Bad Teacher (2011) - Diaz and fine co-stars make Kasdan's weak-premised romcom float

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Cameron Diaz's naughty school teacher look's sex appeal is a major selling point for Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher

A morally questionable woman is forced to continue her life as a teacher in a middle school, when her relationship to a rich jerk falls apart, so she can afford the breast operation she wants.

The premise's drive (getting those breast implants) unsurprisingly doesn't result in comedy gold, as it is simply too arbitrary. But Bad Teacher is saved primarily by Cameron Diaz (The Holiday (2006)), who is wonderful in the lead and just as endearing as Jason Segel (Sex Tape (2014)), although their romance here doesn't make one's heart race out of control.
Justin Timberlake (Runner Runner (2013)) is convincing as a preppy fool/substitute teacher, and several wacky comedic actors amuse in side parts: Lucy Punch (Someone Marry Barry (2014)) is energetic; Phyllis Smith (The Office (2005-13)) is delightful; Thomas Lennon (Bob's Burgers (2012-16)) is funny, and John Michael Higgins (Tween Fest (2016), TV-series) as the dolphin-obsessed school leader is fantastic. They all help make Bad Teacher go down much better than it otherwise might have.
The film is written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (Hello Ladies (2013-14), both) and directed by great Michigander filmmaker Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)).

Related post:

Jake Kasdan, with Diaz and Segel: Sex Tape (2014) - Sex comedy fun with beloved stars Diaz & Segel

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 216.1 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Bad Teacher premiered 17 June (the UK and Ireland) and runs 97 minutes. Columbia Pictures bought Stupnitsky and Eisenberg's spec script in 2008. Filming took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Illinois around March 2010. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Cars 2, to a solid 31.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 for two more weeks (#3, #5) and grossed 100.2 mil. $ (46.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 18.7 mil. $ (8.7 %) and Russia with 13.4 mil. $ (6.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. Kasdan directed for TV-series Ben and Kate (2012) and New Girl (2011-13) before returning with the less successful but slightly better next pairing of Diaz and Segel, Sex Tape (2014). Bad Teacher is rotten at 44 % with a 5.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bad Teacher?

Sex Tape (2014) - Sex comedy fun with beloved stars Diaz & Segel

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Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel trying to cover up Jake Kasdan's Sex Tape

Sex Tape is this summer's sort-of high concept sex comedy about a parenting couple who make a sex tape that accidentally gets shared over the Internet and then follows their following trials and tribulations to get the video out of cyberspace again.
It is co-written by star Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) and directed by Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)).
I enjoyed the film, and largely, perhaps, because I truly welcome a silly sex comedy escapade in these times, where the silver screens seem overfed with teen romances dressed as science fiction or horror and cookie-cutter superhero baloney. A (somehow) old-fashioned adult sex comedy was just the thing I could use to gasp out between all this self-serious nonsense.
The other reason that I enjoyed Sex Tape is definitely due to its stars: As a loyal Segel fan, I was delighted to see him paired here with Cameron Diaz (Very Bad Things (1998)), the vivacious, usually winning comedienne. Segel looks exhausted and pale in Sex Tape, and has lost a lot of weight. I don't know if this is for the character, for the nude scenes, or because of some personal duress, (I hope not), but he nevertheless has good screen chemistry with Diaz, even if their relation stretches our patience a bit a few times, where I was ready to simply nod to them and say: I know the characters, - now get to the hilarities alright!
The film's trouble might be that it tries to be realistic, to some degree, but still also wants to be over-the-top. I think I would have preferred it to cut some of the supposed realism out and head into more high-jinx areas. - Why not make the couple even more laughable? (E.g. putting them in a school situation with the tape out, or involving more i-pads with the tape that (they think) need retrieving?) Sex Tape finally lets us see some of its titular video, and perhaps shouldn't have. It doesn't look like what anyone would film as a 'sex tape', (genitals are out, 'of course', for one thing) and it isn't funny, and also packs a stunt that perhaps was hard to accomplish, but doesn't please or amuse at all.
Segel and Diaz try to bounce off Rob Corddry and Ellie Kemper as their friend couple, and the two definitely don't over-shine the stars, - on the opposite, they simply aren't funny enough. Segel and Diaz are, and some of their situations together are recognizable, like the hilariously played kitchen-floor scene.
But Sex Tape also packs two other star parts that both made me laugh several times. Read on to learn who they are.

The details:

Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation (2010-2014)) is funny in exactly the kind of supporting role that he seems to have been made for, (at least at this stage in his career): In Sex Tape, he plays an overly 'wholesome' toy company exec, who SPOILER turns out to really be into Slayer etc. (that is, not exactly who he looks like.) Some really trippy paintings of Disney movie moments with Lowe's face painted into and replacing Gepetto's, Rafiki's, the mermaid's etc., hanging in his house, are pretty funny. As is the end of his appearance, where he lets Diaz have his coke straw. Filming that coke-scene with the two of them must have been a riot, I should think.
The other star is uncredited and therefore came as a surprise to me: SPOILER Jack Black (Bernie (2011)) is really funny as the owner of YouPorn.
Diaz and Segel also have two adorable kids in the film, played by Sebastian Hedges Thomas and Giselle Eisenberg.
Whether or not you'll like Sex Tape, a pretty silly movie that will not go down in history or make any top ten lists of 2014 I feel confident in predicting, rests mostly on your affinity for the sex comedy genre and your appraisal of Diaz and Segel. I am charmed by them, and I had a good time with this irreverent, if not risqué or overly inventive, comedy. 

Watch the red band trailer for Sex Tape here, (green tape version just doesn't seem right for this kind of title, don't you think...?)

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 125.3 mil. $ and running
= Box office success
[Not 'smart' enough for some audiences, and not stupid enough for others, Sex Tape wasn't a splash in the US, where it opened no. 4, (no. 1 in the UK though), and its lukewarm reception is read as fuel for the argument that comedies in general are not as wanted by audiences today as they used to be. It has slowly swung itself up to being a minor success though.]

What do you think of Sex Tape?
If you didn't see it in a cinema and don't want to, why is that?
Why are comedies seemingly not a top shelf product in 2014?