Class of 1999 II: The Substitute (1994) – Hot For Teacher

Matty hits the books with stunt wiz Spiro Razatos’ cheap but charismatic sequel.

Though today best known as one of the masters behind the meticulously orchestrated mayhem in the Fast and the Furious (2001) sequels (Fast Five (2011), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), F9: The Fast Saga (2021), and Fast X (2023)), the ‘80s and ‘90s found stunt genius Spiro Razatos bolstering the carnage in some of the finest genre, B and DTV joints of their decades, including but not limited to: Darkman (1990), The Ambulance (1990), a bunch of PM Entertainment standouts, and more William Lustig pics than you can shake a stick at (Hit List (1989), Relentless (1989), Uncle Sam (1996), the Maniac Cop trilogy). Razatos’ efforts on Hit List and Relentless secured him a spot on CineTel’s books, and it was through Paul Hertzberg and Lisa Hansen’s shingle that he was tasked with his sole pair of feature-length directorial assignments. Razatos’ debut was Fast Getaway (1991); an enjoyable, proto-Fast and the Furious action-comedy starring Corey Haim and Cynthia Rothrock. His second – and, to date, last – flick was CLASS OF 1999 II: THE SUBSTITUTE [1].

Despite Fast Getaway being the conventionally better movie, Class of 1999 II is superior in terms of interest, technique and form. As expected, given Razatos’ day job, the spectacle is often magnificent. There’s a fabulous, wince-inducing tumble down a tiled staircase early doors, during a flurry of martial arts madness, and an ace full body burn is capped by a mesmeric beauty shot of the film’s tragic anti-hero, John Bolen (Sasha Mitchell). Said shot is wholly indicative of Class of 1999 II’s compelling visual style. Slick yet never show-y, Razatos aims for impactful compositions and succeeds, and his bold and confident aesthetic is in harmony with the idiosyncrasies of Mark Sevi’s snappy screenplay.

Among the CineTel regular’s many sequels, Class of 1999 II – which, a la Razatos, stands as Sevi’s second produced work – contains all the scribe’s tics. There’s grit and gristle; and while exposition heavy, the whole thing treads a delicate line between the absurd and the poignant. Beginning as a fairly straight follow-up to Mark L. Lester’s seminal robo-schlocker Class of 1999 (1990), the smaller-scaled Class of 1999 II ultimately takes a different path. It touches on themes of love, acceptance and PTSD, and twists into a strange, three-pronged psychodrama rounded out by the inclusion of Nick Cassavetes and Caitlin Dulany’s characters. The dots connect – but, beyond mentioning the flashback footage (which, alas, represents the only robot FX utilised in the film), discussing how, exactly, would spoil the plot’s surprises. However, for the curious, here’s a clue: Mitchell’s wooden-seeming performance as the eponymous educator makes sense by the big – if not entirely seamless – reveal.

Clearly a lot lower budgeted than its barnstorming predecessor (in addition to the above-noted lack of FX, the film’s suspiciously long-in-the-tooth ‘teenage’ cast members almost stretch credibility to breaking point), Class of 1999 II came about after CineTel purchased Class of 1999’s rights from original owner, Vestron, at the 1993 American Film Market. As Vestron were tumbling towards rack and ruin, Hertzberg and Hansen also bagged the rights to the company’s Ghoulies (1985) and Dream a Little Dream (1989) in the same deal. The subsequent productions, Ghoulies IV (1994) and Dream a Little Dream 2 (1995), were both written by Sevi, and, like Class of 1999 II, exhibit a similar frugality compared to their progenitors.

Lensed in mid-1993, Class of 1999 II landed on tape in the U.S. via Vidmark in March ‘94, and in the U.K. via – fittingly – Vestron’s successor, First Independent, seven months later, in October.

USA ● 1994 ● Sci-Fi, Action, Thriller ● 87mins

Sasha Mitchell, Nick Cassavetes, Caitlin Dulany ● Dir. Spiro Razatos ● Wri. Mark Sevi