Reviews (30)

"Yes. I would like my romance light with very little fluff."
This is more predictable Hollywood romance, with a dash of semi-realism. While it is noteworthy to point out the strong female character that Jennifer Aniston plays, the script eventually falls into the classic mold of misconstrued circumstances leading (hopefully) to outright laughter. While the laughs never really come, the romance between Mrs. Aniston and Jay Mohr is charged with some believable chemistry. These two people really like each other, and not just platonically. Some of the potential laughs are forced, like every scene involving Olympia Dukakis and her loud over-acting. Kevin Bacon really doesn't come across as a believable love-interest, either. It would have been better had he been a complete slimeball. There are no characters to either love nor hate, and only the lead female character to admire; and for all the heterosexual men in the world, only Jay Mohr's character to envy. Jennifer Aniston eventually has to carry this film until Jay Mohr shows up, so the first 30 minutes are laborious. But once the chemistry begins and the embers start to glow, the movie reveals a kind of honesty that is refreshing. This is a solid rental; or if you are a hopeless/hopeful romantic, this just might be your cup of coffee.

I LOVE THIS MOVIE
Jennifer Aniston is the best in this movie!!! Its sooo cute I can never get tired of it!!

Its about a woman, Kate who pretends to be engaged with a man, Nick, she doesnt know whom she met at a friend's wedding. With this lie she finally gets a promotion she deserves and an eye of a man who just started to notice her. Soon later he gets famous by saving a little girl and her boss and the people she works with wanted to meet with him. After spending much time with him he falls for her, but all she wants to do is break up with him. Soon after he leaves and she ends up missing him and realizes that she loves him... A GREAT movie!! GO watch it!

One of her best!
I love to see her play leading roles in these types of movies. Jennifer looks absolutely gorgeous is all the short skirts she wears in this film, but they fit her personality and beauty so well!! She certainly has the legs and used them to her advantage! Her acting ability was superb in Picture Perfect and she's certainly the star of the show. She can be serious and witty and very business like. Rather than get into the nitty gritty about the story, let's just say that I'd hightly recommend it to anyone wanting good entertainment on most any nights with lots of laughts and a story that stays with you.

Not quite picture perfect, but cute none the less...
Jennifer Aniston stars in this romantic comedy and does a great job at her performance. I enjoyed her acting and the acting of Jay Mohr and Kevin Bacon, but the story line could have been better. It didn't really pull on my heartstrings like a lot of other romantic comedys out there. I would compare it to that teacher you had in Junior High, you know the one that taught health (a realitively unexciting class) who was a good teacher, but years down the line you can't quite remember her name. Well this is that movie...you love Jennifer Aniston, but years down the line you won't be able to remember if you've ever seen this movie, or you will remember seeing it, but not remember the plot.

As it is, a good movie for what it's worth. Light and doesn't require a lot of thinking. I wouldn't suggest buying it, but renting might not be a bad idea.

Loved it
Although it seems that few people liked the film, I thought it was pretty good. As in most romantic comedies, the plot was pretty predictable, but all the actors did a great job. I love it. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

A pointless sequel
The original "Substitute" starring Tom Berenger and Ernie Hudson was an over-the-top but admittedly clever take on the "tough teacher/tough class" sub-genre started by "Dangerous Minds". Unfortunately, such movies typically spawn mediocre sequels to capitalize on even moderate interest, which leaves us with "Substitute 2: School's Out", starring Treat Williams instead of Berenger.

To say that this movie is unoriginal is an understatement. It more-or-less puts us into the exact same situation as the first film, only done worse than before. When his brother is murdered by a violent street gang called the Brotherhood in a carjacking, mercenary Karl Thomasson (Williams) decides to take on two roles. The first is to take care of his brother's daughter. The second is to become a subtitute teacher for his brother's Brooklyn high school class, which some of the Brotherhood thugs attend. He suspects that the school's auto shop teacher, Warren Drummond, is involved in a car-stripping operation with the Brotherhood and its violent leader, Lil' B. Naturally, it's up to Thomasson to teach the tough class while working to take down Lil' B and Drummond's operation with his mercenary pal Joey 6 and a janitor named Johnny Bartee.

