BEFORE: My dispute with the god-forsaken, motherless humps at Time Warner Cable continued. That's right, I'm saying in print that the company is no good. Let them sue me for slander, in order to do that, they'll have to prove that their service works, which obviously they cannot do. My picture's been freezing up for the last month, but today it decided to freeze up so bad that it erased everything on the DVR's hard drive.
So, I resisted the urge to smash the DVR into little pieces, and brought it to a service center. With at least 50 people ahead of me also swapping out their cable boxes, I am free to assume that the company knowingly downloaded new cable software to customers' DVRs that the boxes simply could not handle. Either they failed to test the new software properly, or they are incapable of properly delivering an uninterrupted video signal to me. Either way, I'm demanding satisfaction.
The only reason this company manages to stay in business is the fact that its customers do not communicate with each other, or people might band together and refuse to pay their bills. The company will not issue me any type of credit until they resolve the problem, but then what is their motivation to actually solve the problem? I'm one step away from using social media to organize a mob to storm Time Warner headquarters with torches and pitchforks.
Anyway, today's movie (previously recorded and transferred to DVD, back when I had cable service that wasn't buggy or freezing up) continues the teaching theme. Linking actors, Whoopi Goldberg was also in "The Muppets" with Jason Segel (last seen uncredited in "Friends with Benefits").
THE PLOT: A foul-mouthed, junior high teacher, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, begins to woo a colleague -- a move that pits her against a well-loved teacher.
AFTER: No, I'm not really feeling this one, it just seemed like a pointless bunch of comedy. The funny, or perhaps amusing is a better word, bits didn't seem to come together to form a coherent whole.
The issue seems to arise when so-called "bad" behavior is depicted. The film "Bad Santa" had a similar problem. What constitutes "bad"? Being deceitful, sure, but then we have theft, fraud, causing physical or emotional harm to others, self-centered thinking, drinking/drugs and good old sexual debauchery. The film can't seem to decide which ones to focus on, so it throws them all in for good measure.
The end result is a main character that I can't seem to feel any sympathy for - I wasn't rooting for her in any way. To make matters worse, she never seems to learn any lessons, or decide to maybe treat people better, or try to be better in any way. And I didn't find these situations particularly funny. In fact, I would worry about someone who did.
It was also a huge tactical mistake to name-check a bunch of movies about teachers who actually DID work hard and DID inspire their students, like "Stand and Deliver" and "Lean On Me". It's further proof that those were much better, more meaningful movies, and this one just isn't. This movie says that it's OK to slack off and not help kids learn, and if a big standardized test comes up, just cheat. And if you get caught cheating, no problem, just blackmail the people who are accusing you. Don't worry about it, everybody does it. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions for doing any of that.
Starring Cameron Diaz (last seen in "The Green Hornet"), Justin Timberlake (also last seen in "Friends With Benefits'), Lucy Punch (last seen in "Dinner for Schmucks"), John Michael Higgins (last seen in "Bicentennial Man"), Phyllis Smith, Thomas Lennon (last seen in "Hot Tub Time Machine"), with cameos from David Paymer (last seen in "Nixon"), Eric Stonestreet, Molly Shannon (last heard in "Igor"), Rick Overton (also last seen in "Dinner for Schmucks"), Nat Faxon (last seen in "The Slammin' Salmon"), Matt Besser.
RATING: 2 out of 10 gym classes
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