Bad Teacher

Directed by Jake Kasdan

(R)

**

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The world could use more teachers like Cameron Diaz, said Adi Bloom in the London Times Education Supplement. Sure, there aren’t many middle-school parents who’d be pleased to learn that their kids were being taught by a foul-mouthed gold-digger who was just in teaching for the short working hours and the chance to save for a boob job. But “given the ultra-sincere” instructors who typically star in Hollywood’s classroom dramas, it’s refreshing to finally see a comedy that’s “firmly in favor of those who play the system” and that shows real sympathy for the teachers who are disappointed with their lot. Diaz “comes to the picture ready to offend,” said John DeFore in The Hollywood Reporter. Yet “for all her desk-stashed booze” and her questionable schemes aimed at snaring the wealthy new staffer, played by Justin Timberlake, Diaz is stuck with a script that offers her only “a pretty bland badness.” Given how patched together the story sometimes feels, “the big surprise is that Teacher isn’t a complete failure,” said Leslie Felperin in Variety. Instead, it’s “a C+/B student that should have worked a little harder.”