The Substitute (1996)

Shale (Berenger) is a Vietnam vet and mercenary. He has a team of mercenary buddies that he does missions with - Rem (Guzman), Wellman (Brooks), the reliable Joey (Cruz), and the unhinged Hollan (Forsythe). After having gone through hell and back during numerous wars and dangerous escapades, nothing can prepare them for the most threatening and perilous mission yet - high school! When Shale's love interest Jane (Venora) is attacked in true Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding fashion, Shale does the only logical thing - he goes undercover as her substitute while she's out convalescing. Unfortunately for Shale, the school is a chaotic jungle of drugs, gangs, bad language and tardiness. Principal Claude Rolle (Hudson) seems to be doing his best, but a gang called the Kings of Destruction rule the school. KOD (not to be confused with "Youth of the Nation" band POD) is led by Juan Lacas (Anthony), so Shale, now teaming up with not just his merc buddies but also some teachers and a few of the better students, try to get to the bottom of all the criminality going on at that particular Miami high school. Will the baddies succeed, or will they graduate from SHALE University? Find out today... The Substitute is a movie that was a popular enough rental on VHS that it spawned three sequels to date, and in our minds remains tied to the video store era. It almost feels like cheating for us to re-watch it on DVD (never mind Blu-Ray), but it's hard to resist the inexpensive DVD collection that compiles all four Substitute movies for one low price. It has a junkier, grainier look than we remembered from those golden days when we chose it from among the many options at our local video store. It's also significantly longer than we remembered - at almost two hours, it's unnecessarily lengthy. But, then again, it did play in theaters, and "theater movies" always think they have to be longer than they need to be. Needless to say, this would never make it to the theater today.If you take all the "bad school" movies that have been with us for such a long time - everything from Blackboard Jungle (1955), to The Principal (1987), Class of 1984 (1982), Class of 1999 (1990), Dangerous Minds (1995), Detention (2003), and, of course Class of 1999 II: The Substitute (1994), not forgetting the parody of such films, High School High (1996), and amalgamate them, and add some "Mercenary Humor", you get The Substitute. One thing the aforementioned movies don't have, of course, are Tom Berenger's stunning purple shorts. Or Raymond Cruz's man bun. He was quite ahead of the current man bun trend. We think that's what The Substitute will really be remembered for. Sure, there's a lot of silly dialogue, a couple of brain-numbing action scenes, and your typical 35-year-old teenagers, and that's all well and good, but sadly there's some bathroom humor, mostly typified by the character of Wolfson (De Young). Just why an overlong movie felt it had the time to include bathroom-humor scenes remains a frustrating question. That aside, the library scene is a winner, even though you have to wait almost an hour to get there. The presence of Marc Anthony as Lacas makes you understand why J. Lo fell so madly in love with him. One thing you have to give The Substitute is that the cast is really strong, with plenty of names/faces we all know and love. Although, not to be mean, Berenger looks a little chunky to be a mercenary in fighting-fit shape. Maybe that's why he didn't return for the sequels and the great Treat Williams took his place. Or perhaps we should say substituted for him. Sorry about that, but I guess we have substitutions on the brain, as this movie teaches us that the practice of substituting solves all of life's problems. Finally, special mention should go out to one Willis Sparks as the character of John Janus. He was a competing mercenary who even had a truly awesome "mercenary demo reel", which was unquestionably a movie highlight. (It ought to be; Janus informed us that it was created by a guy who normally does "rock videos"). Janus's demo reel should have been this movie. Or it at least should have spun off into a movie of its own. It would have done in the 80's, but by this point we were firmly entrenched in the 90's, so, consequently there was no John Janus spinoff movie. Too bad. At this point in our nation's history, The Substitute has attained "Video Store Classic" status, so anyone who remembers it from that time will appreciate it still, but to be honest it's not without some significant flaws. In other words, it's no Substitute 3: Winner Takes All (1999), that much we can tell you.

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.

Tom Berenger, why are you not in the same position Bruce Willis and Stallone are in now? The Substitute is every bit as good as Die Hard and Rambo, switching these backgrounds for a gritty school in LA.Berenger stars as Shale (isn't that a great name for an action hero?), a battle scarred mercenary who's still haunted by a number of casualties after a recent mission to Cuba. He gets home to find his girlfriend (Diane Venora), a teacher, kneecapped, most likely a result of her resistance to drug kingpin/student Juan Lackas (Marc Anthony).Shale gets the remaining members of his mercenary team together for a crackdown on the corruption of not only the students, but the possibly sleazy Principal Claude Rolle (Ernie Husdon). (That's a classic badguy name too, Claude Rolle.) The backgrounds are real, and the school itself is a great symbol. It's covered in graffiti, which adds to the gravity the films produces. Another thing, "The Substitute" never, at any point, gets unrealistic. Things explode as they must in an action picture, but at a level that always feel legitimate and not too fake.This is an action classic, and it's a mystery to me why it hasn't been inducted into the same hall of fame category as Rambo and Die Hard. Well worth your money.

Tom Berenger stars as Shale, a mercenary who becomes the substitute teacher taking in for his girlfriend after she is temporarily crippled by the gangs that run the school, figuring out that the principal is in on it, Berenger and his crew of mercenaries (William Forsythe and Luiz Guzman among them) break up a drug ring while Berenger actually likes to teach. Tom Berenger is quite convincing in the mercenary role but not so convincing in the teacher sequences which ultimately leaves one chuckling at the situations. This movie is of course the ultimate teacher's wish fulfillment as Berenger sends students packing through the window and then even manages to engage in hand to hand combat with said students. It is a ridiculous movie but because the action sequences are handled with excitement we cave in and accept the movie on it's own terms. This isn't a great movie but it is a decent guilty pleasure and I for one loved the moment when Berenger said "Ssh no talking in the library!" right before he pushes a table into the students in question.* * out of 4-(Fair)