Schools Out

Hello Everyone :-)

It was my birthday the other week and I decided to go to the pictures. My first choice was to go and see ‘X:Men First Class’ but alas that screen was broken so I had to go with what was behind door number 2, ‘Bad Teacher’.

‘Bad Teacher’ is the story of Elizabeth Halsey a Teacher that gets dumped by her fiancé and sets about securing a rich man for herself. Halsey is set on raising the money to get a breast augmentation because she thinks this will help her get a man. In steps substitute teacher Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) who is the heir to a watch making business and Halsey’s ticket to a cushy life. Meanwhile, Gym Teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel) is trying to get Elizabeth to go out with him.
It transpires that every year the teacher with the class that scores highest in the end of year test gets a bonus and this pitches Halsey against Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), who wins this bonus every year.

It’s not a bad film but it’s not a good film either. I did laugh, but not a lot.

The problem is Cameron Diaz’s titular teacher. She’s less ‘Bad Teacher’ and more ‘Awful Person’. We’re supposed to find humour in her general badass-ery but I just thought she was horrible which doesn’t work when the end of the movie relies on you having some kind of sympathy for her, I wanted her to get her comeuppance.
She’s also not as funny as she should be. I found most of the laughs came from the supporting cast and not from the Halsey character which isn’t right. The name of the film is ‘Bad Teacher’; if the title character isn’t funny enough there’s something really wrong.

I don’t think its Diaz’s fault (I’ve seen her do comedy and do it well in things like ‘My Best Friend’s wedding’ and ‘Shrek’), I think it’s bad writing and bad direction. It was directed by Jake Kasdan and the screenplay was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky which surprises me because they wrote some of the scripts for ‘The Office: An American workplace’ of which I’m a huge fan and usually has me in hysterics. I can’t say I’ve ever seen any of Kasdan’s work before and based on this endeavor I won’t be first in line for his next feature film.

On the plus side the supporting cast are great.
Lucy Punch is excellent as the outwardly happy, smiley Teacher who finds is hard to suppress her frustration with Halsey. You’ll probably know her as Eve Draper from ‘Hot Fuzz’ the girl who plays Juliet in the Sandford Am-Dram society performance. She was good in that, she was good in this; she looks like a promising comedy talent.
Justin Timberlake continues to add good performances to his filmography as Scott Delacorte. He plays the substitute as a holier than thou, new age prick and he does it very well. A lot of laughs come from his stupid self-righteousness and a ridiculous song he writes about Amy. I really enjoyed him but there is a moment during which he lost all of the allure that I had seen in him previously. Hopefully this will be re-established in his upcoming film ‘Friends with Benefits’.
I fell in a little bit in love with Jason Segel during this film. He’s funny, cute and the character that talks the most sense in the whole film. I really liked him and the ‘LeBron James/Michael Jordan’ argument between Russell and student Shaun is hilarious.

So it’s ok. Not as funny as it needs to be but it’s elevated slightly by some good performances and the fact I didn’t want her to get the guy is a flaw of the film’s design.
I’ll give it a D, must try harder.

So now let us look at today’s...

Reasons to be Cheerful

1. The trailer for The Inbetweeners is out :-) I love The Inbetweeners and I have a special interest in the film because the boys go on a boy’s holiday to Malia. I’ve been on a girl's holiday to Malia so I’m excited to see A) places I’ve seen/been in/been drunk in on the big screen and B) how accurate the film is in its portrayal of an 18-30’s type holiday because for my money the Inbetweeners paints a more truthful picture of being a teenager than Skins ever has done.

2. It’s nearly time for ‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’!!! Excited! It’s no surprise as a massive fan of Doctor Who I’m also mad about Torchwood. Tune in to BBC 1 at 9pm on Thursday 14th July to see Jack and Gwen back and kicking some intercontinental arse!

That’s it for today.

Goodbye till next time :-)
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