The Substitute 2: School's Out (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

It was okay but doesn't live up to Part 1

[Sherazade · 6/10 · 2 April 2006]

Okay, take out the Latino gangs from part one and replace them with Black gang bangers. Switch the bad principal and make it a bad teacher instead. Take away the premise of drugs, and make it about guns and carjackings, then instead of the hurt girlfriend who creates and easy entrance for THE SUBSTITUTE, replace her with a dead brother of a former (you guessed it) mercenary (played by Treat Williams) and basically, you've got your SUBSTITUTE 2 - School's Out. It was a good time-passer but nothing as riveting as the first part which starred Tom Berenger as the mercenary-turn-substitute teacher. Telly alums Michael Michele and B.D. Wong co-star.

The hall monitor...

[fmarkland32 · 6/10 · 24 August 2006]

Treat Williams stars as a mercenary who fills in for his brother after said brother is murdered, along the way he finds that all blame points to Drummond (B.D Wong) but Williams' elaborate plan to teach and kickbox his students is put into full effect when Drummond's men find out about him and decide to kill him. Believe it or not I preferred this sequel to the original, only due to the faster pace and a more likable hero in Treat Williams. Williams is one of those versatile actors who can convince in action and convince in the role of being human. Treat Williams acts much like how a real teacher in real life would plus he seems willing to negotiate and make amends for his actions. Such as the scene where Williams offers to pay for the kid's radio that he threw out the radio. There are many good scenes that are quite well acted such as when Williams talks to the class and in all seriousness it works better than the original. Also another element I like is how the action is more under control and the movie develops a more serious take on the plot. Although the one line of which Williams says "I've killed before but I try to not like it, so this is going to be a new experience for me" Is a howler. This makes the movie far more enjoyable than sequels usually are.

* * 1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

Brainless and Shallow Action B-Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 4 May 2016]

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")

Dumb but passable if you're in the mood

[bob the moo · 26 August 2002]

Ex-marine Randall Thomasson is a teacher in an inner city school in charge of the difficult class for violent or disaffected youth. When he sees a car jacking by the `brotherhood', a gang of criminals who wear hooded tops backwards. The end result is him being killed. His brother returns from his life as a mercenary to look after his daughter and to uncover who was responsible. He goes under cover as a teacher in his brother's old class and begins to stir things up.

The original wasn't that good or successful so why did they feel the need to repeat the formula again. However that's exactly what they do and if you've seen the first then there's no need to watch this film. The plot is exactly the same and full of the same weaknesses – all this killing around a school but no policemen at all? However it is OK in a brainless sort of way. The action is scaled down but there are a few good fights towards the end. Much of the action is `A-Team' style – witness Karl and Joey 6 in a school corridor with 6 men at either end firing automatic weapons and then explain to me how no one got hit at all! It's all pretty dumb but is passable for 90 minutes.

Treat Williams is not a great actor but can do OK. Here he isn't as convincing a mercenary as Berenger was (not bitter or tough enough) but he does a good job and his quiet cool style is fun to watch. Those who think there is no connection between this and the first film must have missed the inclusion of the character Joey 6 again, however here he is played well by Angel David. TV fans will be surprised by Michael Michelle (Cleo from ER) and a really different role for Wong (usually a mild mannered priest in Oz). The rest of the cast are all homeboys, gangbanger stereotypes who stand up to Karl but fail and are eventually won over yadayadayada! The main one of interest to me was a rare acting role for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal (Guru to you), many hiphop stars cross over to movies – my question is why he chose to do this?

The most interesting thing about the cast of the substitute films is the way they all seem to keep the cast of `Thing to do in Denver when you're dead' in work! Forsythe was in part 1, Williams is in parts 2 and 3 and in part 4 is joined by Bill Nunn. Not amazing I'll grant you but just weird to see them all getting involved!

Overall the cast are OK and the story is a straight lift with some name changes. The action is pretty thin but it has a dumb energy and is actually quite good if you're in an undemanding mood.

An unneeded sequel

[heichers · 1/10 · 9 January 2000]

The first movie was great, but if they absolutely had to do a sequel, they should have tried to get Tom Berenger and Raymond Cruz back and had a better story line to it. Instead, they stuck Treat Williams in with a story line too much like the first movie and it was fairly unconvincing and even boring at times.