The most dissapointing aspect of this movie is the acting. Before you say, "It's a B movie, so what do you expect?", consider the cast involved in this film. Treat Williams may be a direct-to-video actor for the most part, but considering his number of Emmy nominations and his achievements in "Everwood", you'd expect a little more from him. He simply comes off as too nice a guy to be a hardened merc. Longtime Broadway actor and recent "Law & Order: SVU" cast member B.D. Wong doesn't fare much better as Drummond; he's either over-the-top or very dull. Michael Michelle ("ER") as teacher and love interest Kara Lavelle and Angel David ("The Crow") as Joey 6 are both OK, but wasted for the most part. Daryl Edwards, who plays Johnny Bartee, ends up becoming very annoying in this film. And while rapper Guru (of Gang Starr fame) is one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists around, he's no actor, and he really embarrasses himself as Lil' B in this movie.

Aside from the weak acting, the movie doesn't really do much with its characters or plot. The relationship between Thomasson and the gang-bangers in his class (one of the better points of the original film) never works at all, especially his attempt to connect to Mase (Eugene Byrd of "8 Mile" fame). At one point, Thomasson throws Mase's stereo out the window because he's playing rap music really loud in class. Mase gets angry and attacks him with a switchblade, but after Thomasson subdues him and leaves him in charge of the class for a moment, Mase later apologizes for what he did. In the space of one class, Mase changes from "I'm-a cut you up real good" to "yeah, I was wrong". Right.

There are other problems, too, including some ridiculously unrealistic action sequences. How does somebody manage to survive an attack by gang-bangers firing automatic weapons at them from BOTH SIDES of a narrow corridor? Beats me, but Thomasson, Joey 6, and Bartee do somehow. Equally bad is the scene where Drummond kills Lavelle by shooting her at point-blank range and then wipes her blood off his hands on a stuffed teddy bear AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. Oh, yeah, and I'm still very puzzled as to how they got that laser trick to work on the Brotherhood when laser sources are very easy to spot at any range. The hoods in Brooklyn may not be Ivy League material, but I really didn't think they all have the intelligence levels of rodents.

In the end, "Substitute 2" never works as well as its predecessor did, or as well as many such movies in general. The poor acting and weak plot make it hard to like. If you want to see a movie in this genre done right, see the first film or "187" with Samuel L. Jackson. You can definitely do better than this film.

Best of the substitute sequels - worth seeing
As a big fan of The Substitute I was surprised that I hadn't seen the three sequels to the movie - so I watched one each day for three days. All three are worthwhile entertainment, much better than most of the "B" movies out there (I rent so many B movies that turn out to be unwatchable). However, this first sequel is the best. Treat Williams is a good replacement for Tom Berenger. He has that almost-too-old-but-still-can-kick-butt feel like Berenger. The reason this movie works better than the other two sequels is that it actually takes place in a high school and kind of mimics the first movie with the gangs, etc.. I love these movies because in every one the Substitute beats up some kid in the classroom to prove a point. There's good action like the first movie, I love it when the Substitute is going to get shot in a drive-by and actually runs to the car, does a flip, and breaks the guy's arm which is sticking out of the window! There are no suprises, as usual there is always a teacher/administrator that is "in" with the thugs who are terrorizing the school and the substitute. And everyone gets their due in the end.

SUBSTITUTE 2 Review!
As is the case in just about every straight-to-video sequel, the original star is out and a newer somewhat lesser known star is in. Treat Williams does the series justice as a mercenary who fills for his slain brother's history class in a mean Brooklyn high school. It wouldn't be a "Substitute" film if he wasn't kicking and punching his students through the halls with the help of a few unlikely faculty members. Good straight-to-video fare with a decent cast featuring B.D. Wong, Michael Michelle, Eugene Byrd, and a few others but Angel David taking over Raymond Cruz's "Joey Six" role is about easy to believe as Tommy Lee Jones filling in for Billy Dee Williams. Oh wait! Anyways, you get what you pay for.

