Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

WubsTheFadger Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadgerJason Bateman delivers a knockout performance as a cynical, selfish, and most of all brutally rude and hilarious man named Guy Trilby. Kathryn Hahn also does a great job at portraying a distraught woman looking for answers. Rohan Chand plays the part of a child in need of a friend and he plays this part so well.The story at first may seem a little bit stupid, but the no-holds-back humor starts off quick and without conviction. Most if not all of the jokes and gags are perfectly timed and extremely funny. The runtime is a little long even at an hour and a half and the heartfelt moments seem a little scripted and predictable.Pros: Great performances by Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn , and Rohan Chand, funny and hilarious story, and well timed jokesCons: A little overlong runtime and some predictable heartfelt momentsOverall Rating: 8.4

Leftbanker After watching a string of thoroughly awful films, most of which were way too long, Bad Words for the second time was a nice palette cleanser. It's is a perfect 90 minute comedy without a second to spare and entertaining from start to finish. It's no masterpiece but yet it is something of a masterpiece when compared to the majority of films these days. It has a plot, some funny dialogue, and a structure that propels you to the very end.

merklekranz Jason Bateman's "Bad Words" has a pretty intriguing plot, an adult entering a spelling bee through a loophole in the rules, and then wrecking havoc on the contest. I'm not sure there was enough material here for a feature film? The movie seems padded with unnecessary bouts of foul language, and sex scenes. This would have been an excellent sketch on "Saturday Night Live", but often loses momentum as a ninety minute movie. Also, for dark comedy to work, it needs to be outrageous, but not hurtful. Bateman's methods for getting rid of his competition really borders on sadism, rather than "black comedy". No doubt there are some good laughs to be had but, unfortunately often at the expense of children. - MERK

jimbo-53-186511 Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman)is a 40 year old man who never actually graduated 8th grade at school and uses this as a loophole to compete in the National Spelling Bee championships. Despite objections from many of the parents and the director of The National Spelling Bee championships Trilby remains unfazed and continues in his bid to win this tournament. Although seemingly keen to win the tournament, Trilby does have an ulterior motive which explains away his true reason for entering the tournament.When I looked at the plot line for this film I was unsure about it and wondered how much humour could be derived from a man entering a spelling competition with a bunch of kids??? To me the premise had all the trappings of a 'juvenile' comedy, but thankfully it was much funnier than I expected it to be.OK first things first; this film does have some 'low-brow' humour and yes it is a bit juvenile at times, but it did make me laugh a lot. I've always said that I don't mind 'low-brow' and 'juvenile' humour as long as it makes me laugh and it did here and that's clearly a big plus for this film.Bateman is the key here and he plays the role of 'man hating the whole world and the whole world owing man a favour' very well. The best scenes in the film are those which Bateman shares with his young co-star Rohan Chand. Chand had the difficult task of playing a nerdy overly talkative kid who could so easily have become annoying, but he's actually every bit as good as Bateman and as I've mentioned they are a joy to watch together - their opening scene on the plane together was brilliant as were all the scenes where Bateman was trying to get him to man up. True these are the sorts of things we've seen before, but as long as I'm laughing I really don't care if some of what I see isn't particularly original.Bateman plays an obnoxious character here and again this could have been something that could have grated on me whilst watching the film. However, again, he is a very funny character meaning that his obnoxious nature was something that I was often prepared to overlook. Working from Andrew Dodge's script Bateman is also given some good material to work from (as indeed are many of his co-stars).Whilst the picture is mostly funny and whilst it also has a mostly original plot line, the film does start to come apart slightly in the final third; Dodge's script starts to become a bit heavy-handed and a tad repetitive. Bateman also loses a little bit of control towards the end with what can only be described as some cheap-jack Jerry Springer type antics going on at the end - clearly it all exists to make a point, but it all felt a bit forceful to me. The twist at the end explaining away Bateman's desire to compete in the Spelling Bee was also a bit lame which was a bit of a shame given that the picture had a fairly original plot line.Yes there are some flaws here but when looking at the film in its entirety there is definitely more good than bad. Despite losing its way slightly towards the end, the fine performances, humour, and mostly original plot line make it an interesting and very enjoyable picture.