Seen It All Before

[Theo Robertson · 3/10 · 7 March 2005]

Hey a tough mercenary goes undercover as a teacher to gain revenge on a tough gang who are running drugs ! Where have I seen that movie before ? Hey I saw the exact same plot in a movie called THE SUBSTITUTE with Tom Berenger going into a tough inner school to wipe out a drugs gang . In fact both plots feature the new arrival going into class and telling the kids about 'Nam . If there's any difference between the movies it's that the sequel is even dumber than the original

How dumb is it Theo ? Well for a start we see a tough gang of black kids wearing hoods similar to the KKK ! I'm just thinking that any homies dressed like the Klu Klux Klan might make themselves very unpopular with other gangs in the ghetto . But it gets dumber believe it or not . The gang tries to kill a girl then after they've killed someone else they drive off leaving the girl alive to become a possible witness . Later on the cops drive past and it's only then that the gang decide to try and kill the hero . I've never tried to bump anyone off but surely it's a bad idea to shoot someone when the cops are at the other end of the street ?

As you can expect in these type of movies none of the cast will be nominated for Oscars , but it's a shame that Berenger couldn't reprise his role since Treat Williams isn't much of a treat in the acting stakes . I'm also very sorry to pick on one of the cast by name but Susan May Pratt as Anya Thomasson is absolutely abysmal , she is totally wooden and mumbles her lines like she's reading out a shopping list . The only half way decent acting comes from some of the gang members , but how difficult is it to play foul mouthed gangsters ?

I hope no one picks me up wrong but the only positive thing I can say about SCHOOL'S OUT is that the director has cast all black actors as gang members . How many movies have seen featuring a tough ghetto gang that is one third black , one third white , and one third Latino ? Too many would be the answer and some congratulations are in order for not taking a PC view of ethnic composition of gangs . It should also be pointed out many of the victims of this gang violence are black themselves so at least this aspect rings true . But if you want a realistic movie you might want to miss the bell for THE SUBSTITUTE 2 : SCHOOLS OUT

A Bad Ending Ruins This Promising Sequel

[zardoz-13 · 5/10 · 5 July 2010]

The murky conclusion of director Steven Pearl's straight-to-video sequel "The Substitute 2: School's Out" undercuts an otherwise okay sequel that goes to enormous ends to establish itself as the follow-up to the Tom Berenger original. Treat Williams plays an entirely different character who knew Shale, and "School's Out" concerns his search for the person who gunned down his brother in cold blood in broad daylight. Williams is suave but decisive as Karl Thomasson who masquerades as the new substitute teacher. B.D. Wong is superb as the slimy villain. The Miami high school in the first film, the school here is a zoo with abrasive students who play their boom boxes in class and tote around deadly weapons like ice picks. Unlike the villains in the predecessor who were trafficking in illegal drugs, the bad guys here are operating a chop shop for stolen cars that nets them a $100-thousand-a-month. Like the original, the most considerate character turns out to be the source of the trouble. During the first three-fourths of "The Substitute 2: School's Out," the scenarists of the first movie--Roy Frumkes, Rocco Simonelli, and Alan Ormsby--establish the reason for the sequel, neatly place the characters in the context of the original, and do a good job of integrating Karl into the action. The action scenes themselves, when Karl has to practice his expertise on the disruptive students as well as the adult villains, are fine, but everything collapses in the last quarter hour when the fatherless daughter discovers who killed her father. The filmmakers never have a confrontation scene between the hero and this villain. Moreover, the disruptive students in the classroom who should go down as hard as their counterparts did in the first movie are never shown receiving their just comeuppance for their crimes. The yo-yo scene where Karl explains the use of a yo-yo as a weapon is well-done as is the 'compromise' scene when he toss Mace's purloined boom box out the second story class room. Presumably, Mace is supposed to be the Jerome character here. The single character who doesn't have a counterpart from the first movie is Michael Michele; she plays a sympathetic school employee, Kara Lavelle, who is attracted to Karl. Initially, she met him at his brother's funeral. Not surprisingly, Karl's niece (Susan May Pratt of "Drive Me Crazy")doesn't trust Karl at first, but she breaks down and gets to like him. The only character here that is truly exceptional is the high school custodian, Johnny Bartee (Daryl Edwards of "Arthur 2: On the Rocks"), who has an unique way of entering and exiting through the tunnels in the walls. He is a former Vietnam soldier who specialized in going into tunnels to flush out the Viet Cong. One of the things that the filmmakers do that looks cool is that the car-jacking gang wears their cotton windbreakers backwards so the hood covers them faces and they have slit eye-holes to see. One of the survivors from the first movie, Joey 6, reappears here but he is played by a different actor.

