Bad Teacher (2011)

Elizabeth Halsey is a gold-digging, foul-mouthed teacher who half-asses her way through her job and would rather spend her time drinking, smoking pot, and relying on a man's money to get her through life. When her fiancee dumps her, she's forced to return to the teaching job she thought she could leave behind. While there, she starts lusting after an attractive substitute who comes from a wealthy family and decides to start raising money so she can get a boob job to make her more desirable and hopefully become his main squeeze.Right off the bat, this film starts to draw some mild comparisons to Bad Santa, though here the concept of a down and out vulgar loser isn't taking to the fullest level, and there's also no real sense of heart or emotional connection. Instead the film comes off more like a cheeky farce, and more like a feature length SNL type of skit. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the film really isn't all that funny or interesting. There's a couple of moments that are actually pretty funny, and a handful of chuckle worhy instances, but for the most part the laughs just don't work and it feels like they wussed out in the raunch department, which is silly since they did get the go-ahead for an R. Luckily, Cameron Diaz gives a passable performance, and the car wash and dodgeball scenes are two of the better moments. Segel and Lennon are both also notable for their decent performances, but the three of them are really the only ones who seem to be attempting to create genuine characters as opposed to Punch and Timberlake who really come off as phony caricatures, and Smith who basically rehashes her role from The Office. The film's not awful, but it's really a missed opportunity. I wasn't bored, but I wasn't blown away. I did dig Elizabeth's choices of movies she shows to her class, and, while the film is kinda blase, it will do in a pinch if you're really bored, the weather sucks outside, there's nothing else on, and you're not expecting something great but still need to occupy 92 minutes of your life in some way.