Hola all. Massawyrm here.
I’m not what one would call a Cameron Diaz fan. Not in the slightest. She is a charisma black hole. The charm she showed early in her career has faded and only when she finds a particularly well written character does she become palatable. She’s at her best when she’s given someone relatively unlikable to play juxtaposed against someone far more appealing. Fortunately for BAD TEACHER, that’s exactly what happens here. Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) is not a nice person; she’s not even remotely endearing. She’s an arrogant, gold digging slacker who wants nothing more than to raise enough money to get the boob job that will land her a sugar daddy. But surrounded by a school full of charming, well-meaning teachers, she becomes the fodder for some very funny comedy.
Jake Kasdan is an extremely underrated comic director. He has a knack for subtle, brilliantly executed comedy that thrives when he’s allowed to play around with top tier actors and comedians. His films WALK HARD and ZERO EFFECT are fall out of your chair funny, and while I loathe ORANGE COUNTY, I hear the rated R version of the film that Paramount initially tested was far and away better than the finished product (the film sadly found its release just shy of the R-rated comedy resurgence and was considered unworthy of an unrated DVD rerelease.) Kasdan’s best jokes aren’t the ones that are in your face, but rather those that are delivered on the side when you least expect it – and that’s what happens time and again here.
What makes this film are the non-Diaz teachers and faculty of what is otherwise a top tier middle school. Rather than what you’d expect from a mean spirited comedy, this isn’t a cast of freaks and misfits where a teacher like this would fit in; nor are they prissy, conservative, over the top caricatures meant only to make the *shocked face* any time Diaz unleashes something improper. Instead they are quirky balls of sunshine who love their jobs and keep thinking that any day now Diaz will come around. And it is the genuine comedy created through their interactions that sell every moment of this film. These characters steal the show every time they show up.
Meanwhile, the structure of the film is very different than what you’d expect from this sort of fare. This isn’t a film about piling up the infractions that ultimately lead to a huge, gut wrenching discovery and late game redemption. No, Diaz gets away with her shenanigans. Constantly. She is a devilish criminal mastermind of slackdom constantly pulling one over on the administration and one upping her well-meaning but slightly cracked rival Amy Squirrel (played hilariously by Lucy Punch). No matter what she does, she never faces the consequences, so her character arc seems much more introspective and earned than you would expect.
The comedy here is short on groaners and loaded with some gut-busting one-liners that deliver at a nice steady clip. There’s one joke that almost goes a bit too far – dredging the very bottom of the scatological gutter – before saving itself with one of the funniest lines in the movie. While it doesn’t quite deliver on the level of over-the-top that we saw earlier in THE HANGOVER PART II, it also doesn’t suffer its predecessor’s problem with drag and predictability. The pacing is strong, the jokes keep coming and the plot is fresh enough that you’re kept off balance waiting for what comes next – everything you want out of a solid, summer comedy.
Everyone - Diaz included - is given a lot to work with and they manage to get some great jokes out of what seemed like a pretty well mined comedy setup. The most surprising thing about this film isn’t how funny Diaz proves to be (she really is – it’s her best role in over a decade), but that this is from the pair of writers who tortured us so terribly two years ago with YEAR ONE; their roots as THE OFFICE writers show very clearly here.
BAD TEACHER is a solid comedy. I’m not in love with it, but I sure like it a lot. It’s funny and is everything it tries to be. If you’re looking for a few good laughs this weekend, this will do the trick nicely.
Until next time friends,
Massawyrm
