The Underdoggs – A Tonally Confused Sports Comedy (Early Review)

The Underdoggs follows washed-up ex-professional football star Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings (Dogg) who hits rock bottom after a legal incident. When Jaycen is sentenced to community service by coaching an unlikely pee-wee football team in Long Beach, California called the Underdoggs, he sees it as an opportunity to rebuild his public image and turn his life around. As he works to transform his foul-mouth team into top-notch champions, he reconnects with his past including old flame Cherise (Sumpter), and some of his ex-teammates including Kareem (Epps). Ultimately, the film is pretty much exactly what one would expect it to be, which is both a positive and a negative depending on one’s sense of humour and taste, and what exactly one goes into a film like this anticipating.

At the end of the day, it is a perfectly harmless sports comedy that’s likely going to please general audiences. It’s nice to see Snoop Dogg back on screen and in a leading role again. He is always amusing to watch, and this is no exception, as he’s easily the best part about the film and makes it far more entertaining and watchable than it would be had he not been cast. He has good chemistry with the rest of the cast namely Epps, Sumpter and especially George Lopez who steals the show in his few scenes as Coach Fels. Meanwhile, the young actors in the cast hold their own against its more veteran members. While the message and themes it’s tackling aren’t saying anything remotely new, it undeniably has an uplifting message, and its heart is clearly in the right place.

However, the films biggest issue of the film is its tone and who exactly it was made for which remains a mystery even after seeing the film. It has the plot, humour, structure, predictability, and characters of a family comedy like The Game Plan or The Mighty Ducks, yet at the end of the day it is an R-rated comedy that families won’t get to watch together because of its mature content. The film feels like one made and aimed at families or children that somehow got stuck with an R-rated script that doesn’t fit the tone of everything else going on. It can become quite jarring when a scene that feels pulled right out of a Disney channel original movie devolves into kids screaming profanities and/or crude remarks. It’s an odd creative decision that doesn’t work whatsoever and leads to a major identity crisis by the end.

Even putting that aside, the film isn’t that remarkable of a sports comedy and is instantly forgettable from the moment the credits begin to roll. The football sequences are okay enough to watch but they aren’t filmed in a special or standout way and lack excitement because of how predictable they are. Snoop and the kids have some funny lines that will likely get some chuckles out of audiences, but for the most part, the humour is extremely lazy and juvenile which would be more forgiving if it was a PG rated family comedy and not an R-rated one. The script is ultimately this film’s biggest issue, and is one that strands a lot of funny people with some questionable dialogue and stale humor.

In the end, The Underdoggs is breezy enough and gives Snoop Dogg an all too rare leading role. However, outside of that, it is hardly anything to write home about. While it isn’t the worst thing in the world and big fans of Snoop Dogg will probably enjoy this latest offering fine enough, it should have been aimed more at families rather than adults.

still courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/