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.
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.