The Substitute 2: School's Out

Rating:
Summary: A pointless sequel
Review: The original "Substitute" starring Tom Berenger and Ernie Hudson was an over-the-top but admittedly clever take on the "tough teacher/tough class" sub-genre started by "Dangerous Minds". Unfortunately, such movies typically spawn mediocre sequels to capitalize on even moderate interest, which leaves us with "Substitute 2: School's Out", starring Treat Williams instead of Berenger.

To say that this movie is unoriginal is an understatement. It more-or-less puts us into the exact same situation as the first film, only done worse than before. When his brother is murdered by a violent street gang called the Brotherhood in a carjacking, mercenary Karl Thomasson (Williams) decides to take on two roles. The first is to take care of his brother's daughter. The second is to become a subtitute teacher for his brother's Brooklyn high school class, which some of the Brotherhood thugs attend. He suspects that the school's auto shop teacher, Warren Drummond, is involved in a car-stripping operation with the Brotherhood and its violent leader, Lil' B. Naturally, it's up to Thomasson to teach the tough class while working to take down Lil' B and Drummond's operation with his mercenary pal Joey 6 and a janitor named Johnny Bartee.

The most dissapointing aspect of this movie is the acting. Before you say, "It's a B movie, so what do you expect?", consider the cast involved in this film. Treat Williams may be a direct-to-video actor for the most part, but considering his number of Emmy nominations and his achievements in "Everwood", you'd expect a little more from him. He simply comes off as too nice a guy to be a hardened merc. Longtime Broadway actor and recent "Law & Order: SVU" cast member B.D. Wong doesn't fare much better as Drummond; he's either over-the-top or very dull. Michael Michelle ("ER") as teacher and love interest Kara Lavelle and Angel David ("The Crow") as Joey 6 are both OK, but wasted for the most part. Daryl Edwards, who plays Johnny Bartee, ends up becoming very annoying in this film. And while rapper Guru (of Gang Starr fame) is one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists around, he's no actor, and he really embarrasses himself as Lil' B in this movie.

Aside from the weak acting, the movie doesn't really do much with its characters or plot. The relationship between Thomasson and the gang-bangers in his class (one of the better points of the original film) never works at all, especially his attempt to connect to Mase (Eugene Byrd of "8 Mile" fame). At one point, Thomasson throws Mase's stereo out the window because he's playing rap music really loud in class. Mase gets angry and attacks him with a switchblade, but after Thomasson subdues him and leaves him in charge of the class for a moment, Mase later apologizes for what he did. In the space of one class, Mase changes from "I'm-a cut you up real good" to "yeah, I was wrong". Right.

There are other problems, too, including some ridiculously unrealistic action sequences. How does somebody manage to survive an attack by gang-bangers firing automatic weapons at them from BOTH SIDES of a narrow corridor? Beats me, but Thomasson, Joey 6, and Bartee do somehow. Equally bad is the scene where Drummond kills Lavelle by shooting her at point-blank range and then wipes her blood off his hands on a stuffed teddy bear AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. Oh, yeah, and I'm still very puzzled as to how they got that laser trick to work on the Brotherhood when laser sources are very easy to spot at any range. The hoods in Brooklyn may not be Ivy League material, but I really didn't think they all have the intelligence levels of rodents.

In the end, "Substitute 2" never works as well as its predecessor did, or as well as many such movies in general. The poor acting and weak plot make it hard to like. If you want to see a movie in this genre done right, see the first film or "187" with Samuel L. Jackson. You can definitely do better than this film.

Rating:
Summary: A pointless sequel
Review: The original "Substitute" starring Tom Berenger and Ernie Hudson was an over-the-top but admittedly clever take on the "tough teacher/tough class" sub-genre started by "Dangerous Minds". Unfortunately, such movies typically spawn mediocre sequels to capitalize on even moderate interest, which leaves us with "Substitute 2: School's Out", starring Treat Williams instead of Berenger.

To say that this movie is unoriginal is an understatement. It more-or-less puts us into the exact same situation as the first film, only done worse than before. When his brother is murdered by a violent street gang called the Brotherhood in a carjacking, mercenary Karl Thomasson (Williams) decides to take on two roles. The first is to take care of his brother's daughter. The second is to become a subtitute teacher for his brother's Brooklyn high school class, which some of the Brotherhood thugs attend. He suspects that the school's auto shop teacher, Warren Drummond, is involved in a car-stripping operation with the Brotherhood and its violent leader, Lil' B. Naturally, it's up to Thomasson to teach the tough class while working to take down Lil' B and Drummond's operation with his mercenary pal Joey 6 and a janitor named Johnny Bartee.

The most dissapointing aspect of this movie is the acting. Before you say, "It's a B movie, so what do you expect?", consider the cast involved in this film. Treat Williams may be a direct-to-video actor for the most part, but considering his number of Emmy nominations and his achievements in "Everwood", you'd expect a little more from him. He simply comes off as too nice a guy to be a hardened merc. Longtime Broadway actor and recent "Law & Order: SVU" cast member B.D. Wong doesn't fare much better as Drummond; he's either over-the-top or very dull. Michael Michelle ("ER") as teacher and love interest Kara Lavelle and Angel David ("The Crow") as Joey 6 are both OK, but wasted for the most part. Daryl Edwards, who plays Johnny Bartee, ends up becoming very annoying in this film. And while rapper Guru (of Gang Starr fame) is one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists around, he's no actor, and he really embarrasses himself as Lil' B in this movie.

