Why so much hype?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

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.

"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

Hey, it's not great, but it was fun to watch. Played it on BBC1 (UK) on Sat 11 Feb, 23:50. I wasn't planning on watching it, I hadn't heard of it before, nothing much else to do so I left it on.I enjoyed it, so that's more than I was expecting. The story was a little poor, the acting wasn't amazing, but hey, if nothing better is on - watch it! It should keep you busy.There are lots of unrealistic scenes, but it's not supposed to be a highly complex film.I probably wouldn't watch it for a second time. I'll give it a six because it kept me busy for 85 minutes, and there was lots of ghetto talk, MOH F**KER. Haha.

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!!!