Tubi Thursday: Class of 1999 II- The Substitute (1994)

 A Film so memorable that I only took 13 years to get around to reviewing it.
I should really check out what I'm still missing from my old VHS For the Win days.

In Class of 1984, things were really bad and a gang of kids had to be stopped.

In Class of 1999, things were worse and homicidal robot teachers had to be stopped.

In the Sequel, the guy from Step By Step is homicidal and has to be stopped.

A Female Teacher is going to testify that a Student- who could be Chris O'Donnell's Stunt Double- committed a murder.

Somehow, he's NOT being held by the Cops and just keeps threatening her with zero reprisal.

The titular Substitute- not to be confused with the Substitute Films, of course- shows up, beats up students and is vague about his past.

He also seems to be an early adapter of the 'Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions' Trope.

He protects her- while her boyfriend tries to do the same- and she tries to get information out of him.

He eventually escalates after she's threatened by a different goon, so he lights him on fire and...yep.

He seems to fall for her, so he's a bit taken aback when she doesn't break up with her boyfriend (Nick Cassavetes).

So, you remember how the School is full of violent (usually 30-year-olds) sociopaths?
Well, they take them paintballing...which is a great idea!

Our Lead sets a bunch of deadly traps and kills many, many students.
You'll never guess what he does in regard to the next explosion.

Throughout the Film we've seen a guy tracking the one surviving Battle Droid (aka Robot Teacher) and all signs point to our Lead.

Well, shock twist- he's not a Robot.
He's the son of the evil Scientist who went crazy and put on super-impervious body armor...and just forgot that he did this...I guess...
Now he 'is a robot.'

In the Finale, he 'is a dead guy.'
The End.

It is...not what was promised and not what people were hoping for.

Credit where credit is due, I suppose.  The Twist is interesting, but it definitely undoes the entire appeal of the Film.  It would be like if they did the actual Story of Psycho II for the Film.

So, what is this Film without a killer robot or two?

Ironically, it is a darker version of The Substitute- which would come out 2 years later and spawn 3 Sequels.

You don't get a killer robot, but you get obviously adult Students being killed by a crazy human.  Who's the good guy here?

The appeal was sadly taken out of this one, making it a pretty standard Action Film with an Unreliable Narrator at the helm.  It was also supposed to be set in the futuristic year of 2001.

Thankfully, there's a French Poster for that...

A good example of how you can be 'too creative' with a low-budget Action Film.  The actual product is fine...I guess, but the twist nullifies all of the appeal in retrospect.