The Underdoggs
The Underdoggs
The last time I saw a barely acceptable yet hilarious film was in 2019 when I watched Good Boys. Or perhaps the bewildering aspect of kids who have barely entered puberty swearing makes me feel that way. I did not believe it until I saw it. The Underdoggs is perhaps the prototypical choice for the article I would most eagerly contribute to if such an article was in existence: a page called “List of films that most frequently use the word fuck.” I have an inclination that if someone towed the line, The Underdoggs would rank among the top 20, if not the top 30.
In the end, who really cares if they’re funny or not? Most importantly, The Underdoggs is more than what its concept painted on a cocktail napkin suggests. The star of the show is America’s most cherished pothead Snoop Dogg as Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings, once an NFL wide receiver who had not been in a good spot for quite some time, even more so with regard to his outrageous behavior that would’ve made Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham Jr. appear like prudes. Jaycen, a player regarded as one of the best to have ever played, suffers a decline following a car accident that ends up going viral forcing him to complete community service in the California city of Long Beach.
With the assistance of his lazy slacker friend Kareem (Mike Epps), Jaycen discovers a perfect method to reinvigorate his image. He will be the coach of a group of middle-schooler football players. Initially, Jaycen is more interested in taking selfies with the kids for the social media clout and chatting up his high school crush Cherise (Tika Sumpter) who happens to be the mother of one of the players.
But when his most potent foe (comedian Andrew Schulz) appears in the picture as the head coach for the opponent team, Jaycen is left with little to join this battle with no serious motives. He invests in thousands worth of gear and clothes labeling the team as the “Underdoggs.”
Oh goodness me, I just knew that this was going to be another tedious sit through like the Snoop/Wiz Khalifa-comedy Mac & Devin Go to High School. But The Underdoggs is so much more than just a barrage of weed jokes. The only thing I ever wanted from The Underdogs was to see its cast and faces and, for the most part, the film delivers on that image. Andrew Schulz, a comically insane personality who grew up on TikTok mostly, is able to pull off a fun role as both a smack talking sports podcaster by day and a coach at night.
Kal Penn is in the picture as Jaycen’s manager who does not mind much about his lame-client until the client’s status gets a bit better. The comic actor Mike Epps gets one memorable laugh in the third act when he impersonates an interim coach to the team and quotes a rather awful (albeit funny) version of the bible and George Lopez is Jaycen’s coach in high school. And then you have a long list of cameos but not limited to, Terry Bradshaw, Tony Gonzalez, all the way down to Michael Strahan who all are given a role to speak/make an action.
As the group still considers the football team more of a unit than a separate entity, the highest screen time goes to Tre (Jonigan Booth). A muscular new quarterback with limited success as a dual-threat quarterback, Tre never shies away from boasting just like Jaycen did at a similar age. As Jaycen begins to take his position among the boys seriously, he passes the young boy the necessary butt hurt when the young boy starts telling himself that his teammates (and the coach) are all failures.
All these efforts don’t add up to high art, however. It’s all rather routine and the whole project is, as for most pictures of this kind, plagued with an artificial streaming sheen. What comes as a surprise is the comic relief that is quite developed although one would think it to be given a dirty name the way it is presented, ‘with a million F-words’; however, it is at least more cheerful and agile because of the actors.
Snoop is cringe-inducing but you can see how his more ostentatious qualities turn Jaycen Jennings into a seedy, grating figure who nevertheless commands attention. This is also the first Snoop project in ages that’s not been made with a strong sense of weed being the lead writer, director and producer. Instead, it was helmed by Charles Stone III who can’t be faulted for anything other than coming up with a one-liner pitch for a motion picture (Uncle Drew).
Watch free movies like on Fmovies
- Genre: Comedy, Sport
- Country: United States
- Director: Charles Stone III
- Cast: Snoop Dogg, Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps
