zardoz-13 "FX" director Robert Mandel's urban crime thriller "The Substitute" fuses elements of "Blackboard Jungle" with "The Equalizer." In "Blackboard Jungle," a teacher (Glenn Ford) tangled with savage, inner-city youth. In the CBS-TV thriller series "The Equalizer," an urban security expert allowed his clients to resume life without fear from assailants.Tom Berenger stars as a covert operations specialist on holiday who finds himself back into the classroom to rumble with a drug czar and his killers. The action is as fast and as furious as one of the submachine guns fired in this larger-than-life, but exciting exercise in educational reform. Mandel and "Street Trash" scenarist Roy Frumkes, "Substitute 2" scribe Rocco Simonelli, and "Cat People" writer Alan Ormsby have created an entertaining, suspenseful, sometimes amusing, melodrama with a minor surprise or two. "Ghost Busters" star Ernie Hudson registers splendidly as a corrupt high school principal who abuses his authority by allowing sales of narcotics on his premises.An earnest, forthright teacher Jane Hetzko (Diane Venora of "True Crime") confronts high-ranking gang-banger Juan Lacas (Marc Anthony of "Hackers") during a campus brawl, and he doesn't like the way that she talks to him so he threatens her. Later, as Jane is jogging by herself along the beach, a thuggish Seminole confronts her and cracks one of her knee caps with a bat. Jane's off-again, on-again boyfriend Jonathan Shale (Tom Berenger of the "Sniper" movies)tangles briefly with the brute before the brute escapes. Jane lands in the hospital and Shale takes care of her. Shale calls for Jane's usual substitute, but the man isn't available. Instead, Shale gets one of his mercenary buddies, Rem (Luis Guzmán of "Anger Management"), to put him into the school's computer system as James Smith with three diplomas from prestigious Ivy League universities. Shale has the time to devote to Jane's problem, because his men and he have completed a mission that attracted too much international attention and he has to cool it for a while. Meantime, he keeps his surviving commandos in line and out of harm's way. A job to guard drug shipments comes up, but once our virtuous hero learns that he would be killing to ensure the safe passage of narcotics, he turns the job down cold and reprimands his comrade, Joey 6 (Raymond Cruz of "The Rock") for setting up the interview.Instead, Shale masquerades as a substitute school teacher when he cannot get an actual substitute for Jane. He assembles his team and tells them that where drugs are concerned, money can be found in large quantities. This serves as their inducement to mobilize their special skills. Along the way, another caring teacher, Mr. Darrell Sherman (Glenn Plummer of "Saw 2") gets in the way of the villains, particularly Claude Rolle (Ernie Hudson of "Ghost Busters") and pays the ultimate price. The heroes and the villains turn the high school into a battlefield. The villains have stashed a lifetime's worth of cocaine in the school's maintenance garage and Hollan (William Forsythe of "Once Upon A Time in America") rigs it up with explosives so when the bad guys go to retrieve it, they are blown up. Not all of the good guys survive this bullet-riddled shoot'em up. "The Substitute" ranks as an above-average thriller.

Bob_the_Hobo 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.

Frank Markland 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)

Bjorn (ODDBear) 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.