User reviews

Even though it was kind of a low-class type of story and movie with mostly bad, profane people tossing the f-word around like it was candy, it still was an enjoyable movie in a lot of parts and certainly had a satisfying ending. Perhaps that's why it was successful enough to spurn a sequel (albeit, a weak one.)

Tom Berenger is good to watch. He's convincing as a tough guy substitute teacher "Jonathan Shale" who won't put up with the punks in the classroom. And, boy, you see the worst group of high school students I've ever seen on film. Tough to imagine kids harder to encounter than these slime-balls but satisfying to see them dealt with accordingly.

You have to love it.

No matter how many times this movie is shown on cable, I still have to pause for at least a few minutes and watch portions of it. This is one of those action films that will entertain you as long as you don't try to apply logic to it or take it seriously.

The story has a professional mercenary (Berenger) and his army pals looking for work after they are cut loose from active duty following a botched mission in Cuba. Berenger doesn't want the group to get involved in running drugs for anyone, but that seems to be the only work that mercs can get these days in Florida. After Berenger's girlfriend is attacked by a ruthless street gang (led by Latin heart-throb Marc Anthony, no less) he and his pals end up trying to weed them out of the high school where she teaches. Berenger poses as her substitute teacher, and once he gets an inside look at the problems at the school, he realizes there may be more than just a gang of punks causing the trouble. It's up to Berenger and his merc pals to try and rid the school of its criminal element, and make things safer for the kids.

You cannot deny the good intentions of the plot, even if it is a bit preposterous. The acting is a little wooden in places, and the soundtrak (particularly the rap song in during the final credits) is laughable. The script has some questionable dialogue, and sometimes it can be downright amatuerish. There are plenty of shoot-outs and explosions to get the viewer's blood pumping, and it's nice to see someone make a stand in a tough environment like an inner-city high school.

This movie has spawned a few sequels which I won't comment on since I have only seen one of them, and they have no connection to the original.

Overall, this film is definitely worth watching if you are into action and revenge type themes. If you are looking for anything deep and insightful about the problems of the inner-cities, you may want to look elsewhere.

So sayeth the Hound.

****SPOILERS**** "The Substitute" starts off like a solid inner city drama about violence in a high school in Miami with teacher Jane Hetzko, Diane Venora, after being threatened by one of the schools violent thugs Juan Laucas, Marc Anthony, goes to the schools principal Claude Rolle, Ernie Hudson, for help. Only to be told that there's nothing that he can do, how many times have we heard that before. After having it out again with the same Laucas and his gang as she was going home Jane is later attacked while she was jogging by the beach and was crippled with a smashed kneecap.

Jane's boyfriend Shale, Tom Berenger, who happened to be an unemployed mercenary looking for work got a job at the school, in fact the very same class, that Jane worked at as a substitute teacher after a friend of his working in the Miami record office falsified a background check for Shale as a licensed teacher. Shale, calling himself Mr. James Smith, after breaking a number of fingers and wrists got the disruptive students in line in no time at all.

The movie starts to take a turn when Shale/Mr.Smith notices that something just isn't right about the school with students driving around with $50,000.00 BMW's and wearing as much as $100,000.00 gold watches, including principal Rolle. That it's obvious to Shale/Mr.Smith that there's more going on in the school then just readin' ritin' and rithmetic.

Implausible action drama that does have it's moments as Tom Berenger battles school thugs and drugs pushers. With the high school principal Rolle being the #1 drug dealer getting his drug supply from a brutal Indian drug gang, The Glades mob. With the drugs being distributed by Rolle's personal "Deans List" the gang that runs and terrorizes the school, Columbia High, the "Kings of Destruction" or K.O.D. Tom Berenger is quite good as the Soldier of Fortune, Shale, turned concerned citizen and high school teacher,

Mr. Smith, who with the help of his mercenary friends cleans up the school and smashes the K.O.D gang and Glades drug mob in the process just for good measures. Action-packed movie that looks more like a Steven Seagel or Burce Willis slam-bang action flick then a film about school violence like "Blackboard Jungle".

Unlike in most of these type of action movies with Seagal & Willis, especially Seagal, where the hero completely overpowers his opposition with very little or almost no damage to himself the hero in "the Substitute", Mr.Smith/Shale, takes a lot more then he dishes out from his opponents. Which makes him more human and sympathetic to the movies audience who can easily identify with him.