This movie sucked and just kept on sucking.
Treat Williams is an awesome actor he would have played his role superbly had he had a plot to work with. This movie just plain sucked...no doubt about it. Michael Michelle's and B.D. Wong's talents are a waste in this piece of crap. The first "Substitute" was very entertaining, I say that with tongue in cheek. They call this one an action flick? My goodness, the scenes were so far and so few. This was a very cheap movie, poor action sequences and dialogue as well. The yo-yo scene in the classroom was very interesting though. Haven't seen the the next two in the series, and now I don't know as if I want to.

ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL
ANOTHER MERCENARY [TREAT WILLIAMS] BECOMES A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER AT A SCHOOL IN WHICH CRIME IS RAMPANT. NOT TOO MUCH DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL, BUT IT'S ALMOST BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL! TREAT WILLIAMS MIGHT NOT BE AS MEAN AS TOM BERENGER WAS, BUT HE'S STILL A PRETTY INTRIGUING ACTOR FOR THE ROLE THAT TOM BERENGER PLAYED. THIS IS DEFINITELY WORTH WATCHING. THE ACTION SCENES ARE PRETTY CLEVER. EVEN FEATURES AN APPEARANCE FROM GURU, WHICH IS THE MC FOR GANG STARR. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

A pointless sequel
The original "Substitute" starring Tom Berenger and Ernie Hudson was an over-the-top but admittedly clever take on the "tough teacher/tough class" sub-genre started by "Dangerous Minds". Unfortunately, such movies typically spawn mediocre sequels to capitalize on even moderate interest, which leaves us with "Substitute 2: School's Out", starring Treat Williams instead of Berenger.

To say that this movie is unoriginal is an understatement. It more-or-less puts us into the exact same situation as the first film, only done worse than before. When his brother is murdered by a violent street gang called the Brotherhood in a carjacking, mercenary Karl Thomasson (Williams) decides to take on two roles. The first is to take care of his brother's daughter. The second is to become a subtitute teacher for his brother's Brooklyn high school class, which some of the Brotherhood thugs attend. He suspects that the school's auto shop teacher, Warren Drummond, is involved in a car-stripping operation with the Brotherhood and its violent leader, Lil' B. Naturally, it's up to Thomasson to teach the tough class while working to take down Lil' B and Drummond's operation with his mercenary pal Joey 6 and a janitor named Johnny Bartee.

The most dissapointing aspect of this movie is the acting. Before you say, "It's a B movie, so what do you expect?", consider the cast involved in this film. Treat Williams may be a direct-to-video actor for the most part, but considering his number of Emmy nominations and his achievements in "Everwood", you'd expect a little more from him. He simply comes off as too nice a guy to be a hardened merc. Longtime Broadway actor and recent "Law & Order: SVU" cast member B.D. Wong doesn't fare much better as Drummond; he's either over-the-top or very dull. Michael Michelle ("ER") as teacher and love interest Kara Lavelle and Angel David ("The Crow") as Joey 6 are both OK, but wasted for the most part. Daryl Edwards, who plays Johnny Bartee, ends up becoming very annoying in this film. And while rapper Guru (of Gang Starr fame) is one of the most gifted hip-hop lyricists around, he's no actor, and he really embarrasses himself as Lil' B in this movie.

Aside from the weak acting, the movie doesn't really do much with its characters or plot. The relationship between Thomasson and the gang-bangers in his class (one of the better points of the original film) never works at all, especially his attempt to connect to Mase (Eugene Byrd of "8 Mile" fame). At one point, Thomasson throws Mase's stereo out the window because he's playing rap music really loud in class. Mase gets angry and attacks him with a switchblade, but after Thomasson subdues him and leaves him in charge of the class for a moment, Mase later apologizes for what he did. In the space of one class, Mase changes from "I'm-a cut you up real good" to "yeah, I was wrong". Right.

