Review of The Substitute (1996) by Allan C — 10 Jul 2016

Campy genre mash-up is ridiculous, but manages to be quite entertaining. The film takes your standard Dangerous Minds/Blackboard Jungle type of heroic (white) educator saving students of color and then mixes it with urban vigilante films like "The Exterminator" or "Death Wish" where a (white) victim of some sort of violence decides to clean up the street.

In this film Tom Berenger plays a mercenary group leader who comes back to Miami to visit his high school teacher girlfriend. When she's attacked by gang members, Berenger poses as her substitute teacher at the tough high school to root out the evildoers.

SPOILER ALERT! Berenger discovers the school security, the principal and the drug dealing gang members all all in cahoots, so he calls in his special forces team for a high tech climactic shoot out in the high school.

Just as with both genres this film is mashing up, there is an unfortunately racist undercurrent to the story of a white night fighting back the savages. This is where the camp entertainment value of this film comes in.

Just as with many John Milieus films ("Red Dawn" particularly comes to mind), although the politics of the film are repugnant, they are so over-the-top that the ridiculousness becomes high camp and hard to resist enjoying.

Also similar to Milieus, this film has a solid director with Robert Mandel ("F/X") and a strong cast that includes Raymond Cruz, William Forsythe, Luis Guzmán, Diane Venora, Glenn Plummer (who seemed to be in every film of the early 90s, from "Strange Days" to "Showgirls"), Marc Anthony, Ernie Hudson, and Cliff De Young.

Overall, if you can get past the ugly politics of the film, it's a campy good time.