Bad Teacher: The Review

Bad Teacher [2011]

Bad Teacher Movie Poster

So this may come as a shock, but this is actually my second or third time watching this movie all the way through. I know I should stick with movies I've never seen before, but for all the reviews in the world that I can write this one won't matter. So I've rewatched the movie and here's my personal opinion.

Synopsis:

A really bad middle school teacher, Elizabeth Halsey, thinks she's going to retire from teaching after being in the service for a whole year. She has a rich boyfriend she's about to marry, a luxurious life set ahead of her, and no troubles what-so-ever. Except her rich boyfriend figures out that she's really only in it for the money before they can get married and so it's back for another year of teaching at John Adams Middle School (JAMS for short).  From there, its her strangely abusive, not very clean story of trying to go from rags to riches, or in her case get a new set of breasts to make herself more appealing to rich men.

Verdict: 3.75 / 5 Stars

If you'll believe it, I actually really enjoyed this movie! I mean, with all the vulgarity and what not I actually enjoy everything that happens. And I just want to state now that I was on the line between giving this movie a whole four stars or three and a half. Why? Because I know this movie is not right for everyone, but that's not to say it is just a terrible movie.

I guess what I liked about this movie is that there is this nostalgia while watching it of that's how my school went. I had the peppy teachers and the classes where there was the popular girls and popular guys who would not take a second of their life to look past the superficial appearances. And I liked that it was set in middle school, which is when hormones are a blaze in the students, and yet here we have this raunchy teacher who's drugged up and doped out in between her attempts at get-quick rich schemes. So in this essence, it kind of makes it more interesting for me.

And the plot seemed well thought-out. Like you can tell that whomever wrote the script really worked hard to make her seem like a witty teacher that could have tricked a rich guy into letting her have half his money and not the other way around. Combined with an arch nemesis, which I personally loved the corkiness of Amy Squirrel, and you get this sort of sickly sweet twist to a very different sort of comedy.  Top it off, I'm sort of a sucker for love stories that revolve around central characters and I love Justin Timberlake in this movie as the roll of the weird hot guy. So for me, it wasn't exactly something I would call painful to re-watch and I actually would recommend it to a friend.

The only problem I do have with this film is that its almost like they worked a little too hard to make it about the adults in the movie and less about the kids. I would have liked to see more interaction with the children and how she reacts, maybe even with some scenes extended. Instead, we get this sort-of pulled back view on the year that focuses around the principle and the adults. I also would have loved to have seen more teachers in this movie. Like we start to see them, but they too are just kind of there and not really given much more light than a quick appearance. And of course, I can't give it a perfect rating because this movie is NOT for everyone (and I know that).

So I feel this movie is a 3.75/5 stars type.