Aside from the weak acting, the movie doesn't really do much with its characters or plot. The relationship between Thomasson and the gang-bangers in his class (one of the better points of the original film) never works at all, especially his attempt to connect to Mase (Eugene Byrd of "8 Mile" fame). At one point, Thomasson throws Mase's stereo out the window because he's playing rap music really loud in class. Mase gets angry and attacks him with a switchblade, but after Thomasson subdues him and leaves him in charge of the class for a moment, Mase later apologizes for what he did. In the space of one class, Mase changes from "I'm-a cut you up real good" to "yeah, I was wrong". Right.

There are other problems, too, including some ridiculously unrealistic action sequences. How does somebody manage to survive an attack by gang-bangers firing automatic weapons at them from BOTH SIDES of a narrow corridor? Beats me, but Thomasson, Joey 6, and Bartee do somehow. Equally bad is the scene where Drummond kills Lavelle by shooting her at point-blank range and then wipes her blood off his hands on a stuffed teddy bear AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. Oh, yeah, and I'm still very puzzled as to how they got that laser trick to work on the Brotherhood when laser sources are very easy to spot at any range. The hoods in Brooklyn may not be Ivy League material, but I really didn't think they all have the intelligence levels of rodents.

In the end, "Substitute 2" never works as well as its predecessor did, or as well as many such movies in general. The poor acting and weak plot make it hard to like. If you want to see a movie in this genre done right, see the first film or "187" with Samuel L. Jackson. You can definitely do better than this film.

Rating:
Summary: IT SUCKS!
Review: This movie is one of the worst in cinema history. Not only is the acting awful and it has a banal plot, it is another U.S propaganda, a story of a fearless american x-soldier who goes into a violent school, beats the gangbangers there, a beautifull woman- teacher of the school falls in love with him, the school guard-former soldier too-likes him and helps him immediately(in exchange of a toy the teacher gives him for the collection he makes with souvenirs fron the vietnam war!). It's a film which disgustingly disses the gangs,although the gangs are a side-effect of U.S system and one shouldn't put the blame on them, an untrue demonstration of reality, a so in-your-face projection of the perfect american hero much far from reality that it underestimates our brains. I'm disappointed that Guru accepted to participate in a film clearly propagandistic

Rating:
Summary: A vacuum of the brain
Review: This movie was so bad that I felt that brain cells were dying every minute that I actually payed attention to it. Horrid acting, from "who were those guys"? This is a sad sequel to a great first movie.

Rating:
Summary: A vacuum of the brain
Review: This movie was soo bad that I felt that brain cells were dying every minute thqat I actually payed attention to it. Horrid acting, from who were those guys. This is a sad sequel to a great first movie.

Rating:
Summary: Awful movie
Review: This was a truly awful sequel. Poor acting, awful action scenes, predictable plot. Very B grade movie. A true waste of money.

Rating:
Summary: Great flick!"
Review: thought id say my words, it was a good movie, i saw the first, & of course its not as good, but thats what happens when they make a part 2, though i think this movie was very good in my taste, i saw it 4 times & still think its good, not a movie to watch everynight but good,

Rating:
Summary: This movie sucked and just kept on sucking.
Review: Treat Williams is an awesome actor he would have played his role superbly had he had a plot to work with. This movie just plain sucked...no doubt about it. Michael Michelle's and B.D. Wong's talents are a waste in this piece of crap. The first "Substitute" was very entertaining, I say that with tongue in cheek. They call this one an action flick? My goodness, the scenes were so far and so few. This was a very cheap movie, poor action sequences and dialogue as well. The yo-yo scene in the classroom was very interesting though. Haven't seen the the next two in the series, and now I don't know as if I want to.

Rating:
Summary: This movie sucked and just kept on sucking.
Review: Treat Williams is an awesome actor he would have played his role superbly had he had a plot to work with. This movie just plain sucked...no doubt about it. Michael Michelle's and B.D. Wong's talents are a waste in this piece of crap. The first "Substitute" was very entertaining, I say that with tongue in cheek. They call this one an action flick? My goodness, the scenes were so far and so few. This was a very cheap movie, poor action sequences and dialogue as well. The yo-yo scene in the classroom was very interesting though. Haven't seen the the next two in the series, and now I don't know as if I want to.

Rating:
Summary: Treat Subs For Tom
Review: Treat Williams steps into the role of mercenary-turned-vigilante in Substitiute 2. He plays a guy who's worked with Tom Berenger's character before(or at least has mutual friends). I've always liked Treat Williams. He's one of those actors that's actually very good, yet seems to get thrown into these movies all the time. You'll catch him once in awhile in major motion pictures as a supporting character, but in B flicks he's the star! He seems a little too nice to play the cold hearted mercenary type, but does it well. The plot's similar to the first film in the sense that he goes undercover at a New York high school to find out who killed his brother, get revenge, and take care of his niece. Along the way he brings a fellow merc, teams up with the half crazed Vietnam vet janitor and discovers a chop shop operation going on in the school. Nothing terribly groundbreaking, but it's fun to see Williams slapping up the gang banger students who think he's just some pushover teacher. Good mindless action fun if you like that sort of thing.