Watch Class of 1999 II: The Substitute For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

In the future of 1999, punks rule the hallways and classrooms of our nation's schools. Sure, they may look like they're between 35 and 40 years old, but they still enjoy spray-painting the walls and causing general mayhem. But not if John Bolen (Mitchell) has anything to say about it. Bolen is a stone-faced cybernetic organism that believes just about everything in the world "leads to anarchy". So he stops problems at their source by violently killing anyone he believes to be a no-goodnik. When a young, pretty, and somewhat naive teacher, Jenna McKensie (Dulany) wants to testify in a trial because she witnessed a murder perpetrated by evil student in his mid 30's Sanders (West), school authorities do nothing, local cops advise against it, and her boyfriend Emmett (Cassavetes) is relatively ineffectual. It's a good thing John Bolen is here to bring corporal punishment back to the school system! For some unknown reason, Jenna actually takes a shine to the possibly misunderstood killer robot. But when Bolen flips out and can no longer "maintain order", will he mistakenly turn on Jenna? Find out today! Why a second sequel to Class of 1984 (1982) - let's not forget about Class of 1999 (1990) - technically speaking, needed to exist, we don't exactly know - but there's plenty of fun to be had here. Because it was filmed in the 90's, it not only has some VR (because in the future students will learn using those big, bulky masks), but the final third of the film actually is a Paintball Gone Wrong, or PGW, slog. But therein lies one of the problems with the movie. It moves along at a nice clip for a little over the first half, but then slows way down towards the end. It's almost like a robot running out of fuel. It needed to have a giant lunch like John Bolen does in the movie. The movie is at is best when Bolen is going around killing punks, but can that sustain a whole 90 minute film? Sasha Mitchell is great as Bolen. Imagine a robotic Keanu Reeves. Which shouldn't be too tough. Mitchell as this Keanu-bot shines in his role, especially when he just stands there emotionlessly after walking away from an explosion. Most people would continue to walk. He just stands. That's just how emotionless he is. He really meets his match against the punks (even in the end credits, they're known as "punks"). They tend to wear jumpsuits, and have strange makeup and bizarre hair. Because it's the future, you see. Sometimes they even wear their jumpsuit with a leather vest. Now that's a fashion statement. But as we've seen before, Bolen has an all-black "revenge outfit" that he puts on when things get serious. Mitchell has some good lines and some very entertaining stone-faces that help the movie along. But once it gets to the PGW section, the movie as a whole seems to lose focus and go off the rails.The whole venture is classic 90's, from the VR to the PGW. The VHS seemed to be a video store mainstay back in the day. While some people may say this movie is nothing more than a "Substitute" for a better film, we say it brings back video store memories and isn't bad. And any movie that takes place in the future which is now the past gets extra points in our book.

I've gotta start by saying that I'm quite a fan of both 1984, and it's massively entertaining, sort of pseudo sequel 1999.originally watching this film when first arriving on VHS (as I said being a big fan of 1999, the mere sniff of a sequel was all it would take to sucker me in a second time) I was hugely disappointed, where were the androids? where was the dystopian vision of the school system gone crazy, where was Stacey Keach's fantastic haircut and scary as hell eyes? where were the effects, where was the gore?Upon a recent, beer soaked viewing of 1999 I thought why the hell not, lets wind up the old VHS player and give it another spin. And ya know what I'm glad I did.Whilst this is by no ways a great film, in fact it's not even a good 1999 sequel, it does have some interesting ideas (most of which are thrown out the window)It all looks very 90's in that crossworlds, warlock 2, kinda way and the point of the original is completely lost, but the idea of the substitute, fighting against positive emotions (e.g his unexpected and unwanted feelings towards Jenna) the fact that he's not even like a killer android, more just a literature spouting, psycho ex-seal suffering from a real bad case of green eyes, adds some sort of Frankenstein meets fatal attraction element.The acting is relatively mediocre, Sasha Mitchel is as emotionless and stiff as the character he's playing, as is pretty much everybody else and the direction is as simple and uninspiring as the soundtrack. The twist ending just adds to confuse matters I mean If he's not an android it still fails to explain how he manages to fire continuously for about five minutes without having to reload once, or how he can still throw some unruly, orange jump suited street punk student through a brick wall, I know these seals are tough, but really?As for the very final shots of Jenna getting ready to teach a new class, loaded up with Johns knife, gun, kevlar vest and a new mission statement, massively betray her character, turning the rule abiding, war game loving belief's of the android into an ideal, instead of a malfunction.Yet despite all of this I still quite enjoyed it, fun if you fancy a cheesy 90's, lowish budgeted sort of scfi action thriller, it deserves better than 3.8, not much better mind but fun all the same :)

This movie really does predict the future! It was made in 1994, and early in the movie there is a scene with the principle and he says something about president clinton being incited. Of course in 1999 he wasn't indicted, but he was impeached by the house! Wow! Conspiracy? Or just a really stupid movie? OK, the past 3 days I have watched "Saturn 3", "Shredder" and now "Class of 1999 II: The Substitute" and by far Class of 1999 II was the worse, compare all 3 movies, that is really saying something. This stupid piece of crap didn't even have gruesome deaths to keep it interesting. The attempt at a meaningful plot made it so unbearable. The 'gangs' in this movie wear the most ridiclous clothes, who is going to be in a gang and look like that? Not worth watching at all, not even to laugh at.

Class of 1999 is in my opinion a good film. This is one of those films where you like it or you don't .. Sasha Mitchell is very good as John Bolen. Although it is a low budget film, the story is very smooth running with some memorable moments. Sasha Mitchell who originally starred in Dallas, comes across nicely as the school teacher with a secret, inside he is in conflict between all the traits that he holds dear. This is in one of my favourite films. *****