BAD TEACHER

Bad Teacher aims for comedy, but it’s laughably unfunny. Cameron Diaz does her level best as Miss Halsey, a junior high teacher who attempts to woo a rich new colleague to help her pay for a boob job, but there’s not a lot she can do with the horribly weak script. And because she usually plays nice American sweethearts, I found it difficult to buy her as the uncaring, drug-taking, foul-mouthed bitch from hell. As for Justin Timberlake, he is completely miscast as the nerdy, chaste, goody-two-shoes substitute teacher. A pair of specs and a cardie does not a dork make. The jokes are crude, puerile and predictable, and rather than being funny, the characters come off as unlikeable and mean. Every time Diaz says a swear word it hangs in the air like an off note. If Bad Teacher were a student in my class, I would give it some serious detention time and make it repeat the year. Though I don’t think I could bear to see its stupid face two years in a row. Bad Teacher gets an F. (KS) *1/2