O substituto 4

Karl Thomasson is back, this time posing as a history teacher at a military academy that is being taken over by a secret white supremacy group. This unnecessary, and mercifully final, entry in THE SUBSTITUTE series sees Treat Williams in his third time around as the ass-kicking righter of wrongs, and he's terrific as always. But the film is more talk than action, and nothing much happens until the end, when Williams faces off against a sinister Asian henchman. They have a heckuva close-in fight, the likes of which I haven't seen since a similar fight in MARKED FOR DEATH. Bill Nunn is on hand as another undercover agent who teams up with Williams for the final showdown. Angie Everhart is William's love interest. She makes great eye candy but as usual cannot act worth a damn.

This movie is one of those movies you try to watch when nothing else is on, and you have absolutely nothing else to do.

I tried, and I failed. I tried again, and I failed again.

I'm not much of a Treat Williams fan, but he occasionally, if only by accident, turns up in some pretty decent B movies. This isn't one of them.

The high point of the movie is a ridiculous scene with a group of cadets in a circle clanging hatchets (yes, you read that right) and yelling "Kill! Burn! Bomb! Wolverine Power!!" or some such nonsense. I actually laughed out loud. Hysterically - I couldn't stop. I ended up with the hiccups.

This movie only rates a 99 cents rental. Anything more would be overpriced.

Okay, when I saw it in the video, I just couldn't believe it...after a first boring film, they made a second one, and after the very bad second one, they made an awful third one, and after the third one, here goes the forth one...Well, let's just say it is worse than the first and second ones, but better than the third. But it still sucks a lot. Some gratuitous nudity scenes, some cheap action sequences, and when I say SOME, it doesn't mean a lot...nothing happens during the whole movie, until the very predictable ending...One important point is the one liners...they are so awful it's terrible...the problem is that it is SOOOO evident that it's a mechanical and not natural sentence that comes out of Treat Williams' mouth...the acting isn't so bad, especially in William's case, but the way he says his one liners makes it a bad performance, and another factor to approve this fact is the stupid and pointless character that they offered him...and why is this called The Substitute??? The guy's just a mercenary, and he's in a military school, he's more a soldier than a teacher, he always beats up one student...with teachers like that, don't ask yourself why there are so many high school drop-outs...I mean, in the first and second films, the agent was a substitute, but in this one he isn't...There's an error in the script because they kill young boys in Panama, and one of them has the Werewolves' sign in his face (The Werewolves are a clan of nazi students at the Military College, and they are only 5 or 6 of them, so none of these folks could be in Panama...). This film has a very conventional script, with even less flavor, some below average acting, and boring directing. I guess we should wait for the fifth one, then the sixth one, and then the "Substitute Gift Box"...bad film. 4/10

Treat Williams is at his best in this, the fourth installment of the famous Substitute series. The plot twists are delectable, and the fight scenes are horrifyingly realistic yet perfectly intriguing. Fans of cerebral cinema will appreciate the undertones of racial tension and personal identity struggles, while the action buffs will enjoy the numerous explosions and gunfire. Yes, there is a little something for everyone in The Substitute IV- we can only hope and pray that Treat will sign on for the fifth and final installment of the series- Substitute V.

'The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not An Option' gets points for featuring a cast of known b-movie faces. However it has the weakest story by far. There's no deep levels here. No real surprises. The bad guys are face up and obvious. Leaving you to soak in the action as the plot tries it's best to rot your brain.

Karl Thomasson (Treat Williams) is back once again taking on the task of teaching at a Military School at the behest of an old war buddy and General. A teacher has gone missing, the General is worried about his nephew and the involvement of the base comandante Colonel Brack (Patrick Kilpatrick). The nephew is part of a select group of elite cadets called "The Werewolf Company" and well, you see where this is going.

It's neo Nazi junk. White power, racism, etc. The Colonel is so obviously nuts that you know any sense of reality has gone out the window. If you can get past that, Treat is still decent. Fisticuffs, lectures, gunplay, investigating, etc. There is a particular stunt piece that I applaud him for not using a stunt double. It really looked cool to see him do it.

Kilpatrick is no stranger to bad guy roles and almost always fun to watch. He spouts the junk dialog given to him with ease. Tim Abell is SFC Devlin. A knife instructor on base who is a former comrade of Thomasson who helps out. Treat Williams shares the screen with Bill Nunn again who plays the ex-military knowledgeable janitor. That leaves pretty lady Angie Everhart to supply some nudity and required love interest in 1LT Dr. Chamberlain.

I don't know if the series had run it's course or if 'Failure Is Not An Option' killed it, but this was the end. A braindead story, sad collection of villains and the horrible ending that doesn't even satisfy. The cast earn it some points and I appreciated more gratuitous female nudity, but this was a pretty sore sequel.