You have to be careful with movies like “Bad Teacher” because the line between funny and bad taste is a very difficult one to straddle without turning off the causal viewer.  If it doesn’t have  at least a little bit of ‘heart,’ if it can’t manage to make you care at least a little bit about the characters, you end up stuck with a bunch of pathetic, and sometimes mean-spirited, people.

No one knows this better than Judd Apatow, who produced films like “Superbad,” “Knocked Up,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Funny People” (which he also directed).  Time and time again, he’s managed to invest somewhat unlikable characters with a degree of humanity and humor that makes their plight at least interesting, and often very engaging.

“Bad Teacher” looks like a film that he could have done, yet in this case he has nothing to do with, despite starring Jason Siegel, a staple of Judd Apatow’s productions since Freaks & Geeks.