There are other problems, too, including some ridiculously unrealistic action sequences. How does somebody manage to survive an attack by gang-bangers firing automatic weapons at them from BOTH SIDES of a narrow corridor? Beats me, but Thomasson, Joey 6, and Bartee do somehow. Equally bad is the scene where Drummond kills Lavelle by shooting her at point-blank range and then wipes her blood off his hands on a stuffed teddy bear AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. Oh, yeah, and I'm still very puzzled as to how they got that laser trick to work on the Brotherhood when laser sources are very easy to spot at any range. The hoods in Brooklyn may not be Ivy League material, but I really didn't think they all have the intelligence levels of rodents.

In the end, "Substitute 2" never works as well as its predecessor did, or as well as many such movies in general. The poor acting and weak plot make it hard to like. If you want to see a movie in this genre done right, see the first film or "187" with Samuel L. Jackson. You can definitely do better than this film.

Best of the substitute sequels - worth seeing
As a big fan of The Substitute I was surprised that I hadn't seen the three sequels to the movie - so I watched one each day for three days. All three are worthwhile entertainment, much better than most of the "B" movies out there (I rent so many B movies that turn out to be unwatchable). However, this first sequel is the best. Treat Williams is a good replacement for Tom Berenger. He has that almost-too-old-but-still-can-kick-butt feel like Berenger. The reason this movie works better than the other two sequels is that it actually takes place in a high school and kind of mimics the first movie with the gangs, etc.. I love these movies because in every one the Substitute beats up some kid in the classroom to prove a point. There's good action like the first movie, I love it when the Substitute is going to get shot in a drive-by and actually runs to the car, does a flip, and breaks the guy's arm which is sticking out of the window! There are no suprises, as usual there is always a teacher/administrator that is "in" with the thugs who are terrorizing the school and the substitute. And everyone gets their due in the end.

SUBSTITUTE 2 Review!
As is the case in just about every straight-to-video sequel, the original star is out and a newer somewhat lesser known star is in. Treat Williams does the series justice as a mercenary who fills for his slain brother's history class in a mean Brooklyn high school. It wouldn't be a "Substitute" film if he wasn't kicking and punching his students through the halls with the help of a few unlikely faculty members. Good straight-to-video fare with a decent cast featuring B.D. Wong, Michael Michelle, Eugene Byrd, and a few others but Angel David taking over Raymond Cruz's "Joey Six" role is about easy to believe as Tommy Lee Jones filling in for Billy Dee Williams. Oh wait! Anyways, you get what you pay for.

This movie sucked and just kept on sucking.
Treat Williams is an awesome actor he would have played his role superbly had he had a plot to work with. This movie just plain sucked...no doubt about it. Michael Michelle's and B.D. Wong's talents are a waste in this piece of crap. The first "Substitute" was very entertaining, I say that with tongue in cheek. They call this one an action flick? My goodness, the scenes were so far and so few. This was a very cheap movie, poor action sequences and dialogue as well. The yo-yo scene in the classroom was very interesting though. Haven't seen the the next two in the series, and now I don't know as if I want to.

ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL
ANOTHER MERCENARY [TREAT WILLIAMS] BECOMES A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER AT A SCHOOL IN WHICH CRIME IS RAMPANT. NOT TOO MUCH DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL, BUT IT'S ALMOST BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL! TREAT WILLIAMS MIGHT NOT BE AS MEAN AS TOM BERENGER WAS, BUT HE'S STILL A PRETTY INTRIGUING ACTOR FOR THE ROLE THAT TOM BERENGER PLAYED. THIS IS DEFINITELY WORTH WATCHING. THE ACTION SCENES ARE PRETTY CLEVER. EVEN FEATURES AN APPEARANCE FROM GURU, WHICH IS THE MC FOR GANG STARR. ... Read more