The substitute 2: La vengeance

The movie was really quite good. I haven't watched the first one before, so I didn't know if that one was better or not. Treat Williams wasn't as good as the other actors, he didn't have any expressions on his face! But credit has to be given to Susan May Pratt and the utterly gorgeous Edoardo Ballerini. I have to admit though that the fight sequences were really quite bad.

In Brooklyn, New York City, Randall Thomasson (Christopher Cousins) is murdered while attempting to avoid a carjacking. His brother Karl Thomasson (Treat Williams), who is a veteran mercenary, attends the funeral and meets his estranged niece Anya (Susan May Pratt). Karl decides to pose as history teacher to replace his brother at the high- school and investigate his death. Karl also teams up with the also mercenary Joey 6 (Angel David) to investigate the gang The Brotherhood that is blamed for the murder. The teacher Kara Lavelle (Michael Michele) helps Karl in the investigation and he is hired by the school. Karl finds violent and disrespectful students in class and protects Anya, while has a love affair with Kara. He also befriends a school janitor that is also a war veteran. Soon Karl discovers that The Brotherhood is using the school to disassemble stolen cars to sell and that the school's auto-repair teacher Warren Drummond (BD Wong) is one of the leaders of the gang. The school becomes no mans land.

"The Substitute 2: School's Out" is a brainless and shallow action B- movie full of clichés. The storyline (a substitute teacher comes to a high-school at the outskirts where he finds violent students and a gang) has been used several times by the cinema industry. Karl, Kara, Anya, Joey 6, Warren among others are one-dimensional characters, indeed stereotypes, and there is no explanation why Karl has forgotten his brother and his niece; or why Karl and Kara have a love affair so soon; or why Warren is a member of a dangerous gang. There are shootings at school and no police appears in the area. Last but not the least, there is no message for the students and only a revenge. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Substituto 2" ("The Substitute 2")

Treat Williams takes over for Tom Berenger in this sequel that has nothing to do with its predesser. Williams poses as a teacher to find the people who murdered his brother and uncovers a ring of corruption. Less action than the first but Williams is actually a sometimes threating guy and gives a believable performance. Even though it won't kill any brain cells it is worth checking out.

The Substitute was highly enjoyable. Worth the time. Tom Berenger did a great job. Then came Substitute 2. It wasn't bad, but it just had a different feeling to it. First off, Treat Williams is a nice guy figure. Rather than looking tough and hardened, he looks like some guy that spends 30 minutes a day doing his hair in the bathroom mirror. Here's the whole overview of the movie: A bad kid school's most eminent teacher is shot down by a gang. Mercenarie Karl Thommason (Williams) goes in to take care of the teacher's teenage daughter and bring the killers to justice. A lot of what you see in the first film. The next two sequels are also like that. Fun, though. The B-movie really shows in this one. The blood is highly exaggerated. When someone gets shot, it looks like the special FX men just took some ketchup packets and smashed them so it would gush out. And then there's the supposed "sex" scenes. All they are is two teens sitting on a bed passionately kissing. Wow. Break out the condoms. We're gonna have a baby from kissing. Not only that, Thommason doesn't take the gang down right away. The keep having these little encounters, and he just beats on them a little. If I was him, I would kill them on the spot... Okay, so as flawed as this one was, it was still fun. It was visually superior to the first film, which seemed to have been made with cheaper cameras. But that didn't make it bad. It was better. Oh well.

I'm not really sure what inspired me to see this, I didn't think the first film was anything terribly great, but nonetheless I still felt compelled to watch the sequel.

I could be wrong, but I don't think this film has ANYTHING to do with the first film, other than the story is pretty much the same. As far as story goes, if you've seen the first film, then you've seen this one. Other than some minor plot points, the story is virtually the same.

The cast was surprisingly good in this film though. I thought Treat Williams did a fine job. I'm surprised the B.D. Wong was in this movie, I think he's a really good actor, and shouldn't bother with films like "The Substitute 2: School's Out", but I'm sure he had his reasons for appearing in this film. Some other good additions to the film are Michael Michele (TV's "ER") and Susan May Pratt (10 Things I Hate About You, Drive Me Crazy, Center Stage), very beautiful women!

All in all, I thought the movie was just ok, but nothing worthy of going out of your way to see. If you do end up seeing it, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading,

-Chris