Bad Teacher
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: June 24, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
18
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
85
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJun 23, 2011
Bad Teacher is hardly a perfect picture, but in the context of every other comedy on the summer movie landscape - from the faux empowerment of "Bridesmaids" to the neurotic frat-guy heteromania of "The Hangover Part II" - it feels revolutionary. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineTodd GilchristJun 18, 2011
Bad Teacher is a worthy successor to the benchmark black comedy "Bad Santa" (without being at all the same). Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 24, 2011
The fact that there are so many good comic bits here allowed Kasdan to assemble a great comic cast. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 23, 2011
Brazenly funny in its own right - until it turns into a goody two-shoes. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinJun 23, 2011
Teacher underutilizes a smartly cast-against-type Timberlake and the perpetually winning Segel, but Diaz ultimately earns a rooting interest in the unlikely redemption of her scheming opportunist. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJun 26, 2011
Diaz, costars Jason Segel and Justin Timberlake, and a sharp supporting cast manage to deliver a crappy good time, mercifully devoid of any heart-tugging teacher-student subplots. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 24, 2011
Has its lewd funniness, though not often enough to make it worthy of not only "Bad Santa" but, more to the point, "School of Rock." Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 23, 2011
Timberlake is not afraid to make himself look like an idiot. He is, in fact, already the comic actor Diaz may yet become: a looker who knows how to use his looks to get away with murder. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJun 23, 2011
Thank Segal in part, because the guy is always funny, and Timberlake gets some of the biggest laughs in a particularly crude sex scene (though the song with which his character woos Miss Squirrel is perhaps the film's funniest moment). Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJun 23, 2011
A raunchy comedy that's funnier to think about than to watch. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 23, 2011
The picture doesn't inspire or reward high expectations, but it raises smiles. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 23, 2011
Ms. Diaz has found her down-and-dirty element in the kind of broad comedy that threatens to get ugly and more or less succeeds on that threat. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 22, 2011
Probably it's a combination of those and other elements that leads to Diaz's bad teacher not being as bad as she might have been and Bad Teacher not as good as it could have been. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 21, 2011
The movie works-to the extent that it does-because of its sharply un-PC script (credited to Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky) that sometimes feels like a Hollywood rewrite of "Election." Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJun 18, 2011
For all her desk-stashed booze and inappropriately tight skirts, the movie offers Diaz a pretty bland badness. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Jun 18, 2011
Broader than Bad Santa and less consistently funny, it's still gleefully rude, crude and often a lot of fun. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 30, 2011
It IS consistently funny. Its trash-can humor is tasteless, no doubt, but hey, that doesn't make it unpalatable. Read full review
50
TimeMary PolsJun 26, 2011
Bad Teacher revels in being distasteful. But it can't just let a bad woman be bad; she also has to be burdened with physical insecurity, even if it makes no sense. Can you imagine if Billy Bob Thornton's character had become Bad Santa so he could steal to fund his penis implant? Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJun 24, 2011
A frustrating mix of smart flash and smirking impudence. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickJun 24, 2011
Most of the laughs are collected by Lucy Punch as chirpy, borderline-psychotic teacher named Squirrel. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 23, 2011
Of these characters, the rival played by Lucy Punch is the most colorful, because she's the most driven and obsessed. The others seem curiously inconsequential, content to materialize in a scene, perform a necessary function and vaporize. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 23, 2011
Bad Teacher keeps running away from its combustibly nasty premise. Damn shame. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 23, 2011
The product is akin to a mediocre '80s sex comedy (with minimal nudity) and "daring" is a descriptor only the most naïve and puritanical would employ. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJun 22, 2011
Bad Teacher is a pulled punch, a pot-smoking/kid cussing/teacher copulating farce that is less than the sum of its parts. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJun 22, 2011
We're just watching a film try to pass off misanthropic blunt-wittedness as "edge." Read full review
50
VarietyLeslie FelperinJun 18, 2011
What's singularly lacking here is any sense of how to use the underage characters, who, apart from one or two, are a barely distinguishable gaggle. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 23, 2011
This is a comedy never proceeding beyond its idea pitch and attractive casting. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensJun 26, 2011
From time to time, Bad Teacher gestures vaguely at the movie it could have been. Diaz slouches and snarls effectively through the early scenes. It isn't till we realize her redemption will be unsatisfying that the character starts to curdle. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJun 23, 2011
Barely makes the grade in either humor or provocation. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJun 23, 2011
Bad Teacher should be a hoot. But it isn't. Love the theory here, hate the practice. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 23, 2011
Misanthropic to the extreme, Bad Teacher fails across the board. Read full review
38
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 23, 2011
This fitfully funny but mostly dull misfire defines exactly where the line can be drawn between truly subversive humor and lazy cynicism. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineNick SchagerJun 22, 2011
Despite aping its title in order to suggest quality by association, Bad Teacher has nothing in common with "Bad Santa" -- including, alas, a genuinely nasty sense of humor. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 23, 2011
It's all just an embarrassment, the kind of pointless slog you'll encounter on Netflix in two years and wonder, How the hell did that get made? Read full review
30
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJun 21, 2011
In a role hardly larger than a cameo despite the fact that he's ostensibly the male romantic lead, Segel never tries to hide that he's only here to pay his mortgage - which makes him the most likeable presence on-screen Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliJun 23, 2011
Most of the cast doesn't know what to do with their shallow characterizations and lackluster dialogue. The best lines were harvested for the trailer - so if you've seen that, you've seen it all. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJun 23, 2011
You don't want to think, what would Preston Sturges or Alexander Payne do with this material? But there is a seed of satirical cynicism in this movie that a smart, clear mind could have finessed. Jake Kasdan is not that director. He doesn't appear to know what to do. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 23, 2011
How much do I loathe this film? A lottico is putting it mildico. Read full review
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