Search

One Eight Seven

1997, Movie, R, 116 mins

One Eight Seven: Review

ONE EIGHT SEVEN | 187 | 187
starstarstarstar
For every treacly DANGEROUS MINDS, which turns a true story into a nostalgic valentine to the days when bad kids were merely delinquent and a dedicated teacher was more than the equal of inner-city punks, there's a sleazy SUBSTITUTE, which suggests that the answer to troublesome students is to blast their disrespectful, gun-toting asses to kingdom come. The surprise is finding the take-no-prisoners, exploitation-movie message in such a high-toned package, right down to the closing credit that assures us that this movie was written by a real-life teacher. Trevor Garfield (Samuel L. Jackson) has already had one near-fatal encounter with a sociopathic student in Brooklyn. Recovered from his physical wounds, he moves to L.A. and finds himself up against an equally hostile and violent student body; having run as far as he can go, Garfield decides to stand up to the gangbangers. One-eight-seven, by the way, is California police code for homicide. Though positioned as a glum expose of America's violent schools (a cause for hand-wringing at least as far back as 1955's THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE), the story is overwhelmed by the throbbing score, music-video aesthetic (New York scenes are shot in cold blues and grays, while the L.A. sequences are a hazy, burnt-out yellow) and the exotic, colorful psychos who rule Garfield's classroom: It's a New York Times editorial by way of CLASS OF 1984. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
Advertisement

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. Dancing with the Stars
  2. The Game
  3. NCIS
  4. American Idol
  5. Wife Swap
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Oprah Winfrey
  2. Carrie Prejean
  3. Mike Tyson
  4. Carrie Underwood
  5. Lou Dobbs
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. A Christmas Carol
  2. This Is It
  3. Men Who Stare At Goats
  4. The Fourth Kind
  5. Paranormal Activity
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. South Park
  2. Saturday Night Live
  3. NCIS
  4. V
  5. Desperate Housewives
more top videos