Bad Teacher

This week’s premier on Sky Movies is Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segal and Justin Timberlake.

Cameron Diaz plays Elizabeth, a teacher who is looking for a rich husband to keep her.  She believes that a boob job will help her land a man and so starts using every trick she can think of to get the $10,000 to pay for it.  She learns of a $5,000 bonus that is given to the teacher whose class gets the highest marks in the state exam and soon she is in direct competition with sticky-sweet teacher Amy Squirrel (played brilliantly by Britain’s own Lucy Punch).

Bad Teacher is the usual story of a superficial person learning that there is more to life than money.  This is a very common plotline but when done well, it is also watchable.  Bad Teacher is very funny with likeable characters making it a good, fun romp.

For the romance lovers there is a love triangle in this film as Elizabeth tries to convince the new teacher from a wealthy family, Scott (Justin Timberlake), to date her and the gym teacher, Russell (Jason Segal), tries to convince Elizabeth that he’s the one she wants.

This film was made after Diaz and Timberlake ended their relationship and I did find myself wondering in certain parts (you’ll see which parts) how they coped with working together on this.  However, both are great professionals and give excellent performances.  It always comes as a small, pleasant shock that Timberlake can act.  I last saw him in In Time and it was nice to see him able to play something completely different and, I imagine, a character very unlike him in reality.

I’m also pleased to announce that the song he performs in Bad Teacher was a song he actually wrote; what a talented man!

For the people who aren’t enjoying their jobs right now, you must watch this film.  It will fill you with dark inspiration and hope that perhaps you too can do as you want, play the game and bend the rules without getting fired.  For that reason, Bad Teacher has been added to my list of ‘Career Motivational’ films along with Officespace (this list is a little lacking, I’ll have to keep working on it, any suggestions welcome).

Bad Teacher is funny, full of bad taste and rude jokes, inspirational with minimal heartfelt chick flick slush, therefore it is brilliant and I highly recommend it.  This film has not only been added to my ‘Career Motivational’ list but also to my favourite ‘Women’ films.  This film left me walking tall, feeling brave and confident and anything that leaves a woman feeling good about herself and like she can take on the world is a good thing.