This film came out three years after Sniper, and it suffers from a serious identity crisis.The film wants to be every good-teacher-cleans-up-bad-school movie you've ever seen. That pretty dominates the first 95% of the film. Great White Hope with some of Class of 1999 mixed in. Then, at the end of the film, it basically turns into Rambo/Sniper but set inside of a school.It's quite entertaining to watch Berenger discipline an unruly class. There are some references to race in the film relevant to its production year of 1996, including one of the black teachers asking Berenger as Mr Smith if he's trying to be some Great White Hope. The soundtrack is very engaging and the production values are convincing.The movie builds well, but wraps up very abruptly, despite being engaging and at least somewhat believable up until that point. A blond man (one of the anti-hero mercs) kicks white cocaine dust into the face of a Seminole Indian drug dealer, calling him Snow. This was strangely racist, but then that guy gets shot so I guess he gets his comeuppance. Then, three minutes later, he saves Mr Smith, his old friend, but we're supposed to feel empathy for his death. Chaotic to say the least. I think there's a good chance this film was wrecked in editing, possibly without the director's approval. At least the film has some surprises.I enjoyed the film, but it goes so seriously and inexplicably astray at the end that it ruined the entire film. There was already a major confrontation near the end, and they didn't need to turn it into Rambo Attends High School for yet another violent climax. This was especially annoying as Berenger starts to show a softer side as a teacher who makes progress relating the similarities of violent wars in American history to violence in American inner cities. Done properly, this film could've been a semi-landmark, but someone had to screw it up, and that in itself warrants investigation. It does compare warring countries to gangs, in a simplistic, but plausible way.This movie is a period museum piece because of its reflection of a time of excess in the USA and Hwood that the 21st Century has seen end. Now there are effects excesses that movies wallow in, this one was among the last from a period of combat choreography.gun battle excesses. Its not that a incoherent script couldn't get made today, but this premise would never get produced today.This film gets an 7 for acting, a 0 for ending, and an 8 for novelty and entertainment. Re-edited, it could be a 7 star film.

The Substitute is a rare timeless gems that many people will ignore because the mainstream media wasn't ready to handle the shear scope of this film.Tom Berenger plays a mercenary who solves and avenges his girlfriend's broken knee by infiltrating her school as a substitute teacher. The twist is that because the principal has insinuated police ties, Tom has no choice but to reassemble his team of commandos and go on a killing rampage that would make Rambo blush. Where most people would simply call law enforcement, Berenger would kill them all. There are some pretty major plot holes and the justification for many of the action scenes is laughable but this movie works because it doesn't take itself seriously. There is no reason that this movie can't be enjoyed by everyone and anyone.

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! :)

These no-nonsense action films that try to convey some social statements have a soft spot in my books and therefore I sometimes rate these movies higher than they actually deserve. The Substitute is a late bloomer in this department since it actually received a theatrical release and did fairly well. Nowadays films like these go directly to video or television and the ambition that was invested in these films is today nonexistent.The terribly underrated Tom Berenger plays a mercenary whose girlfriend is a teacher at a lower class high school. When she's attacked by a thug Berenger creates his own resumé and teacher credentials and assumes her position at the school and becomes the substitute teacher. Once there he discovers the school is run by a corrupt drug dealing principal who's using some students there to help him run his operation. Naturally Berenger, along with some of his mercenary friends, take action and attempt to stop this operation which culminates in a massive shoot out on school grounds.While this is an action movie at heart, it also tries to relate some well meaning messages about today's youth. The way lower class kids are living, which is dangerously on the edge, their way of thinking and looking at the world around them. In a particularly nice scene, one character doesn't admit to being ashamed of how her life is but when asked if she wanted her child to replicate her life, well, that's another matter indeed. That one scene explains a lot and it's moments like these that actually make The Substitute a little bit more interesting than many other films of similar nature.But the film doesn't go too far into social matters and quickly gets down and dirty with the action, which is well served and the film never slows down too much. All the cast are willing and able to entertain, some real quality actors here and they all fare well.The Substitute in many ways represents a dying breed of movie-making and it will probably give movie fanatics a feeling of nostalgia in years to come.