The Underdoggs, 2024.
Directed by Charles Stone III.
Starring Snoop Dogg, Mike Epps, Tika Sumpter, Andrew Schulz, George Lopez, Jonigan Booth, Kylah Davila, Caleb Dixon, Alexander Michael Gordon, Shamori Washington, Adan James Carrillo, Elias Ferguson, Schelle Purcell, Andrew Schulz, Kal Penn, and Kandi Burruss.
SYNOPSIS:
Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings is a washed-up ex-professional football star who has hit rock bottom. When Jaycen is sentenced to community service coaching an unruly pee-wee football team, he sees it as an opportunity to turn his life around.
In a turn of events that should surprise no one, injecting Snoop Dogg into the formulaic, generic, clichéd sports story of a burnout legendary celebrity athlete forced into community service coaching an unbelievably bad youth team doesn’t elevate that subgenre to anything fresh and fun.
Directed by Charles Stone III (a filmmaker with some experience in the sports comedy world with movies such as the Bernie Mac-led baseball flick Mr. 3000), in The Underdoggs, Snoop Dogg (the two “g”s in the film’s title does receive a laughably forced explanation) plays former star NFL wide receiver Jaycen Jennings (a fictional player, just to be clear, although I doubt there will be any confusion 30 seconds into the movie), a gifted athlete who continued to find new ways to become problematic throughout the course of his career, landing him several trades and a poor reputation following his eventual retirement.
However, there isn’t much of a character here, as screenwriters Isaac Schamis and Danny Segal (working from a pitch by Snoop Dogg and Constance Schwartz-Morini) have drawn up Jaycen Jennings as a retired football player version of the foulmouthed, marijuana-loving rapper the common person is familiar with. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that on paper since The Underdoggs is ultimately a simple comedy trying to shine a light on the actual youth football league Snoop Dogg has started and overseen for almost 20 years now (the ending credits make sure to let us know that some of these players have gone on to play in the NFL.)
Jaycen Jennings is desperate for a spot back in the NFL, angling for a broadcast analyst position, but absurdly out of touch with reality when it considers his bad behavior. This does make for a few great early laughs, such as him remarking, “Fuck LeBron James and fuck kids,” when his agent suggests doing something similar to get back into the good graces of the league. At a few points, the filmmakers even seem self-aware that most movies in this subgenre have always been about selfish leads looking to revitalize their own careers or get back with an ex-lover (both subplots are at play here), but the script never does anything with that beyond pointing it out and hoping viewers chuckle.
It’s not long before Jaycen’s boisterous personality and reckless abandonment get him into a nasty car accident where a judge debates between giving him five years of prison time or 300 hours of community service in his hometown. This means Jaycen reunites with a directionless criminal friend (Mike Epps) who begs to be the assistant coach, his high school coach with sage wisdom (George Lopez), and his former girlfriend (Tika Sumpter) who is now the mother of the only player with potential on this youth team. Naturally, Jaycen only becomes motivated to turn them into winners for potential personal gains.
None of the comedy here is particularly funny, often relying on cursing from adults and children alike, or lazy scenarios such as the youth getting into a cooler of alcohol while the irresponsible assistant coach falls asleep. There are cringe, horny moments, such as Jaycen having a forced moment recognizing that the selfish and only good player on the team resembles himself. Then there is an abundance of bizarre Game of Thrones jokes that will leave one questioning how long this script was sitting on a shelf somewhere before someone actually got the project off the ground.
The only bits that are somewhat clever and funny by the nicknames Jaycen bestows upon the players, which typically come from their personality and their sometimes wildly inappropriate. It’s also necessary to mention that The Underdoggs is also actually much more watchable and engaging whenever Snoop Dogg drops his personality to play a character, even one as clichéd as this, to connect with the kids in different ways and find humor there.
Much like when Snoop Dogg founded his youth football program, this movie has outdated jokes and lame story beats stuck from 2005. It aims to coast by on Snoop Dogg being Snoop Dogg, which gets tiring really fast in a generic sports movie like this.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
