Too cool for school

Director: Jake Kasdan,
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel, Lucy Punch

Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) is a bad teacher. After only teaching for a year, hard-partying Elizabeth thinks she’s on easy street when she bags herself a rich fiancée. However, once she gets dumped, she finds herself forced to return to the job she hates.

Things start to look up for Elizabeth when the school employs a rich, handsome substitute teacher (Timberlake) but she isn’t going to get things all her own way as she faces competition for his affections from the manic Amy Squirrel (Punch) – a relentlessly chipper science teacher with an axe to grind against slacker Elizabeth.

Similar in many ways to the gloriously funny (and superior) Bad Santa, this is a black-ish comedy that tries to push the boundaries of social acceptance but doesn’t quite go far enough to be completely successful.

Technically it’s also a little lacking – with sloppy editing, a distinct lack of originality and unnecessary plot complications – but somehow Diaz and her comedic co-stars manage to make it work.

While this film won’t inspire or reward high expectations, it will make you laugh. Not enough to go to the top of class, but we still give it B-.

Genre: Comedy
Age Restriction: 18+
Runtime: 92 min