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The notion that director Jake Kasdan and screenwriters Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg ("The Office" veterans) play with is a clever twist on the age-old question: What really makes a good girl good and a bad girl bad? I say "girl" because even though Diaz's Elizabeth Halsey and Punch's Amy Squirrel are board-certified teachers, they are a long way from adults. Ironically, Segel's pot-smoking gym teacher is the grown-up among "Bad Teacher's" class clowns, and quite an appealing one at that. Meanwhile, Timberlake is an embarrassingly infantile sub, Mr. Delacorte, though he can sing (but we knew that).

Now to the "good-bad" question, which the filmmakers have restated thusly: Can we look past Elizabeth's filthy mouth, very hot bod, fabulous hair, sexy clothes and clear disdain for virtually all of humanity to see the possibly decent person that might be buried deep, deep, deep inside? They don't make a "yes" easy.

The movie starts as Elizabeth is wrapping up what she thinks will be her first and last year at the local middle school, where she's been putting the finishing touches on her wedding of convenience — her intended is conveniently rich. A bad turn of events puts her back in the classroom in the fall and convinces her that all she needs is a boob job to turn things around. Raising enough money for the procedure becomes an obsession and she will do anything to get there. The various "anythings" become the comic fodder that drives the action, with cinematographer Alar Kivilo ("The Blind Side") ensuring that the apple stays polished.

Elizabeth's nemesis is Amy, a perky redhead who's got a killer grip on the top teacher spot, a crush on goody two-shoes Mr. Delacorte and an increasingly loose screw. Driving her crazy is Elizabeth's ability to convince everyone else that despite her many offenses — showing movies to her class while she sleeps off a hangover is a frequent one — she's good at her job, or as Principal Wally Snur (John Michael Higgins) puts it, she's teaching "for the right reasons" (which sadly only makes me think of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette").

Diaz is quite fearless in playing funny, willing to throw those long gams and all that sex appeal under the bus if it will get the laugh. It's been more successful when she's playing the innocent, as she did with a great deal of campy charm in "There's Something About Mary" and "My Best Friend's Wedding." She should be able to go dark too, but most filmmakers, including Kasdan, don't seem to know exactly how to take her there. So, instead of physical comedy (soaping up in Daisy Dukes at the school's fundraising car wash does not count), "Bad Teacher" puts all its comic chips on giving her a potty mouth.

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