An ok film.

[LebowskiT1000 · 6/10 · 31 July 2002]

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

Acting needs improvenement

[HoneyBRose · 3/10 · 18 April 2022]

I almost turned it off because of the terrible acting by the niece, Susan May Pratt, but didn't because I was craving for an action film. I had to fast forward some cringeworthy acts and wondered why those scenes did not get edited out, but in the end, I wondered why I wasted time trying to finish this.

Suprisingly entertaining

[CharltonBoy · 6/10 · 21 January 2000]

I was not expecting a lot from this movie as it is a TV B movie but i found it really entertaining. Ok , lets face it , the story line stinks , the acting stinks and the dialogue is even worse but it is still entertaining! The thing i did like about this film is that the director was not afraid to portray specific races as the trouble makers, there is nothing worse than a Politically correct Hollywood movie. At the end of the day this is just the same as Deathwish,The Exterminator or 187 ,a vigilante shootem up movie. 6 out of 10

Same Old Same Old

[whpratt1 · 5/10 · 11 September 2006]

This film takes place in NYC at a High School that is more like a prison, with wire screens and a huge security system through out the entire school. Treat Williams,(Karl Thomasson),"Venomus",'02, becomes a substitute in this high school in order to find out who killed his brother. Susan May Pratt, "Open Water",'06, plays the daughter who lost her father and Karl comes to her aid and tries to help her during her tragic loss. Michael Michele,"Dark Blue",'02 gives a great supporting role and gets very close on the couch with Karl. There is plenty of the hood scenes in the class room with a radio being thrown out a window and plenty of action in the mens room. This is another type film we have seen many times before.

great, mindless entertainment

[disdressed12 · 8/10 · 15 March 2007]

i liked this movie better than the 1st one.Treat Williams takes over the substitute role from Tom Berenger.that is one reason i liked the movie.i like Treat Williams,but i'm not a big Tom Berenger fan.the general plot line is pretty much the same,with some of the details changed.Williams plays a mercenary,whose brother(a teacher for "troubled" students ends up killed while attempting to stop a carjacking.Carl Thomasson,(Williams)shows up at his funeral and decides to find out who killed his brother Randall,even though they hadn't seen each other in years.long story short,he becomes the substitute for Randall's class.he uses his skills to teach the students valuable lessons,all the while looking for answers.there are some great fighting scenes in this movie.some are not that realistic,but they are entertaining.the dialogue in this movie is kept to what is needed and no more.the action is front and centre.for,me,that's exactly what i'm looking for in this kind of movie.i felt the 1st one focused too much on dialogue.that is remedied in part 2.it's pretty mindless,but very entertaining.hamlet it's not.but for sheer entertainment.it works. i give "The Substitute 2" 8/10

The same stuff all over again ,just with a diffrent actor Treat Williams!!!

[Doc_Who · 6/10 · 5 October 1999]

This movie is the same as the original movie , by the same name. But this time the star Is Treat Williams(Deep End Of the Ocean,The Phantom) and B.D Wong(Executive Decision). If you saw the original , then the movie is nothing new. It has a couple of Ok action scenes , but the story is rame lame from an action fan view. If you like either the series, the actors or the stars, then go out and buy it!!!

HAIR / DUST IN THE GATE CUT CUT CUT

[lopezpatricia-06139 · 1/10 · 16 February 2020]

The whole film had dust hair in the film which you would expect from a 1897 film but not a1997 film and on that subject the film was hideous. All it did was highlight and exaggerate the nadir of American inner city life and to top it all you don't get to see these lowlifes get their heads blown off either. Very disappointed

**** out of 5

[casey_choas66 · 6 August 2002]

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.

So terrible I couldn't Watch

[netmerc · 1/10 · 15 March 2000]

This movie was the most pathetic excuse for a sequel I have ever seen. From terrible acting and dialog to the retarded tie in to the first movie. I finally gave up after 20 minutes and took it out of the VCR. It sucked so bad I didn't even rewind!!!

Thin story, too many bullets, too many mis hits.

[rspekle · 4/10 · 11 May 1999]

Another movie that should have stopped at part 1. The story is too easy, the characters not for real. Not worth spending time on.

Decent sequel to an above average B-movie.

[nesluver2 · 6/10 · 28 January 2005]

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.

F You! F You!

