Bad Teacher: "Shut The F...ront Door"

Director: Jake Kasdan
Writer:    Lee Eisenberg
               Gene Stupnitsky
Starring: Cameron Diaz
               Justin Timberlake
               Jason Segel
               Lucy Punch
               Phyllis Smith
               Molly Shannon
               Eric Stonestreet
Rating:    ****

Home Release: Out Now

This summer there were 3 inappropriate, dirty and damn right funny films, that all came out around the same time.  
Number 1: Bad Teacher

Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) is a rude, ignorant and selfish middle school teacher. She is leaving her job as she is about to get married to her rich devoted fiance, but when the mother in law steps in the marriage ends, and Liz has a meltdown. She is forced to take her old job back, but this time she is worse. She drinks, takes drugs, and swears at the students, and she spends most of her day picking on her friend Lynn (Smith). She discovers that she is getting overlooked by guys, so decides to get a boob job to get back in the running with men. After discovering that the teacher with the highest scoring class gets a $5,700 bonus, she changes her teaching style and cheats her way to the top, all on her quest for boobs and love.

Her rival in the film is the hilarious Amy Squirrel (Punch), who is the complete opposite to Liz. She takes her job extremely seriously, sometimes to seriously, and she likes to be friends with everyone, even if that means brown nosing. When the new male teacher, Scott DeLacorte (Timberlake), joins the faculty, both women end up fighting for his attention. But while Amy wins, Liz doesn't go down without a hilarious fight. The trio do a brilliant job together and really pull out all the stops to create three hilarious characters. After the fighting over Trousersnake ends, Liz soon realises that not everything is about materialistic things and falls for the homely gym teacher, Russell Gettis (Segel). The chemistry between Diaz and Segel is superb and I actually found it far more dynamic and enjoyable than between Diaz and her former flame.

The best character for me has to Lynn, I had never heard of or seen Phyllis Smith before, but after watching her in this, I hope to see her a whole lot more. Her characterisation and mannerisms were so perfect and spot on that she literally was hilarious throughout. The best thing though is how sweet she is, and how different she is from Diaz's character, but that is what makes the relationship so funny and makes it work so fantastically.

The writing is brilliantly sharp and devilishly dark, and every scene has a laugh out loud moment. The plot was original and all of the characters were well developed and interesting to watch. I personally think it is definately worth a watch, and you should pick it up right away.
Next Up: Horrible Bosses

Bad Teacher - Trailer