After a vicious assault on him, Trevor Garfield, a teacher, moves cities and works as a temp. However, he finds that things are even worse at his new school. Dealing with an important subject, this is immensely engaging and tense. While not based on any specific case, this was written by an actual teacher, and, frankly, it does feel terrifyingly authentic and realistic. The psychology is completely accurate, and this is not black and white. This is well-paced, and never boring. The plot is compelling throughout, and though you can figure some things out before they occur, this most likely *will* surprise you. Every acting performance is spot-on, and all roles are marvelously cast. Jackson is impeccable, and his particular knack for playing someone who holds anger and may lose control at any moment is excellent for this. This has a great soundtrack, with music that fits the environment(which is very nicely established; they found perfect locations and types of people), without making it appealing. The editing and cinematography are incredible, if dangerously close to being flashy. There is a bit of brutal, bloody violence, a lot of disturbing content, moderately frequent strong language and brief nudity in this. I recommend this to anyone mature enough to handle it. 7/10

Teacher Trevor Garfield survives a stabbing by a student, moving from New York to Los Angeles, with a different perspective on life, he resumes teaching as a substitute. But Trevor finds that the same old problems still persist, only now he's going to do things his way......One Eight Seven, directed by Kevin Reynolds {The Count of Monte Cristo} and starring as its lead, Samuel L. Jackson {Pulp Fiction}, is another in a long line of teacher and unruly students based plotters. Trace a line from Blackboard Jungle to The Principal, to Class Of 1984, The Substitute, Dangerous Minds and you get the picture. It's a shame then that as a formula, it's now looking a bit frayed around the edges. Because Reynolds' film does have a couple of things up its sleeve with which to make it a time worthy viewing.Firstly there is Samuel L. Jackson himself. By his own admission, he's someone who will work for food. However he is capable of the odd flash of excellence, regardless the quality of film he is appearing in. He may be adored by the MTV generation for stints in Tarrantino pulpers, but it's with film's like Changing Lanes, and this here Reynolds piece, that he really puts down his marker of ability. As Garfield he is asked to go thru a character makeover during the story, not complex as such, but in a sanity breaking point kind of way. Something that Jackson really gets to grips with and in spite of the bad acting around him {shame shame casting director}. Secondly is the ending itself. No it's not shattering in the pantheon of genre pieces emotionally, but on the intelligence scale it scores rather high. We may have been fed a pre-empt earlier in the piece, but the outcome is no less dramatic for it. Some standard genre stereotyping causes a roll of the eyes, and pet peril and sexy teacher under threat is a touch too tiresome for the older, experienced viewer. But this one deserves a better reputation because it at least tries to offer something different. It doesn't succeed across the board, oh no, but at least it's got enough about it to roll its credits knowing at least it tried to veer away from its genre restraints..and it's got Sammy Jackson on prime form. 7/10

There has been quite a number of movies made on this particular subject, some like the Sidney Poitier one, are classics, some like the one with James Belushi is just plain repetitive and there are some that are mocking the above, like the one with Jon Lovitz, for example. I thought I had seen them all, but this one, I believe in the just purpose of making a point that there is an ever growing part of the "civilized" world that society has completely lost grip of, manages to almost transcend the genre. Almost because after a gritty opening this one completely loses it's voice in the roaring noise they call score, which is inappropriate, and cheap stylistic bravado like the slow-mo. The accentuation of ever growing anxiety and build-up of retaliative power of the main character, however, plus the gratification of, admittedly this viewer's, too, desire to see some sort of retribution, on the other hand, proves it made its point.

"One Eight Seven" (1997) is one of those films that you want to hate because of it's gritty reality but can't ignore because it presents a serious problem in today's American school system. Samuel Jackson portrays realistically a substitute teacher named Trevor Garfield who had good intentions in going into teaching but in the process was pushed too far. John Heard also puts in a stellar performance as the corrupt and alcoholic teacher Dave Childress who acts as an example for Mr. Garfield as to what it means to go too far. Kelly Rowan on the other hand acts as what it is to be a good teacher Ellen Henry, in essence the other side of Mr. Garfield's conscience. In the end this story proves to be a tragedy, which may be necessary to make the audience think about what's wrong with the school system as portrayed in this film. Love it or hate it, watch it. A 7 out of 10.