Customer Reviews

The Substitute

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We rented this movie with a only a single recommendation from a friend, and with every apprehension that The Substitute was going to be just another stereotypical formula-film loaded with the '90s political correctness that has all but taken over the film industry. To our surprise, this movie told its story honestly, and without pretension. The Substitute did not have to use stereotypical characters, nor was it formulated to please the masses. Most importantly, The Substitute does not offend the intellect of the movie goer. Tom Berenger is excellent, as always. But surprisingly, there isn't a bad performance by any cast member. This is a well made, well thought out, well acted movie. Rent it once and you'll be adding it to your videos to own list.

The Substitute is one of those movies that you fear is going to be horrible, regardless of its potential. But it is actually a very entertaining movie that is a must-see for action movie buffs, and military/paramilitary movie buffs.

Berenger plays a mercenary who leads a team that travels all over the world engaging in clandestine activities. Back home in Florida with his girlfriend, Berenger springs into action when his teacher girlfriend is hurt by a thug at the high school where she teaches. Berenger decides to investigate undercover at the school, and he lands there as a history teacher. He soons finds that his girlfriend's assailant is a gang member helping to deal drugs out of the school. With the help of his team, Berenger works to uncover and smash the drug plot and revenge his girlfriend's assault. Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame is the principal at the school who ends up getting his own mercenaries to protect his interests.

Berenger is not really known for being in action films, but he is very menacing and believable in this role. This is an excellent action film.

Those of us who teach for a living enjoy a guilty pleasure in "The Substitute." While we'd never dream of ever harming any of our students--well, at least I'd never dream of it--the catharsis from a fiction about a good guy mercenary cleaning house of all the bad influences in an urban high school--violent punks, drug lowlifes and sociopath gangbangers and the evil adults who indulge their self-destruction--is just too wonderful to pass up. Tom Berenger eschews the angry racist persona he brought to life so ably in "Platoon" for a different man of action, in this case, Shales, a professional soldier with a heart and a brain. Besieged and assaulted by teenybopper thugs who work for the local drug kingpin, his teacher girlfriend turns to the only man who might be able to stop them, forcing Shales to go undercover as a substitute teacher to root out the source of the problems. While the script is fantasy and has very little to do with teaching, and the production values are on the "B" side, the able cast--including Ernie Hudson, William Forsythe, Richard Brooks, and many other familiar faces--plays it with just the right amount of humor and zeal. Director Robert Mandel infuses the production with a pace and wit that has helped other low-budget productions make it to cult status (think "Alligator"), and "The Substitute" deserves an audience. If you teach, put this one on your shelf for those days when you feel like you could use a mercenary to put some order back into the classroom for you!

This formula action film starts with the ho-hum premise of a CIA man Berenger undergoing the task of becoming a substitute teacher in a tough school, where he wonderfully repays the thuggish students in kind. After that, the plot takes a turn for the ludicrous as he uncovers a drug operation and smashes a posse of gangbangers. Strictly for action junkies, though the gun battles and fist fights have a sharper edge than usual. The treatment is fairly realistic as well, and, as one reviewer has pointed out below, the embarrassing PC treatment, which constantly rears its head into almost every film nowadays, is largely absent here. Tom Berenger convinces as the agent-cum-educator with a highly heterodox approach to school discipline. An entertaining actioner of quite some appeal.

I watched this movie with my sweet, grandmotherly, grey-haired mother. We both loved it. Something about it struck a chord with both of us.

I guess maybe because both of us (yes, even sweet grey-haired mom) have experienced somewhat miserable school experiences--I don't know why, exactly, but something about this film was cathartic. I think we both wished we'd had a school teacher who was a little like the Tom Berenger character in this film.

Berenger plays a tough merecenary type who ends up infiltrating a very rough high school, after his teacher-girlfriend is injured by school thugs. We both enjoyed seeing this take-no-BS fellow handle his unruly classes. We *really* enjoyed seeing this.

The supporting cast (including Berenger's eclectic collection of mercenary buddies) are excellent. Ernie Hudson as the villan is very effective.

A very entertaining film! Recommended.

This is a quality entry in the high school hell genre of films. Tom Berenger plays John Shale, a mercenary who takes a job substitute teaching his girlfriend's high school hell class after some thugs from the school knee-cap her.

Naturally, he's a Vietnam veteran who hasn't gotten over the war. He and his gang of similarly disturbed vets plan to bust a major drug ring in the school and take off with the cash that the principal, played by Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson, is making selling coke to his students. Of course, Shale gets very righteous and says it's not for the money in the end.

