pretty impressive feat.

July 19, 2011 Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | Comment (1)
FILMINK (Australia)

While a few of Diaz's scenes with Timberlake and his gift for the deadpan seem as if they're going to amount to something, the script's dialogue fails them.

July 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney Morning Herald

Audience Reviews for Bad Teacher

To my unfortunate surprise, I found this film excruciating to watch, and terribly unfunny. With the exception of Justin Timberlake, I thought the acting was good and the story believable, but there was something missing here - mainly, the characters seemed really inconsistently written, to the point where, from scene to scene, I wasn't always sure I was still watching the same movie. I understand that we weren't supposed to like Cameron Diaz's, but midway through, the story seems to decide it does want us to root for her after all and changes in tone. Too bad. If this movie had really gone for it, it could've found Bad Santa territory.
July 3, 2011
danperry17

Super Reviewer

They couldn't fine someone else to play the part of the Bad Teacher, I mean Camernon Diaz is way past her prime as an attractive high school teacher, more of a want to be attractive, but looking more like a washed up New Jersey Soccer Mom. This is not a kids movie by any means. Pretty trashy, but I rest assured that parents that let there kids watch the simsons will find nothing wrong with this film. 1 1/2 stars
June 7, 2012
bbcfloridabound
Bruce Bruce

Super Reviewer

    1. Amy Squirrel: Shut the front door!
    – Submitted by Zach C (2 months ago)
    1. Elizabeth: You keep saying shit like that, and you're gonna get punched.
    – Submitted by Lucie H (6 months ago)
    1. Lynn Davies: Do you want to come see Period 5 play? It's the teacher band.
    2. Elizabeth: I'd rather get shot in the face.
    – Submitted by Drew R (11 months ago)
    1. Lynn Davies: I love how his eyes sparkle when he smiles.
    – Submitted by Amanda T (18 months ago)
    1. Principal Wally Snur: I have a bumper sticker that says that!
    – Submitted by Nick A (18 months ago)
    1. Elizabeth Halsey: What I do know, Is anyone who wears the same Gymnastics sweatshirt three times a week isn't getting laid till there 29.
    – Submitted by Nick A (18 months ago)

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