edwagreen The premise of this Substitute film is most ridiculous. It seems that the commander of a southern military school speaks in a modulated voice, but is the definition of a racist. With some of the students, they plot mayhem.As always, Treat Williams is sent in to infiltrate the bad guys and finish them off.As the history teacher, Williams has little to offer in the classroom. This is obvious because of his real mission. There is a love interest, a lady physician, but amazingly she is not all that she supposedly is.The ending is so cliché where the students turn against the racist.This series has shown better writing material.

Frank Markland Treat Willaims returns as Karl Thomasson who once again this time teaches at a military academy where white supremacists are ruling with an iron fist (Led by Patrick Kilpatrick) here Williams uses his marine issue training to take on kids who also have the necessary hand to hand goods to give him a run for the money. Also there is Bill Nunn and Angie Everhart who provide our hero with the goods necessary (That is sex in Everhart's case) to squash their movement right here, right now. I just noticed that this entry was directed by the guy who gave us Best Of The Best and it's even dumber sequel. I was going to compare this to Best Of The Best 3 which is among the most offensive movies ever made but in doing so the fact remains that Radler isn't guilty of making such lousiness. The Substitute 4 is actually not too bad in it's B.movie type of way, the movie has tons of violence and Treat Williams holds his own surprisingly well and the racism angle never feels offensive since we aren't treated to a pretentious attitude regarding it. Therefore the movie is watchable and works in satisfying the type of person who rents movies that bypass theaters. In this regard the movie works and it has some quite exciting action in the process. The only problem is that, well it also inherits the problems of being a B.movie and therefore it is predictable, unsurprising and silly. In other words your perfect guilty pleasure.* * out of 4-(Fair)

the_last_shadow_2000 I dont get it. We have a very good movie, with a good sequel, a fair second sequel but Substitute 4: Failure Is Not An Option is just plain stupid. The only thing good in this movie is Treat Williams because he is an awesome actor and knows his role very well. Basically this storyline is just like any other action movie, white suprimicists taking over a military base or whatever and the hero comes in to whipe the whole mess free. Like I said, Treat Williams is the only thing in this movie that actually makes this movie worth watching. Well I guess I give this movie some credit since how the acting isn't so bad... five out of ten stars.

Doc_Who In the fourth "The Substitute" movie we find Treat Williams going undercover at miltary school for a old friend worried about his son. The story was OK, the action scene totally cheesy and the dialogue pathetic. This movie also stars Angie Everhart as love interest for Treat Williams. Too bad she could'nt say this movie for her few scenes.Also there are really bad signs saying stuff like "Another minority owned installation" and others. Like they would do that in reality? The movie is rated R for swearing, violence and some partial nudity. I hope if they make a fifth movie, it is better than this installment of the series. I often wonder who plays role of the Substitute better: Treat Williams or Tom Berenger? I wish Berenger keep the role as he was real at least. If you really want to see this movie , rent it first before you buy it!