In Brooklyn, New York City, Randall Thomasson (Christopher Cousins) is murdered while attempting to avoid a carjacking. His brother Karl Thomasson (Treat Williams), who is a veteran mercenary, attends the funeral and meets his estranged niece Anya (Susan May Pratt). Karl decides to pose as history teacher to replace his brother at the high- school and investigate his death. Karl also teams up with the also mercenary Joey 6 (Angel David) to investigate the gang The Brotherhood that is blamed for the murder. The teacher Kara Lavelle (Michael Michele) helps Karl in the investigation and he is hired by the school. Karl finds violent and disrespectful students in class and protects Anya, while has a love affair with Kara. He also befriends a school janitor that is also a war veteran. Soon Karl discovers that The Brotherhood is using the school to disassemble stolen cars to sell and that the school's auto-repair teacher Warren Drummond (BD Wong) is one of the leaders of the gang. The school becomes no mans land."The Substitute 2: School's Out" is a brainless and shallow action B- movie full of clichés. The storyline (a substitute teacher comes to a high-school at the outskirts where he finds violent students and a gang) has been used several times by the cinema industry. Karl, Kara, Anya, Joey 6, Warren among others are one-dimensional characters, indeed stereotypes, and there is no explanation why Karl has forgotten his brother and his niece; or why Karl and Kara have a love affair so soon; or why Warren is a member of a dangerous gang. There are shootings at school and no police appears in the area. Last but not the least, there is no message for the students and only a revenge. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "O Substituto 2" ("The Substitute 2")

"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

Treat Williams takes over for Tom Berenger in this sequel that has nothing to do with its predesser. Williams poses as a teacher to find the people who murdered his brother and uncovers a ring of corruption. Less action than the first but Williams is actually a sometimes threating guy and gives a believable performance. Even though it won't kill any brain cells it is worth checking out.

The first movie was great, but if they absolutely had to do a sequel, they should have tried to get Tom Berenger and Raymond Cruz back and had a better story line to it. Instead, they stuck Treat Williams in with a story line too much like the first movie and it was fairly unconvincing and even boring at times.