Bad Teacher - B-

On DVD and Blu-ray, Rated R, 92 minutes

Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) is a middle school teacher because of, as she puts it, "shorter hours, summers off, no accountability". When her rich fiance breaks it off, she's forced to downsize her life and look for a new man. She thinks a breast augmentation will help and starts to save and steal money to afford it. In her classroom, she's terrible - mostly showing movies (like Stand and Deliver and Lean On Me). She finds the gym teacher (Jason Segel) funny but he doesn't have enough in the bank account. A new substitute teacher (Justin Timberlake) has rich parents but he's goofy, dense, and easily influenced. Another teacher named Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch) becomes her rival in many ways when Halsey breaks too many rules to count . . .

The R-rated dialogue is often hilarious. Diaz clearly loves playing the antithesis of her movie star persona. And indeed, part of the humor lies in the shock value of watching Miss Rom-Com curse and slut it up in front of the kids. The supporting characters are pretty good - especially Phyllis Smith (TV's The Office) as an agreeable confidant and John Michael Higgins as the dolphin-loving principal. Director Jake Kasdan keeps a light, humorous tone and successfully makes the audience side with the drug-abusing, vulgar, promiscuous opportunist over the hard-working, dedicated, honest educator - no small feat.

And therein lies the problem - you're supposed to be happy that Halsey overcomes Squirrel so completely at the end. But that is morally problematic at best. The screenwriters want to have it both ways - and Halsey's abrupt "redemption" at the end can't hide the fact that she's probably done irreparable damage to many students. But it's just a movie - and funny enough until your brain starts to analyze it. B-

The Wire alumnus: Deirdre Lovejoy - wasted as a concerned parent of an excellent student - a far cry from her accomplished and shrewd prosecuter Rhonda Perlman.