“The Underdoggs” was about as predictable as “The Mighty Ducks” or “Air Bud,” except without a unique twist — another generic sports film teetering between satire and genuineness.
Written by Danny Segal and Isaac Schamis, the film was inspired by Snoop Dogg’s nonprofit youth football league, which supports inner-city kids across southern California getting involved in football. The idea was there for a cute family film, but we instead got a poorly-executed, R-rated sports movie targeted towards the wrong audience. It was just like every other generic sports film, only making me occasionally laugh –– and not because of the galore of weed jokes.
Jacyen Jennings (Snoop Dogg) was a high school football prodigy and NFL receiver before he let his temper hinder his fame. After learning that he is now “unpopular,” he crashes his car in a fit of road rage. Sentenced to community service in his old neighborhood after the crash, Jennings learns that the local youth football team needs a new coach. Seizing the opportunity, he coaches the team to rebrand himself and learns what being a good coach, and person, is all about.
Although the film was endearing, it was mediocre. It doesn’t add anything to the sports genre, but it knows this and makes it abundantly clear from the start that it’s okay with this. I mean, the film opens up with a disclaimer about how children will be swearing and to just relax and enjoy the movie. It wants you to turn off your brain, which, for this film, was definitely needed.
The jokes tended to be repetitive and boring, and the kids’ swearing got old pretty quickly. If they’d taken out all of the f-bombs, they could have had a solid PG-13 movie. It started to feel like they were just shoving the “kids swear too” punchline for the 1 hour and 37 minutes of its runtime, though the solid chemistry and comedic timing of the kids on the team helped ground the film a bit.
Although the film is a good time, it misses its goal and leaves the audience wishing they were watching a real football game instead.