Shale/Smith is also very sweet with his girlfriend Jane and does show genuine concern for his students as well as his co-workers in the school so that even with the somewhat unbelievable plot Tom Berenger's acting does make you forget just how ridicules the movie really is. Diane Venora is effective as Berenger's girlfriend as well as Marc Anthony as Juan Laucas the K.O.D gang leader. Ernie Hudson as the corrupt school principal and former corrupt cop Rolle played it a little to much and it made you wonder how he's been getting away with his drug dealing operations. Rolle doesn't seem to be too concerned if anyone knows about them to the point where he has over a hundred kilos of coke hidden in the schools boiler room. He also uses the K.O.D to knock off anyone who's a threat to his drug operation in his high school like when he tried to knock off Shale/Mr.Smith, without success, without any fear of the local police. In regards to his drug dealing Rolle doesn't at all seem to care or be afraid of an FBI or federal investigation.

The final shot-out in the school with Shale and his mercenary friends with the Glade mob & K.O.D gang was as good as anything that you would see in this type of movie. With Shale's on and off again mercenary friend and buddy Hollan, William Forsythe, as a stand out as he more then makes up for all the trouble that he caused Shale all throughout the movie.

"The Substitute" is not high art. Ebert reviewed it as a serious film and gave it a very negative review. But as a B-movie where the teachers get revenge, the bad guy dope-peddling punks and principal get their due, it is a virtual "The Patriot" for the high school system. You can't help but smile and root and rejoice when punk after punk gets thrown out the upper floor window by Beringer while the principal relaxes in his office, assuming the punks will prevail.

Beringer plays a mercenary who becomes the substitute when the real teacher is injured by the punks. With his background in covert operations, and his support network, the punks are no match for him. I've seen it several times on network TV, its one of those films I just can't stop watching. Roy Frumkes, who wrote each of the "Substitute" movies wasn't trying to create a classic, just fun entertainment. In a personal communication he said, " Not only did that film surprise everyone by doing as well as it did, but when it came time for the three sequels, my contract was worded so that they couldn't get rid of me!" Thus providing his retirement fund. Hey! Some people win the lottery. His was a different kind of lottery.

I like "The Substitute" a lot. I think Roy Frumkes is a classy guy. It is destined to be one of those cult films that lasts much longer than logic says it should.

Edit AUG 2023: Watching it yet again after 21 years it occurs to me it also hits hard on two issues - fighting drug trafficking and encouraging students to pursue a good education instead of becoming a member of a gang.

After a failed mission in Cuba with three casualties, the mercenary Jonathan Shale (Tom Berenger) and his team composed by Joey Six (Raymond Cruz), Rem (Luis Guzmán), Wellman (Richard Brooks) and Hollan (William Forsythe) return to Miami. Meanwhile, the history teacher at the Columbus High School Jane Hetzko (Diane Venora) is threatened by the gangster Juan Lacas (Marc Anthony), who is the leader of the dangerous street gang Kings of Destruction. She reports the menace with her colleague Darrell Sherman (Glenn Plummer) to the Principal Claude Rolle (Ernie Hudson), but he does not take any attitude. When the scared Jane returns home, she meets he boyfriend Shale that was visiting her and they spend the night together. On the next morning, Shale has a meeting with the rogue lawyer Matt Wolfson (Cliff De Young) that offers a job to protect a shipment of drugs but Shale declines the offer. When he returns to Jane's apartment, he learns that she is jogging at the beach. He walks to meet her and save Jane from the attack of the strong punk Bull (Jim Warne) that breaks her kneecap and flees. She asks him to invite a substitute to replace her and Shale adopts the alias James Smith to replace Jane. Soon he learns that Lacas and Rolle are associated to the drug lord Johnny Glades (Rodney A. Grant) and using the school to store and distribute the drug in Miami. Shale summons his crew and decide to clean the school and eliminate the gangsters.

"The Substitute" is one of those action movies in the style of "Rambo" or "Death Wish" franchises that are brainless but in the same time highly attractive. The cast has Tom Berenger still in good shape in the role of the hero and many great villains. The story uses the violence of "Class of 1984", with a gang of delinquents threatening the teachers. For fans of this type of film, "The Substitute" does not disappoint. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Substituto" ("The Substitute")

Tom Berenger stars as Shale, a professional mercenary suddenly out of a job. When he returns home to his girlfriend Jane (Diane Venora), a teacher, he's in time to witness her getting her legs broken by a thug who represents a gang. So Shale sets himself up as "Smith", the substitute teacher for Janes' class. He therefore divides his time between trying to pass himself off as a teacher, and combatting the schools' overwhelming drug problem.

