Bad Use of Time

Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) of the John Adams Middle School is not what you would call the quintessence of virtue. When she is not smoking pot in the car or getting wasted in the classroom even as the class is on an overdose of movies, Elizabeth is working assiduously towards all that is required to be done – fair and foul – to land herself a rich husband. When new teacher Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) becomes the competing object of affection between Elizabeth and fellow-teacher Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), it does not take long for the latter to figure out the nether depths that competition would stoop to. However, is this a morality tale, or does evil prevail… or does Elizabeth metamorphose – at least partially – into a better person? Bad Teacher is a marginal movie at best, only redeemed somewhat by the thespian abilities of Cameron Diaz

10.5/20