The Substitute 2: School's Out (1998)

The greatest movie ever made..!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The murky conclusion of director Steven Pearl's straight-to-video sequel "The Substitute 2: School's Out" undercuts an otherwise okay sequel that goes to enormous ends to establish itself as the follow-up to the Tom Berenger original. Treat Williams plays an entirely different character who knew Shale, and "School's Out" concerns his search for the person who gunned down his brother in cold blood in broad daylight. Williams is suave but decisive as Karl Thomasson who masquerades as the new substitute teacher. B.D. Wong is superb as the slimy villain. The Miami high school in the first film, the school here is a zoo with abrasive students who play their boom boxes in class and tote around deadly weapons like ice picks. Unlike the villains in the predecessor who were trafficking in illegal drugs, the bad guys here are operating a chop shop for stolen cars that nets them a $100-thousand-a-month. Like the original, the most considerate character turns out to be the source of the trouble. During the first three-fourths of "The Substitute 2: School's Out," the scenarists of the first movie--Roy Frumkes, Rocco Simonelli, and Alan Ormsby--establish the reason for the sequel, neatly place the characters in the context of the original, and do a good job of integrating Karl into the action. The action scenes themselves, when Karl has to practice his expertise on the disruptive students as well as the adult villains, are fine, but everything collapses in the last quarter hour when the fatherless daughter discovers who killed her father. The filmmakers never have a confrontation scene between the hero and this villain. Moreover, the disruptive students in the classroom who should go down as hard as their counterparts did in the first movie are never shown receiving their just comeuppance for their crimes. The yo-yo scene where Karl explains the use of a yo-yo as a weapon is well-done as is the 'compromise' scene when he toss Mace's purloined boom box out the second story class room. Presumably, Mace is supposed to be the Jerome character here. The single character who doesn't have a counterpart from the first movie is Michael Michele; she plays a sympathetic school employee, Kara Lavelle, who is attracted to Karl. Initially, she met him at his brother's funeral. Not surprisingly, Karl's niece (Susan May Pratt of "Drive Me Crazy")doesn't trust Karl at first, but she breaks down and gets to like him. The only character here that is truly exceptional is the high school custodian, Johnny Bartee (Daryl Edwards of "Arthur 2: On the Rocks"), who has an unique way of entering and exiting through the tunnels in the walls. He is a former Vietnam soldier who specialized in going into tunnels to flush out the Viet Cong. One of the things that the filmmakers do that looks cool is that the car-jacking gang wears their cotton windbreakers backwards so the hood covers them faces and they have slit eye-holes to see. One of the survivors from the first movie, Joey 6, reappears here but he is played by a different actor.

"The Substitute 2" is decent but not as good as the third one. Treat plays Karl Thomasson, a mercenary who infiltrates a school full of ruffians and drug dealers. It's just like the predecessor but cheaper.I'm one of the biggest Treat Williams fans. I will watch basically anything with him in it (except "Miss Congeniality 2"...) This is a good showcase for him, but the DTV-style script lets him down. B.D. Wong plays the shop teacher....who's evil. His role is uneven and underdeveloped. There's one scene with a deadly yo-yo! This is a great idea, and a movie highlight. But unfortunately there's no funny lines like "No Talking In The Library." A good tagline could be: "Class Dismissed....Permanently" If like you DTV Treat, this a good start, but "Substitute 3: Winner Takes All" is the best one.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

i liked this movie better than the 1st one.Treat Williams takes over the substitute role from Tom Berenger.that is one reason i liked the movie.i like Treat Williams,but i'm not a big Tom Berenger fan.the general plot line is pretty much the same,with some of the details changed.Williams plays a mercenary,whose brother(a teacher for "troubled" students ends up killed while attempting to stop a carjacking.Carl Thomasson,(Williams)shows up at his funeral and decides to find out who killed his brother Randall,even though they hadn't seen each other in years.long story short,he becomes the substitute for Randall's class.he uses his skills to teach the students valuable lessons,all the while looking for answers.there are some great fighting scenes in this movie.some are not that realistic,but they are entertaining.the dialogue in this movie is kept to what is needed and no more.the action is front and centre.for,me,that's exactly what i'm looking for in this kind of movie.i felt the 1st one focused too much on dialogue.that is remedied in part 2.it's pretty mindless,but very entertaining.hamlet it's not.but for sheer entertainment.it works. i give "The Substitute 2" 8/10

I am a big Treat Williams fan and that was my only reason for renting this. I had seen the first one a few weeks before on T.V and it was fairly good but nothing special. This on the other hand is a dramatic, action packed and very well directed film. Treat Williams is very charismatic and funny also. He does make it hard to believe he is a combat army type. The action is fast and furious, the supporting cast of unknowns are decent. Its worth a look!