As others have said, this movie was never meant to come off as "high art". It's just straightforward action entertainment. And it serves its purpose well, offering plenty of violence - gunshots, explosions, etc. The protagonists are generally worth rooting for, and the villains are all despicable scum who can't die soon enough. Yes, this is very much formula filmmaking, but it works, thanks to efficient direction by Robert Mandel, decent action sequences, and a pretty good cast for this kind of exploitation fodder.

Berenger is engaging in the lead, receiving strong support from the appealing and under-rated Venora, and Ernie Hudson, the latter cast as the principal of the school. Raymond Cruz, Luis Guzman, Richard Brooks, and William Forsythe play the various members of Shales' team of mercs, and singer Marc Anthony and Rodney A. Grant are among the assorted bad guys. Glenn Plummer plays a teacher, Shar-Ron Corley and Maria Celedonio two of the students in Janes' class. Cliff De Young (with whom Mandel previously worked on "Independence Day" (1983) and "F/X") has one of his typically weaselly roles as a lawyer whose farts are a running gag.

All in all, good fun. The writers (Roy Frumkes, Rocco Simonelli, and Alan Ormsby) know that you don't have to reinvent the wheel to show an audience a good time, and "The Substitute" entertains sufficiently even as it runs close to two hours long. It does have a sense of humour, which helps: the scene where Shale throws punk after punk out a second story window is priceless.

Followed by three direct-to-home-video sequels, each starring Treat Williams.

Seven out of 10.

Here's one of those immensely satisfying albeit somewhat unlikely flicks in which the scumbags really get their just deserts. Think Dangerous Minds crossed with Death Wish and you'll have a pretty good gist of things here.

The ever excellent Tom Berenger stars as a tough as nails mercenary who seeks retribution after his teacher girlfriend is viciously assaulted on the orders of a high school gang calling themselves the Kings Of Destruction. And what better way for our hero to get up close and personal with his quarry than to take the now vacant teaching position his girl friend has left at school and to pose as a substitute. In this assumed role our man quickly weeds out the problem students with some no nonsense discipline which will be sure to raise a smile on most viewers faces. Matters turn out to be a bit more complex however when it is revealed that the school principle is not quite such a genial chap as he at first appears.....in fact far from it as he is orchestrating the gang within his school and trafficking drugs via them. Subsequently our hero enlists the aid of his mercenary buddies to lend a hand and all merry hell subsequently breaks out including in one hilarious scene, one of our boys firing off a rocket launcher down a school corridor(!!!!!) Yes, whilst realism this may be woefully lacking, in fun it more than makes up for!

Go on, treat yourself to this wonderful slice of carefree and highly satisfying escapism - you know you want to.

"The Substitute" is a pure 90's Action Thriller with a dangerous urban setting like alot of Thriller films had back in the 90's, as there was abit of a sub-genre about Urban dangers, films like Judgment Night, Falling Down, Dangerous Minds, Trespass, Unlawful Entry, Out For Justice, Marked For Death amongst others, the fear of the street gangs & the thugs & the drug dealers was everywhere during the 90's & fed into the movies!!!

"The Substitute" is about a tough lawless School where gangs rule & teachers are threatened until a new kind of "Substitute" teacher comes to the tough Miami School to sort out the Drugs & the Gangs. Tom Berenger plays tough mercenary Jonathan Shale who comes to the violent inner-city Miami School when his girlfriend & teacher there Jane (Diane Venora) is injured by the local thugs & the corrupted head of the school, played very slimy by Ernie Hudson doesn't seem to want to help.

Now what really surprised me about this little B-movie Gem was the excellent cast & the gritty urban setting, i love these Action Thriller's set in the decaying Urban settings as there's a sense of realism & an atmosphere of fear because it can happen & does. Tom Berenger's Shale is a mercenary with a Cool team of Awesome actors such as the excellent William Forsythe as Hollan, the great Raymond Cruz as Joey Six, the funny Luis Guzman as Rem & the Cool Richard Brooks as Wellman, now this Awesome team come more into the film later on as Shale calls on his old team for help as he uncovers a big Drugs operation within the School & each Cool member of Mercenary team gets to do some great Action with shootouts & fighting & it's Awesome!!! The sequence where the School becomes under siege is just excellent & full of great Action, i was so impressed & i loved the team of mercenaries against the local Drugs gang. "The Principle" may be a typical B-movie action film like many that came out during the 90's but it's Excellent Cast of B-movie faves & gritty exciting action scenes make this a great one from the glory days of straight to video Action films!!! Raymond Cruz & William Forsythe are the best Characters here & i always have loved these guys in movies, both underrated but great.

