The Underdoggs

by Mike McGranaghan

Started by the famous rapper, the Snoop Dogg Football League provides inner-city children with the chance to play the sport. According to the official website, the program stresses “the values of teamwork, good sportsmanship, discipline, and self-respect.” That’s certainly a noble, worthy cause. The same cannot be said for The Underdoggs, a brain-dead sports comedy inspired by the league. This is the cinematic equivalent of the fake novel Jeffrey Wright’s character pens in American Fiction.

The plot is a complete rip-off of The Mighty Ducks and a few other, similar pictures. Former football star Jaysen Jennings (Snoop) is arrested. In lieu of jail time, the judge allows him to perform community service, which entails coaching a pee-wee football team of kids from Long Beach, California. He doesn’t take it seriously at first, but the determination of the young players wins him over. The film concludes with an obligatory championship game, conveniently scheduled the exact same day that Jaysen gets a job offer that could resuscitate his career.

As a Snoop Dogg project, The Underdoggs has a predictable excess of marijuana jokes. Jaysen tokes up constantly, and the children imitate his touchdown dance – pretending to smoke a joint from each hand while shuffling his feet. The problem with most weed comedies is they think the act of smoking pot is hilarious in and of itself, so making constant reference to it is sufficient to earn laughs. Faulty logic of that sort plagues this film from beginning to end.

When it’s not indulging in marijuana humor, The Underdoggs trots out lame sexual humor. This is the kind of movie that thinks it’s uproarious to give a child character the nickname “Titties.” The kids are even taught to hold a football as though caressing a woman’s breast. Sure, that might be amusing if you’re an 11-year-old. The movie is rated R, however, so probably not many 11-year-olds will be watching it.

Everything in the story is a screenwriting cliché, from the ultimate showdown with the snooty rival team to the requisite love interest for Jaysen. She’s Cherise (Tika Sumpter), a generic character with little function aside from being here for him to try to hook up with. And what would a sports comedy be without a wacky assistant? That role is fulfilled by Mike Epps, who plays Kareem, a failed criminal with zero understanding of the sport he’s helping to coach.

The Underdoggs is depressing to watch because it could have been an inspiring tale of inner-city kids finding joy in an athletic opportunity. Instead, it’s a sloppy compendium of urban cliches about smoking weed, getting laid, and constantly using the word “motherf*cker.” Honestly, the movie must set a record in that last regard. I don’t think there’s a single scene where some variation of it isn’t used. Even Samuel L. Jackson would tell them to tone the language down.

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