Why so much hype?

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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 saw Class of 1999 when I was a kid. Thought it was the bee's knees. Another kid in 7th grade said I should look at the sequel. Here I am, 17 years later watching this thing and wondering, whaaaaa???? All the mini plots had me a little confused and towards the end I didn't know who was who. The director could put anyone in there and I wouldn't know the difference.I watched it all the way through and in the last scene I was hoping for a killer robot teacher to rip the girl in half or at least come through my wall and rip me in half. Either way, there no killer robots. I was tricked and I feel violated.

Plot Synopsis: California, 2001. John Bolen is a substitute teacher who travels from school to school, secretly killing troublesome students. He heads to Monroeville High School, where he helps a female teacher who is being pressured into not testifying by a student who she saw murder someone in cold blood. Bolen then proceeds to murder the student's friends, while being pursued by a federal agent who believes that Bolen is the last of the A77 military battle androids."Class of 1999 II: The Substitute" is the sequel to "Class of 1999", which in turn is the sequel to "Class of 1984". Class of '84 was an unofficial remake of the '50s classic "Blackboard Jungle". The film was a violent tale about a teacher who took on the gangs that threatened him & his family. Class of '99 switched sides & became an over-the-top punk action film. The Substitute reverts back to the teachers' side. The script is nothing special but recycles future clichés, with prison-like school uniforms & barcoded car licence plates. For the acting, Sasha Mitchell plays the lead role with a wooden determination, which is appropriate for the role. The action scenes are well executed, although the climax is ham-strung by a cop-out of an ending.

Class of 1999 II: The Substitute starts like any other ordinary morning at at an everyday American high-school except that they have a new substitute teacher named John Bolen (Sasha Mitchell) who is in fact a reprogrammed military robot. A reprogrammed military robot who likes to kill off the unruly students & when local school thug Sanders (Gregory West) & his scumbag gang starts to hassle his fellow teacher Jenna McKensie (Caitlin Dulany) he takes a very dim view of it...Directed by Spiro Razatos I thought Class of 1999: The Substitute was an OK time waster, I thought this sequel to the original Class of 1999 (1990) was going to be awful & in that respect it didn't disappoint & I suppose it was but not quite a bad as I thought it was going to be. The script by Mark Sevi moves along at a fair pace although after the opening 20 or so minutes it leaves the classroom & descends into a drama as a teacher is harassed because she is going to testify against a student & this is what the bulk of the film consists of rather than the classroom action & violence of the original before it ends with a paint-ball contest gone wrong, in fact I can only remember one scene set in a classroom during the whole film. The character's & narrative could have been better too, for instance early on in the film Bolen kills the schools principal & this is never mentioned again which seemed odd considering he was the principal & therefore a pretty important person & the kid that he recognises & kills for reasons we never discover. There is also a distinct lack of exploitative elements which don't help, overall it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but it's still pretty bad all the same.Director Spiro does OK, there's some low budget but reasonable action scenes but I'd liked to have had some gore as there isn't any as it stands at the moment. There are a few OK one-liners as Bolen dispatches his victims.Technically Class of 1999: The Substitute is alright, there are one or two nice shots but nothing outstanding. The acting isn't up to much I'm afraid.Class of 1999: The Substitute isn't a particularly great film, in fact if I was pushed I'd say it was a pretty crap one but it did keep me watching until the end & at least it wasn't as bad as I had been expecting.