Jonathan Shale (Tom Berenger) is a Vietnam vet and mercenary. His mission to destroy a Cuban drug facility fails and his crew is disavowed. He returns to Miami where his girlfriend Jane Hetzko teaches history in a rough school. She confronts a gang led by student Juan Lacas (Marc Anthony). She's attacked by a big Seminole and rescued by Shale. Shale goes undercover as substitute teacher James Smith. Claude Rolle (Ernie Hudson) is the corrupt principal.

This is another one from the genre of white teacher saves gang-ridden school. The difference here is that the teacher is freaking Rambo. The violence is dialed up to body-count territories. It can't be taken seriously. It also can't be completely taken as action fun. Some may see this as camp. I see this as something that struggles in between.

Although a b-movie, I thoroughly enjoyed this. You know when you're just about to roll over and go to sleep, and a late movie catches your eye.. and 90 minutes later you know you're gonna be tired tomorrow, but that's okay because you got to see a cool movie?

It's a pretty 'A-Team' sort of plot - a MERC becomes a substitute teacher to crack a drug-distribution ring (and there was some sort of personal vendetta too, involving an attack on his teacher girlfriend - but I missed the beginning). You can imagine Patrick Swayze, even Steven Segal in this sort of "quiet, big-hearted, kicker-of-ass" role - but they wouldn't be as good. You can't help but grin in anticipation when he calls in his MERC buddies for help (including a nicely deranged turn from William Forsyth, who is the detective in Deuce Bigalow).

Very enjoyable, with a slightly harder edge than you'd expect from a movie of this type.

I watched this movie and my immediate thought was "oh crap. It's Dangerous Minds all over again." Even though I wasnt a huge fan of that film it at least had a good and believable performance from Michelle Pfieffer.

Released months after the aforementioned film because I guess Hollywood felt it hadn't had enough of these gang-dominated high school pictures came The Substitute. Midway through the movie I realized this was going into different territory than Dangerous Minds did and I realized the problem was how they chose to deliver the story.

This movie could have been so much better for one thing if it had different leads. Tom Berenger was excellent in Platoon but here he is as wooden and stiff as it gets making even Keanu Reeves seem about as great an actor as Marlon Brando. Berenger is a good actor, but the script and/or direction is to blame here because he is totally lacking of charisma.

Also Ernie Hudson one of the Ghostbusters as the main villian? That probably sounds funnier than even the funniest scenes in Ghostbusters. Totally unconvincing and uninteresting as a villian.

The movie introduces us to students who ally with Berenger as well as a supporting role from Glenn Plummer as a fellow teacher. (You may remember him from Speed where Keanu Reeves commandeered his Jaguar while trying to get onto the bus.) But these characters who are the best in the movie have nothing to do.

Why not have those characters be Berenger's allys and help him hunt down Hudson? The movie may not have had the most original premise but if they went in that direction they may have been able to incorporate some fresh ideas into it.

I know it was not supposed to be a big budget movie but if they had re-cast the leads and come up with a smarter script this might have had potential. As it stands it's like a mix of Dangerous Minds meets Kindergarten Cop and those films were even better than this one.

There are just so many cliches and bad acting that before this was over I was bored. I have seen worse but this is still a pretty bad movie.

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.

Fun movie. Watched it as a kid. Never even thought bout it being a spin off of Platoon tell I just rewatched it. Not a bad movie very entertaining.

Anyone remember Tom Berenger ? He was quite a prolific actor in the late 1980s fresh from his success as the bad guy in PLATOON , and was in my humble opinion one of the more convincing tough actors of that era , but for some inexplicable reason soon find himself starring in more and more low budget , low quality projects . Worse he now finds himself playing supporting roles in low budget , low quality straight to video projects

THE SUBSTITUTE was made when Berenger`s career was in free fall and as you`d expect it`s hardly impressive material . Some of my disappointment might be down to how the story plays out , seeing as it`s about a former merc becoming a teacher in an inner city ghetto school in Miami I was expecting something along the lines of DANGEROUS MINDS , but this movie plays out totally different . In many ways it`s like a revenge thriller produced by Cannon from the 1980s with some absolutely ridiculous plot twists and bizarre scenes which is unforgivable because THE SUBSTITUTE is a good film in parts , namely when Mr Smith talks about his experiences in `Nam . This would have worked far , far better as a drama rather than a thriller

On a Friday, some weeks ago: the so-called television highlight for this evening was the "The Substitute", a film that got nothing but bad reviews by the TV guides. Nevertheless I decided to watch this flick - and after all it was really better than I had expected, because this movie contains enough action and suspense to keep you awake! The story is quite far-fetched but interesting in any case and actors like Tom Berenger, Diane Venora or Ernie Hudson do a solid job. Not as demanding as the brilliant "One Eight Seven" starring Samuel L. Jackson but definitely good entertainment!

