Andy Gapin

Too much Cameron Diaz.

Not enough Jason Segel.

After saying that, there isn’t a lot left to say. Bad Teacher isn’t nearly as funny as it would have been if Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz at least shared the screen 50/50. Instead, we get Cameron Diaz as the single main character and Jason Segel with a much more minor role. Hell, Lucy Punch spent the second most amount of time on the screen after Diaz. I’m not complaining about that, I like her, but Jason Segel was completely underutilized. The fact is, Bad Teacher has more than enough talent at its disposal to make for a good movie, but wastes all its time on Cameron Diaz. This is so problematic, it’s not even funny.

Actors aside, Bad Teacher could have also benefited from having more likable characters. I’m pretty sure the only likable character was Jason Segel’s. Justin Timberlake’s and Lucy Punch’s characters are only marginally more likable than Cameron Diaz’s completely awful character. What’s worse, is that while Justin Timberlake and Lucy Punch play characters that are unlikable in a way that works positively for the film, Cameron Diaz’s character just plain sucked all around.

With unlikable characters and focus on the wrong actors, you’d at least hope for a solid script, but holding out for such a thing will just yield disappointment. The film had potential, but it went unfulfilled. There was weren’t jokes where there needed to be and most of the ones that were there fell flat.

Bad Teacher isn’t an entire loss, it does have a few moments, but only so much as to be worth streaming from Netflix. I wouldn’t bother even wasting a DVD rental on it.

Rating: C-

You wouldn’t expect a movie about Facebook to be too good, but this thing has been getting a lot of hype for months and months. Honestly, it’s deserved, The Social Network is solid. It’s got sex, drugs, nerds, and douchebaggery, what else are you looking for?

In all seriousness, The Social Network is a terrific movie. It’s not entirely what I expected. I mean, it mostly is, but I was expecting Mark Zuckerberg to be portrayed much more negatively. I had heard a lot beforehand that the film painted a very negative image of him, but I didn’t think that was the case at all. He wasn’t made out to be the best dude ever, but he wasn’t that bad either. The worst thing about him wasn’t so much that took someone else’s idea and ran with a much better version of it, but that he easily let himself get sucked into Sean Parker’s ideals and turned his back on his best friend. Mostly, the dude just worked a lot towards a very particular vision and stopped at nothing to make it a reality. Maybe I just wanted him to be shown as more of a dick because I’m not a fan of him in real life. Don’t get me wrong, I like Facebook and I’m obviously grateful for its existence, but things he has said and his general status towards privacy are a bit upsetting. I think the dude is nothing short of one of the smartest people in tech right now, but I think he’s kind of a douche. Actually, just about everyone in this movie is shown in a rather douchetastic light.

Everything about the way The Social Network was put together is terrifically done. The movie is shot very well and the dialog is great, especially the opening sequence. Jesse Eisenberg, as always, was awesome. He seems like the perfect fit to play Zuckerberg…he even looks a little like him. I didn’t even realize until after the movie that the same dude played both the Winklevosses–to be honest, I didn’t even realize it on my own. I guess it was pretty obvious and I somehow just missed it.

The Social Network is just a great film that is very well put together and describes a very interesting story. For those of us that are of the age to be able to remember college both with and without (widespread) social networking, this is a great story about the creation of something that has become so ubiquitous in our lives now that we don’t even think twice about it or what life was like before it. The idea seems so simple now, but The Social Network is a reminder it wasn’t always that obvious. The story isn’t entirely true, but it also seems that it’s also not completely untrue either.

Rating: A