The last time doritos were this vulgar on screen was 2019’s Good Boys, and there’s nothing that can convince me otherwise. Alternatively, that may be the case because the last time I saw small children cursing was the shock factor. For now, The Underdoggs might just ease the pain of me having to explain to my parents why I’m still single and addicted to this Twitter troll Martin Scorsese. Or as I would like to call myself Snoop Dogg, flyers and all the 1 NFL player entertainer who nearly single handedly made football great during the pandemic. Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings does everything a wannabe influencer in the NFL shouldn’t do, including veering off course in gorgeous Lamborghinis which he promptly crashes into several walls to complete the look. Quite the polar opposite of choir boys being Antonio Brown and OhDell Beckham Jr, that’s for sure.
However, there is no doubt that professionalism and diva behavior are second nature for Jaycen in the film. Everything above is not going to change the fact that The Underdoggs is real fun and surprisingly more enjoyable than the ridiculous premise implies.
Joining by his down and out friend Kareem (Mike Epps), Jaycen comes up with a brilliant way to boost his brand image. He will be mentoring a team of middle-schooler football players. First, Jaycen seems more interested in getting pictures with the kids and uploading them on social media to get attention and flirting with Cherise (Tika Sumpter) who is the mother of one player. However when one of the heaviest critics of Jaycen, Andrew Schulz shows up, this time as the coach of the competing team, Jaycen has almost no choice but to take this booth seriously. He spends thousands of dollars in purchasing equipment and uniforms and christening the team the “Underdoggs”.
How I hoped it was not going to be another disappointing unbearable sit comedy like Mac & Devin Go to High School which stars Snoop and Wiz Khalifa. But The Underdoggs turns out to be more than just a continuous stream about the drug. It may strictly adhere to the archetypal underdog(g) sports movie formula but it is at least mildy amusing thanks to something that somewhat makes the movie tolerable which is a rotunda of actors that are recognizable. A wildly hilarious comic is Andrew Schulz, one who gained prominence on the internet app Tiktok, pretty much plays two roles. By day, terrible smack talking sport pod casting gets Schulz busy, and by night, coach.
Kal Penn is Jaycen’s agent who says that he does not care about his hack client until that client’s image begins to salvage. Mike Epps has one hearty laugh in this film, a laugh that turns up when he is interim coach and delivers an absurd (very funny) quotation from the bible that he seems to have modified beyond comprehension, and George Lopez is seen playing the role of Jaycen`s coach in high school. After that you get a long list of cameos, Tony Gonzalez, Terry Bradshaw and Michael Strahan among others, and every one of them has got something to say/do.
Although the football team is formations of more concepts than distinct personalities, it is Tre (Jonigan Booth) who gets the most screen time. Little in stature, Tre is a quarterback with limited dual-threat skills and with the competitive spirit of a young Lamar Jackson. Tre has the same confidence that Jaycen did when he was of Tre’s age. As Jaycen begins to accept the fact that he is the leader of men, subtlety begins to come in him from Jaycen who starts thinking that everyone on the team (and the coach) is a bunch of losers.
Forget what I wrote about the hemisphere above being great art. Everything is very standard, and the project has the same nice sheen that most of the films of this type seem. The revelation is the fairly steady humor, that though could be said to be heavily lifted from myriad swears, are at least light and quick on the feet thanks to the actors. Snoop is just so charismatic, but you sense that Jaycen Jennings’ more arrogant traits morph him into a loathsome but entertaining rogue. This is also the first Snoop project in a while in which you doubt that weed was the writer, director and producer of everything. Rather, it was Charles Stone III in the director’s chair who understands nothing except how to start the one-sentence pitch of the film Uncle Drew.
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