Tuesday 19 July 2011

Why I Liked... Bad Teacher (2011)

(Dir. Jake Kasdan Starring: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake)

Jason Segel remains flawless.

And that’s saying something, considering he was barely a supporting character in this film. Like, that’s how much the rest of the film entertained. Or rather in this case, didn’t.

Not gonna lie, I got super bored watching this, you guys. Especially since there were so very many elements that had so much potential to make anyone laugh, and yet-not one of them were really explored enough to deliver that ever elusive punch line.

For example-Elizabeth (Diaz), the bad teacher in question, ended up so broke she had to find a roommate on Craigslist. Funny, right? And then nothing about the rest of that scene was amusing. Hell, even the Craigslist line wasn’t even that great. But where Bridesmaids managed to create wacky roommate sub-characters who were able to amuse and not detract, Elizabeth’s Craigslist roommate was just...there. I’m sure he had a line or two at one point, but I don’t remember anymore.

This is just uncomfortable (yes, I attempted this).

Which is sad, isn’t it? Potential, and yet....crash.

Full of cliches and badly written jokes, Bad Teacher just isn’t good. Well-yeah, it was full of cliches, but not all cliches are bad-Bridesmaids was also full of cliches, they were just a lot better executed. In fact, in once scene in Bad Teacher, they used the cliche montage clip of Elizabeth finally teaching her class actual knowledge and them responding with semi-decent answers. And when the gag ends with Elizabeth woefully marking most of their papers with ‘F’s, it’s particularly enjoyable.

She’s not just a bad teacher in terms of child endangerment and alcoholism-she really cannot teach to save her life.

And that’s all I learned from this film.

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