The Substitute (1996)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Absolutely amazing

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Fun movie. Watched it as a kid. Never even thought bout it being a spin off of Platoon tell I just rewatched it. Not a bad movie very entertaining.

Coming along some five years after the similar themed 'Toy Soldiers', two films about schools under fire from criminals. I guess that's about as far as the similarities go though as this is an undercover mission for some mercs/Nam vets where as the other film was terrorists taking over the school. So a nasty messed up city high school is plagued by drugs, weapons and bad eggs, what is the Principle to do??. Hire a badass killer merc of course, but the thing is he doesn't know the sub is a badass killer merc. So both the yobbish kids and the staff have no clue this guy is an ex-Nam hardass. As things progress for the Berenger the merc he finds out all is not what it seems.A perfect role for the stoic butch looking Berenger who can play military types till the cows come home. Not much is required of him really, beating the kids down, killing drug dealers, being a smartass...all in a days work. His little tight nit group of mercs are a cool bunch, a young Luis Guzman, the insane William Forsythe, military action flick regular Ray Cruz and Richard Brooks. A really good team of character actors that are great fun to watch, its just a shame we don't more of them in action together.Most of the film is a huge stereotypical montage of standard scenarios you can see coming a mile away. Its all very predictable and you know Berenger will never get hurt. Its undeniably fun to watch these sequences where the youths are acting up with their gangland dialect, waving their hands around making gang signs, virtually behaving like cartoon characters whilst being dressed like bums. At the same time all the girls looks greasy, sweaty and thoroughly unwashed haha need I say almost all the youths are black, Latino or Hispanic. Yep this film doesn't beat around the bush with racial attitudes towards suburban inner city schools in the US.So yes you could say its racist and a bad image on certain groups of young people but dare I say could it also be the truth?. That aside its still a rush to see Berenger humiliate the posers and stamp his authority on the class. I must also say Marc Anthony is really well cast as the slimy skinny gangland leader within the class, a simmering undertone ready to pop. You really do dislike this guy as the plot builds, you know Berenger could kick his ass but he still has that ominous presence, plus the fact he's only suppose to be a teen makes him even more annoying when he gets all mouthy. The whole thing is pretty hokey and like I said before it is very predictable. The finale shoot out within the school is cool though no doubt about that, although I would have preferred if the bad guys had brought lots of gang thugs to the battle instead of their special ops guys. That kinda dismisses the fact the good guys are a special ops team, its suppose to be mercs vs drug dealing thugs.Still its very cool to see all of Berenger's mercs kick ass in their own unique way. A final kudos to Ernie Hudson as the shifty principle of the school, his performance isn't much better than his hammy role in 'Congo' but that's why its so good. Definitely a bit of an adrenaline rush at times with this one, I think everyone has had fantasies about kicking the crap out of their old school bullies at some point. This would probably be a step too far but I'm sure being a badass merc teaching out of control youths a lesson would still be right up there.7/10

Tom Berenger, why are you not in the same position Bruce Willis and Stallone are in now? The Substitute is every bit as good as Die Hard and Rambo, switching these backgrounds for a gritty school in LA.Berenger stars as Shale (isn't that a great name for an action hero?), a battle scarred mercenary who's still haunted by a number of casualties after a recent mission to Cuba. He gets home to find his girlfriend (Diane Venora), a teacher, kneecapped, most likely a result of her resistance to drug kingpin/student Juan Lackas (Marc Anthony).Shale gets the remaining members of his mercenary team together for a crackdown on the corruption of not only the students, but the possibly sleazy Principal Claude Rolle (Ernie Husdon). (That's a classic badguy name too, Claude Rolle.) The backgrounds are real, and the school itself is a great symbol. It's covered in graffiti, which adds to the gravity the films produces. Another thing, "The Substitute" never, at any point, gets unrealistic. Things explode as they must in an action picture, but at a level that always feel legitimate and not too fake.This is an action classic, and it's a mystery to me why it hasn't been inducted into the same hall of fame category as Rambo and Die Hard. Well worth your money.

I saw this film on telly a few nights ago (in March 2006) and ended up devoting 4 and a half hours watching both part one and part two of it because it was so engrossing. Tom Berenger plays the head of a mercenary team who return home from Cuba after a failed mission to find out that his girlfriend, a high school teacher has been injured during a high-school raucous. He (Berenger) decides to investigate by joining the school as a high school substitute teacher when she (the girlfriend) is out sick. What he soon finds out is that the gang-banging rowdy school is corrupt from top to bottom. The school's basement is being used as a drug haven in which the principal of the school (played by perpetual-principal in films Ernie Hudson) is the ring leader. The rest of the film is spent on Berenger's character trying to infiltrate the scheme while many of his beloved come in harms way. J-lo's 3rd husband, Latin music singing sensation Mark Anthony appears in this film as a convincing teenage gang-banging leader. I guess what they say is true after all, it's amazing the sort of things you would find hiding in dark corners! :)