6/10

A total 90s B action movie, The Substitute coasts on its interesting premise, and manages to be an entertaining action flick overall.

Tom Berenger is ok. He has charisma here, but his fight scenes are just ok. He does carry the movie though. I really liked the guy who played the villain though. Psych fans will recognize him as Gus' dad. He's a caricature and one of the best parts of the movie I think.

The school premise is cool and interesting, and the movie runs with it for the first act and a half or so, before it sort of abandons the originality of the plot for a standard action movie plot involving guns, drugs, and mercenaries.

The action sequences are fun enough. The beach fight, the class fight scene, the library fight, the docks fight, the apartment scene, and the final battle were all good. The final battle is the best part, in which the school becomes a war zone for two mercenary groups who kill the crap out of each other. There's enough violence to satisfy, and Berenger's attempts at martial arts are a high point while being sort of unintentionally funny. There's a part where one of his team members forces him to fight a bad guy at gunpoint without using his kung fu. It's weird.

If you want a fun diversion, and a brainless but weirdly entertaining action movie, you can't do much better than The Substitute. I'm not planning on watching the sequels, though.

In 1995 there was "Dangerous Minds." In April of 1996 there was "To Sir, with Love II." This same but different movie also takes place in a school.

"The Substitute" takes place in Columbus High School in Miami. When teacher, Jane Hetzko (Diane Venora), is knee capped by a drug dealer her boyfriend, Shale (Tom Berenger), decides to take over her class and find out who's the thug that's been harassing her. Shale is just the man for the job too; he's an unemployed mercenary looking for something to do.

His very first day as a substitute is "Dangerous Minds," "To Sir, with Love II," and many others: it's a class full of rowdy unruly Black and Brown teens who are on the track to Nowheresville. It's too cliché. The only difference this time is that the teacher is not there to love them into submission, he will beat them into submission if necessary. For those of you who are fans of tough love, then you'll see it here. I have to say that it was refreshing to see him manhandle the young ruffians who thought they ran things. The other movies with the win-them-over-with-love theme are OK, but I admit that I don't have the patience for such idealism. Sometimes, the quickest way to get a bully to respect you is by fighting back.

So Shale isn't there to mold young minds, he's there to find bad guys, and that he does. This is not a movie about reforming wayward souls, this is about bringing down a criminal enterprise. If some students happen to learn in the meantime, then that's a plus.

(Plot) A mercenary is reunited with his fiancé after a failed mission in Cuba. The kids have a habit of terrorizing Jane and she ends up succumbing to injury. Tom Berenger is forced to take over her responsibilities and become the substitute teacher. He may have gotten a little more than he bargained for.

Maybe it was Tom Berenger's stone faced performance, maybe it was the dullness that permeated for the whole movie, or maybe it was because I had nobody to root for. The answer? all of the above. It does have some scenes that are quite intense and gritty, but it's not nearly as powerful as it likes to believe. It does have a nice little twist near the end, but that's about it. Tom Berenger is pretty wooden here in my opinion. His stone faced performance got on my nerves. Diane Venora is fitfully sassy as the fiancée. She did well. William Forsythe, Luis Guzman and others add good support

Final Thoughts: I don't remember a whole lot about this movie. It wasn't terrible, just mundane and not very interesting. I'd check out other films if I were you. Followed by three DTV sequels which I have yet to see.

4.3/10

This is one of those films that has a truly remarkable mix of 2nd rate acting, atrocious special effects and plot holes, yet it somehow it works (God knows how) Probably because it sticks with the basic premise that good guys eventually kick the butts of the bad guys.

Whats bad

Much of the Acting is cringeworthy Special effects are laughable (by modern standards) Full of cliche's and stereo types Continuity issues - e.g. One minute a car is wrecked driving through a caravan, next scene our hero is driving same untouched vehicle.

Plots holes so big that they become black holes.

Whats good

Tom Berenger somehow holds this together as the Rambo school teacher, black board jungle with automatic weapons.

This combined with the classic premise of good fighting and triumphing over evil.

If you remember the 80s and 90' it's also an exercise in nostalgia

6.5/10 worth a watch if you like B rate action films.

One of those movies that you caught on TV or VOD and you keep watching until the very end. Silly, mindless but hugely entertaining. A guilty pleasure, Big Time.