BAD TEACHER: is bad and not in a good way

'Bad Boys', 'Bad Girls', 'Bad Lieutenant', 'Bad Santa', and now BAD TEACHER. Am I the first to detect a new (albeit incredibly slow moving) genre in Hollywood film making? The juxtaposition of the word bad with a profession, job title or gender opens the door to a universe of possibilities all involving a character who, at the outset, behaves badly or performs their job badly but through a process of self discovery and internal growth develops into a good - insert job title/profession/ gender here - by the story's end.

If I were cynical about the Hollywood movie-making process I might add Bad Film to the list of possibilities but so far the movies falling within this newly identified genre have - for the most part - been at least halfway decent. I thought 'Bad Santa' was overrated but I really enjoyed 'Bad Girls' so I approached Cameron Diaz's new comedy BAD TEACHER with an open mind.
She plays Elizabeth Halsey, the world's least dedicated junior high teacher. Despite her obvious passion for drinking, drugs and swearing and her equally obvious absence of dedication or commitment to even the most basic responsibilities of the position, she's hired back to the Chicago area school she quit, after she's dumped by her wealthy fiance when he gets wise to her gold-digging ways.
Faced with the hideous prospect of a lifetime's drudgery as a wage slave she sets her sights on ensnaring new teacher Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) who just happens to be heir to a family fortune. But she faces unexpected competition for his affections from irritatingly perky fellow teacher Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch).
And so the scene is set for Diaz to trot out her patented brand of distinctly unladylike ladette behaviour. Everything short of belching goes in her efforts to raise a laugh by confounding our expectations about how a beautiful young woman should behave. Trouble is she's done most of it before in films like 'There's Something About Mary', 'My Best Friend's Wedding' and 'Shrek 1, 2, 3 etc' so it's really not a surprise. There are a few laugh out loud moments but mostly it's occasionally mildly amusing with long stretches of nothing to hold the attention. Diaz does her best with a woefully inadequate script but her character is so unlikeable that there's no reason to invest any empathy in her or root for a happy ending for her.
Timberlake demonstrates real acting ability, confirming that his highly praised performance in 'The Social Network' wasn't a fluke, and there's a perverse pleasure to be had in speculating how awkward it was for ex-girlfriend Diaz to work with him after he reportedly pulled the plug on their relationship.
BAD TEACHER is not bad enough to be terrible but it's definitely more 'Bad Santa' than 'Bad Girls' and that's not good.