Sassy school teachers teach and end up learning life's lessons Reviewer

Sassy school teachers teach and end up learning life's lessons

Reviewer

By CRISTOBAL LABOG

September 15, 2011, 1:24pm

MANILA, Philippines — What’s your favorite teacher movie? You haven’t really seen too many of them, have you?

But two readily come to mind: the lyrically titled “Dead Poets Society” and the equally sweet sounding “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” anyone?

How about: “Bad Teacher?”

Indeed, what is it about the titles of today’s films? “The Town.” “After.Life.” “Super 8.” “Due Date.” “The American.” None of these titles grab you with the sort of magic evoked by “Legends of the Fall,” “A River Runs Through It,” or “The Kingdom of Heaven,” titles guaranteed to lure moviegoers to the cinema house.

Could this phenomenon be an alternative explanation for the preponderance of film franchises? From Batman’s “The Dark Night” soon comes “The Dark Knight Rises” and from “Mission Impossible 1, 2 and 3,” the coming yearend’s Tom Cruise trademark “Mission Impossible 4.” Great box office guarantor titles.

Avid cinephiles already look forward to the renaissance of the Jason Bourne thrillers in next film season’s “The Bourne Legacy.” Suddenly ubiquitous Daniel Craig who just regaled us with his performance as an alien abductee in Solar Films recent release “Cowboys and Aliens” (to the premier of which Universal Pictures’ Rommie Berona invited this reviewer and Bobby Caballero) takes over the Matt Damon staple character now that Matt has wisely decided to surrender his Bourne ID.

Now don’t expect “Bad Teacher” to jumpstart a slew of teacher films. It’s bad enough that this current one, if you take writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg without your tongue in cheek, present an almost entirely negative picture of the US educational system.

Two female teachers who badmouth and hate each other so much they want each other to go to jail, a naïve principal more interested in dolphins than administration, and a male teacher whose predilection for “dry” sex makes him an ideal poster boy for the RH bill. These are the main protagonists and antagonists of “Bad Teacher.”

Former ‘N Sync boy band leader Justin Timberlake plays the testosterone-bursting algebra teacher Scott Delacorte, scion in this film to the Jaeger le Coultre watchmakers’ fortune. Over his affections fight dirty blonde Elizabeth Halsey (green-eyed Cameron Diaz who initially comes off as a cross between a virgin and a tart) and sultry redhead Amy Squirrel whose portrayal of Lucy Punch merits an A+.

Jake Kasdan handles these characters as though he, too, has taught in middle school – the equivalent here of high school. He injects Elizabeth with just the right amount of sensuality, Amy with the perpetual pout of a loser, and Scott with the usual Timberlake charisma.

But it’s the other teachers in the John Adams Middle School that come shining through. This supporting cast gifts viewers with a microcosm of the lives and times of mild-mannered middle-American educators. John Michael Higgins’ amiable Principal Snur is complemented by Jason Segel’s amicable gym teacher Russell Gettis and the school-m’armish Phyllis Smith’s Lynn Davis.

Still it is Cameron Diaz’s Miss Halsey that holds the film together. At the beginning of the film, she confesses to teacher buddy Lynn Davis, “My full time job is to find a guy who’s going to take care of me.” You just believe her and totally side with her in the confrontation with the wealthy fiancé whose decision to terminate their romantic relationship occasions her unwanted return to the teaching profession.

And she’s so right when she tells a suitor, “I don’t sleep with co-workers” – because, indeed, school teachers should not, no matter how bad they may be.

“Bad Teacher” runs for 92 minutes; it is rated R for foul language and even fouler sex. It is distributed by Columbia Pictures, the Philippine office of Sony Pictures Releasing Intern