[bemyfriend-40184 · 3/10 · 10 December 2021]

Lots of f you. Sluggish, implausible, only mildly interesting. I didn't particularly like the hero with the odd hair; and I didn't care about him. Lots of stereotypes. Very 90's. Seen on Tubi, the free streaming site, which has many B movies, indies, foreigns, older major studio films; and now, live TV.

The Treats Continue

[tarbosh22000 · 6/10 · 12 May 2010]

"The Substitute 2" is decent but not as good as the third one. Treat plays Karl Thomasson, a mercenary who infiltrates a school full of ruffians and drug dealers. It's just like the predecessor but cheaper.

I'm one of the biggest Treat Williams fans. I will watch basically anything with him in it (except "Miss Congeniality 2"...) This is a good showcase for him, but the DTV-style script lets him down. B.D. Wong plays the shop teacher....who's evil. His role is uneven and underdeveloped. There's one scene with a deadly yo-yo! This is a great idea, and a movie highlight. But unfortunately there's no funny lines like "No Talking In The Library." A good tagline could be: "Class Dismissed....Permanently" If like you DTV Treat, this a good start, but "Substitute 3: Winner Takes All" is the best one.

For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

So bad it's... very very bad

[eddsnake · 2/10 · 11 February 2006]

I started watching this on TV tonight and after being amazed that even a TV movie this bad would make it on to the BBC ended up watching nearly the whole thing.

First of all, how many high schools anywhere have their own guard and barbed wire above the entrance to the third floor? And kids whose main purpose for being in school is to take out their History teacher?!! When they're not car-jacking and bringing their new wheels into school to have them modded in 'shop' that is. Then there's the guy who takes Shop, played by BD Wong. Now if you want a bloke who's meant to be so evil that when one of his pupils gets killed (whilst stealing a car for him) he says 'that's the first piece of good news i've had today', why cast a camp bloke of 5'4' as the said baddie?! His tight jumpers and muscular physique make him look more like the barman from the local gay bar than some evil car-jacking mastermind who dabbles in CDT, but there you go.

The shoot-outs (inside the school?!) are classic in their own, badly choreographed, pump thousands of bullets at a target ten metres away and miss, then finally take out the target and mutter something witty like 'one down, three to go', way. Then our hero Treat Williams finally gets cornered by four gun toting bad guys and guess what saves him? A couple of canisters releasing what looks like slowly wafting dry ice so that he can make his escape. Then there's the Vietnam vet janitor who has his own war-chest of old military weapons in the basement, and a semi automatic rifle in the cupboard?!! This film teaches that if you want to get the respect of your knife wielding, car-jacking, substitute teacher killing pupils, then the best way to do so is kill a load of their mates and then knock off their 'shop' teacher for good measure. Then you can walk off, laughing weakly with your adoring niece, as the pupils who have just watched one of their teachers get killed by another stand around mouthing 'wow'. I really hope that whoever wrote this doesn't go into politics.

Oh and Treat Williams, although he does a good job of spouting forth diatribes whilst messing around with a yo-yo, is as wooden an action hero as I've ever seen.

If you want to see a really, really bad film that shouldn't even have made it to 'TV Movie' status then you must watch this. Otherwise avoid it at all costs.

Angel David

[helfeleather · 10/10 · 18 November 2002]

What happened to him? He was very sexy in this film, decked out in shiny black nylon (I think) trousers and a black leather jacket. Very cool indeed. Pity Treat Williams hid all his sex appeal by wearing a tie.

Story was extremely predictable, that is, implausible. As usual, the solution to violence is more violence.

the movie was OK but IMDb's plot summary...

[thelordmoose · 6/10 · 15 March 2005]

First of all, Treat Williams character is named 'Karl Thomasson' NOT 'John Shale' as alluded to in the 'plot summary'. John Shale was Tom Berenger's character's name in the original 'substitute'. Get with it IMDb. As for the movie... it is OK if you like bad guys getting theirs. if you like Treat Williams it is very good. overall I would rate the movie a 6-7. ( I like Treat, Hair is an outstanding movie and I hate musicals.) If you have not seen 'Hair', do so. Its a really great movie about the lengths friends will go for each other. see 'Substitute' only if there's nothing else on or you're a Treat Williams fan. All 4 'Substitute' movies are basically the same plot. Mercenary takes offense at the treatment of others at the hands of thugs and takes matters into his own hands to make the bad guys pay.

Good film

[minnie_mie · 24 July 2000]

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.