Cameron Diaz hasn’t had much luck at the box office over the past decade. Sure, there are the Shrek films, but those are animated and rely on a popular character among children. Other than these financial successes, there have been a string of moderate wins: What Happens in Vegas, Knight & Day (and overlooked absolute gem, no doubt hurt by the public’s unsure feelings towards the always terrific Tom Cruise), and The Green Hornet. There have also been some low faring pictures in which she was outstanding: the criminally overlooked In Her Shoes ( a perfect performance and film that didn’t hit with moviegoers) and ones where she was the weaker half: The Holiday (one of Nancy Myers best) . And then there have been the total bombs: My Sister’s Keeper, and the horrendous The Box. In fact, Diaz’s last legitimate financial hit was the concept film Charlie’s Angels in 2000, and Scorsese’s Gangs of New York in 2002 had prestige.

So, all in all, Cam needed a hit.

Well, she got one. This past weekend, Bad Teacher opened to $31.6 million and showed that the raunchy female comedy is what people want to see these days. They have tired of the romantic female – driven films that I have defended and still appreciate. What is interesting about Bad Teacher is that even though people are giving Bridesmaids credit for moving this genre forward, it was actually Cameron Diaz who, thirteen years ago, was the first woman to prove that people like to see their chicks get down and dirty in There’s Something About Mary. We have come full circle and ultimately, this is Cameron’s trademark, not Kristen Wiig’s.

In Bad Teacher, Diaz plays a woman who would do anything for money and riches. When her fiance’s mother prevents him from marrying Diaz’s Elizabeth Halsey, she has no choice to go back to work as a teacher. For her, this means showing the kids movies day in and day out, smoking weed during breaks, and mainlining the occasional airplane shot with her back turned to the class. She doesn’t participate in her commitments and shows a general lack of anything resembling human emotion practically the whole movie. When watch heir Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) comes to teach, she turns on the charm in hopes of lassoing another sugar daddy. She sees that his ex-girlfriend had an enormous rack, so she sets her new mission on raising money through school activities to get a boob job.

While all of this is happening, another suitor comes into view, Russell Gettis (Jason Segel), the school gym teacher. Elizabeth obviously blows him off time and time again because she considers his profession unacceptable. This love triangle becomes a love quad when Elizabeth’s school nemesis Amy Squirrel (the ingratiatingly obnoxious Lucy Punch) catches Scott’s attention and then it’s on. Histrionics ensue, sabotage occurs, and we get a hilarious sexy car wash scene straight out of a Whitesnake video.

Diaz charms the audience to death, even though we could care less if she will end up happy. Elizabeth is not a human character, she is a caricature whose main purpose is to see how far it can push the audience into enjoyable submission. Timberlake tries, but his characters is just so unlikeable, not even given any funny lines, only one uncomfortably long dry-humping scene. The likeable lunk here is Segel, who always brings his likeability and Eeyore-esque charm to everything he does. It’s also interesting to see no onscreen chemistry exists between one time real-life paramours Diaz and Timberlake, but it is there between her and Segel.

There is also a hilarious sequence involving scene stealer Thomas Lennon, who plays a school official who Elizabeth tries to seduce to get a copy of the state test in order to have the highest scoring class in exchange for a cash prize. Every film Lennon is in, he is a stand out, and this remains the case here.

Go see Bad Teacher for the fun of it. Here is a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously – a film where there is no reality, there are no boundaries, and you have Eric Stonestreet playing a Harley dude.

Filed under: Bad Ass Heroine, Comedy, Raunch Com, silver screen by admin