The Substitute

Directed by Robert Mandel, The Substitute follows out-of-work mercenary Jonathan Shale (Tom Berenger) as he goes undercover within a rough inner-city school after his girlfriend (Diane Venora’s Jane) is targeted by several students/gang members. It’s an appealingly larger-than-life premise that’s employed to watchable yet consistently (and disappointingly) hit-and-miss effect by Mandel, as the movie progresses at an often incongruously deliberate pace that’s compounded by a padded-out, needlessly overlong running time – with The Substitute not entirely coming to life until Berenger’s tough-as-nails character arrives at the aforementioned school. (It’s difficult, however, not to get a kick out of an early scene wherein Shale frightens a potential employer so much that he poops his pants.) There’s little doubt, then, that the picture benefits substantially from Berenger’s typically captivating work as the uncompromising protagonist, and it doesn’t hurt, either, that Mandel has littered the supporting cast with an assortment of scene-stealing familiar faces – including, among others, Luis Guzmán, William Forsythe, Marc Anthony, and Ernie Hudson. The violent (but somewhat underwhelming) climax ultimately does cement The Substitute‘s place as a pervasively erratic endeavor, with the movie’s mild success due almost entirely to Shale’s entertainingly broad encounters with the various shady figures at said school. (There is, for example, a fantastic sequence in which Shale, having been cornered by several students/gang members in the library, tells his assailants to “hit the books” and starts chucking textbooks at them.)

**1/2 out of ****