The Substitute

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The Substitute

R

1996

1h 54m

Action

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Popcornmeter

42%

Tomatometer

26 Reviews

41%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Inner-city Miami schoolteacher Jane Hetzko (Diane Venora) gets her knee broken when she stands up to the school's gang leader, Juan Lacas (Marc Anthony). Her boyfriend, mercenary combat specialist Jonathan Shale (Tom Berenger), goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk, but soon discovers that Lacas is merely an underling for the real criminal mastermind. Assembling the team from his last jungle raid, led by his right-hand man, Joey Six (Raymond Cruz), Shale declares war.

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Susan Stark

Detroit News

Rated: 1/4

Mar 13, 2002

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

There's a sense of shrewd observation throughout The Substitute that makes it come alive and seem quite a few cuts above such usual genre fare.

Feb 13, 2001

Full Review

Joey O'Bryan

Austin Chronicle

Rated: 0/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...an appealingly larger-than-life premise that's employed to watchable yet consistently (and disappointingly) hit-and-miss effect...

Rated: 2.5/4

Jan 31, 2021

Full Review

Justin Brown

Medium Popcorn

This movie was a mess. Tom Berenger was atrocious.

Rated: 1/5

Jan 14, 2021

Full Review

Brandon Collins

Medium Popcorn

This was really bad. It was over the top and completely insane.

Rated: 1/5

Jan 14, 2021

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David K

A bit cheesy, but mostly entertaining. Resembles Walker Texas Ranger.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/27/25

Full Review

Audience Member

One of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long time I didn’t realize that the 90s were so much cheesier than the 80s

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

12/25/24

Full Review

Sarah C

The plot was choppy towards the end and I dislike unnecessary deaths that don't contribute to anything. If a death does nothing for character development or plot, it's pointless and lowers the movie. Almost all of his war buddies end up dying in the dumbest of ways. It's also clear that after introducing X amount of characters, they scrambled to tie off loose ends and thought the best way to do so was to kill almost everyone off.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

10/15/24

Full Review

Jelisije J

An ex military man goes undercover as a substitute teacher to uncover who attacked his friend and clean up the school.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/23/24

Full Review

Jeremy D

I liked watching this movie, but since I really like the genre, that's not really a suprise. The movie does nothing groundbreaking to say the least but I liked how grounded it was despite some questionmarks in judgement. Though seeing how the "A-Team" fought in the finale, it's no suprise the raid in Cuba didn't go well ...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/18/23

Full Review

zachary w

I like this old school movie, so why not give it a great rating! Like a mixture of Rambo and Roadhouse in one movie lol.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/29/23

Full Review

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Robert Mandel

Director

Tom Berenger

Jonathan Shale

Ernie Hudson

Principal Claude Rolle

Diane Venora

Jane Hetzko

Marc Anthony

Juan Lacas

Glenn Plummer

Mr. Darrell Sherman

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Synopsis

Inner-city Miami schoolteacher Jane Hetzko (Diane Venora) gets her knee broken when she stands up to the school's gang leader, Juan Lacas (Marc Anthony). Her boyfriend, mercenary combat specialist Jonathan Shale (Tom Berenger), goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk, but soon discovers that Lacas is merely an underling for the real criminal mastermind. Assembling the team from his last jungle raid, led by his right-hand man, Joey Six (Raymond Cruz), Shale declares war.

Director: Robert Mandel
Producer: Morrie Eisenman, Jim Steele
Screenwriter: Roy Frumkes, Rocco Simonelli, Alan Ormsby
Production Co: Live Entertainment, Lionsgate, Mediaworks
Rating: R
Genre: Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 1, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA): $14.8M
Runtime: 1h 54m
Sound Mix: Stereo, Surround

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