If the success of “Bridesmaids” is any indication, American moviegoers are finally willing to embrace an R-rated female-driven comedy that doesn’t have that pesky word “romantic” in it. Ready to ride the wave of female comedy empowerment is Cameron Diaz’s new flick “Bad Teacher.”
Diaz’s character, Ms. Halsey, is probably more indifferent than actually “bad” in the movie. That misnomer insinuates she actually tries to teach and fails. Ms. Halsey has little interest in even interacting with her students. Her number one goal is to find a rich sugar daddy (relatively young of course) to live off of. When she finds out the latest addition to the faculty (Justin Timberlake) is part of a wealthy watch maker family, she’s ready to pounce. Assuming she can find the money to get a boob job to snag Timberlake’s increasingly bizarre character.
If you’ve caught alot of the TV spots for “Teacher” you’ll notice Timberlake is intentionally absent from them. The pop icon (or is that former pop icon?) has another R-rated comedy from Sony, “Friends with Benefits,” coming out next month and the studio wants to make sure moviegoers don’t get the two films confused. Therefore, this new clip from “Bad Teacher” is your best chance at watching Diaz and Timberlake reunite onscreen (Yeah, HitFix doesn’t go down the gossip line, but don’t tell me that’s not the first thing you thought of when it was announced they were both in the movie).
The other pleasant surprise in “Teacher” is the great supporting cast including Lucy Punch as an increasingly unstable faculty member out to expose Ms. Halsey’s “methods,” Phyllis Smith (“The Office”) as Halsey’s shy confidante, John Michael Higgens as a dolphin-loving principal and Jason Segal as the snarky physical education teacher who won’t give up on charming the film’s, um, heroine. Check out some fine work from Punch here.
Oh, and of course, Diaz uses her sexual prowess to charm both her students, her student’s parents, other faculty members (of both sexes it seems) and, Joe Public moviegoer. Diaz may be 38, but she’s still got it.
Look for some very indepth and funny interviews HitFIx conducted with Diaz, Timberlake, Segal, Smith and Punch over the next week on HitFix.
“Bad Teacher” opens nationwide on June 24.