A lot of times, I read reviews before I commit to a movie. I don’t slavishly follow what the critics say, but I want to get a taste of the general reaction to a movie. For instance, I have yet to see “Hangover II” but made to to fit “Bridesmaids” into our schedule because of the public reaction. For some reason, however, I didn’t know much of what people said about “Bad Teacher” before we bought out tickets last Saturday.

Thank God.

I now see that the Cameron Diaz vehicle has not received the kindest reviews. The lukewarm response may have diverted my attention from what I consider one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while. That includes “Bridesmaids.”

This is not to denigrate Kristen Wiig’s recent triumph. “Bridesmaids” is a better movie, but “Bad Teacher” is a better comedy in my book. The criticisms I have seem focus on plot development and the depth of Jason Timberlake’s character. That makes me wonder if the people kvetching about those sort of things truly understand the point of comedy.

Sometimes we just need to go into a theater, forget all pretense of reality and laugh our asses off at silly, unbelievable situations. That’s what “Bad Teacher” delivered. You can’t look too deeply at how those situations develop or analyze the people in them too much. These are caricatures designed to elicit belly laughs, not make us look inside of ourselves. People tried to package “Bridesmaids” as the female version of “The Hangover,” but “Bad Teacher” follows that model much more.

Besides the numerous laugh-out-loud moments, the movie featured an almost perfectly-selected cast. Diaz embraces her inner a-hole while Jason Segal once again shows he’s way more talented than anyone will ever give him credit for being with a deft portrayal as the happily cynical gym teacher. John Michael Higgins does a great job as the principal and Lucy Punch made the uber-happy Miss Squirrel far too realistic. But the real score comes from secondary characters played by Phyllis Smith, Eric Stonestreet and Thomas Lennon. Sure, Timberlake’s character could be accused of flatness, but that played into the story, plus was overshadowed by the strength of the rest of the cast.

I have said it a million times: sometimes movies exist simply to make us laugh and forget what’s outside the cinema walls. “Bad Teacher” does that, and if you’re looking for any deeper meaning and trying to parse the points of the plot, you probably need to let go of reality more than any of us.