This film ultimately delivers some quality violence as the high school is reduced to a war zone for a good ten minutes with not a cop, fireman, or ambulance in sight. Lots of people die, at some points I actually couldn't even tell who was shooting at who, but it just didn't matter. The gang is cleaned out of the school like a cancer, exterminated by Shale and thus gratifying his need to resolve the Vietnam conflict in his mind.

Expect the requisite scene of him 'reaching' the troubled students one day by talking about war and being shot and then realizing that their urban ghetto is a warzone, too. Expect quality character acting by William Forsythe as one of Shale's whacko vet buddies who's along for the ride, evoking images of his demented turn as Richie in Out for Justice.

This movie will get the job done on a slow night. The Substitute series is now a staple of late night cable, with Treat Williams playing another (psychotic) mercenary cleaning up trouble spots in our nation's schools. Recommended for genre fans...

I recall high school as a more subtle sort of hell than it's portrayed here. Then again, I went to school in a much smaller city.

Plot : Good guy merc temps for girlfriend teacher when school gangs break her kneecap.

It's a good film, with some above average acting and an inevetable ending. To our Hollywood trained eyes, the fights may seem slow; the film wasn't sped up, as is usualy the case for filming fight scenes. I personaly like this; not everyone will. It has some funny scenes, mostly intentional; but these days the big car phone with the cord qualifies as funny too.

The following isn't really a criticism, but more of an observation about it as a standard action flick; there arn't any real spoilers, but if you've never seen it you may want to skip this part and rent it, so you can watch with unbiased eyes:

The bad guys are typical bad guys, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever to make them people. The mercs are fairly mercenary, only the leader thinks taking on a job guarding drug deals is a bad idea. The teachers are uniformly dedicated (except they only show 2 teachers and a librarian) and even with all the gunfire at school the police never do show up on screen. Everything is clear-cut, straightforward and easy to understand. Actually, that's not really a gripe; it is uncomplicated as a movie, but it's very well done.

Before you watch this film, you have to get prepared for it. That is, don't expect realism here. But, this movie does its main job well, which is to entertain the viewer. A well-made action film, the best parts are in the classroom itself. You root for Berenger and company to get vengeance on these evil gangbanging drug dealers. The film is solid for the first hour and a quarter, but then falls apart somewhat in its slam-bang finish. Not spectacular but a lot better than those awful over-hyped big budget action films.

I like The Substitute. I like those movies where some tough dude walks into a nasty gang ruled school and kicks some butt. The Principal is another good one. It's one of those rare action movies that's very easily direct-to-video material yet managed to get a theatrical release, kinda like Thomas Ian Griffith's Excessive Force. It's a hard movie not to like(unless you're a film snob) because it's one of those movies you wish would really happen. C'mon, it's fun to watch a badass mercenary throw some gang bangers who think they're hot stuff out a second story library window. Makes you wish teachers really could have the authority to pound up troublemakers. Basically this merc poses as a teacher to get revenge for the beating of his girlfriend. Cool enough. Then it gets a little on the unrealistic side as he uncovers a more sinister plot brewing beneath the school. SPOILER AHEAD:(But do you really care? This is a cliche action flick and I'm sure you'll all see this "twist" coming or have seen it done before.) A mercenary out for revenge on a gang is somewhat believable, but the principal running a big scale drug operation out of the school is pushing it a little. That and the fact that dead kids(and teachers) are turning up by the metric ton and the cops don't ever seem to notice. But hey, this is an action film, no need to be that critical. I also get a laugh out of these classroom scenes. You know what I'm talking about: Total chaos. Kids blasting boomboxes, throwing stuff around and telling the teacher to "&@$# off". I've never been to Miami or L.A. Do some schools really look like this? Berenger does a decent job as the hard, take-no-B.S. mercenary. Everyone's favorite latin singer Marc Anthony plays a gang leader, and the always likable Ernie Hudson is cool as the corrupt principal. Hudson can do a good bad guy when he wants to. William "Flatop" Forsythe is always fun to watch and here he's no exception. The Substitute is fun. Sure it wasn't received all that well from the critics upon it's release, but critics don't really tend to watch movies for the sake of simply enjoying them.
Check it out-No message, nothing deep or enlightening here just cheap, schlocky fun(like my ex-girlfriend).

This isn't a bad movie considering it came out in 1996. Good action and plot. Tom Berenger is a mercenary who is undercover playing a substitute teacher at a school. A lot of twists unfold while being there undercover.