The Big Picture

The Underdoggs is a forgettable comedy lacking in originality and comedic depth. The film relies heavily on the novelty of Snoop Dogg acting, but his performance does not offer much range or depth. The movie follows a predictable plot done countless times before, ultimately feeling like it brings little to the field that is new or clever.

After a week of seeing bold and vibrant visions from exciting new filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival, watching something like The Underdoggs is like experiencing cinematic whiplash. While a little unfair to expect a broad comedy to even come close to comparing to more thoughtfully made works, even cutting this forgettable straight to streaming movie all the slack in the world isn’t enough to make up for what is: a generally slapdash work reliant on the novelty of seeing Snoop Dogg in one of his few leading roles. It soon becomes clear that we don’t see much of him in such parts for good reason.

The Underdoggs Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings (Snoop Dogg) is a washed-up ex-professional football star who has hit rock bottom. When Jaycen is sentenced to community service coaching the Underdoggs, an unruly pee-wee football team in his hometown of Long Beach, California, he sees it as an opportunity to rebuild his public image and turn his life around. As Jaycen works to transform the foul-mouthed Underdoggs into top-notch champions, he reconnects with his past, including an old flame and few of his ex-teammates and rediscovers his love of the game. Release Date January 26, 2024 Director Charles Stone III Main Genre Comedy Writers Isaac Schamis , Danny Segal , Constance Schwartz-Morini , snoop dogg Where to watch amazon prime video Studio(s) Khalabo Ink Society , Death Row Pictures Distributor(s) Amazon MGM Studios

What Is ‘The Underdoggs’ About?
Centering on the washed-up former football star Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings (Dogg) who mostly spends his days cussing out his critics, trying to start a podcast, and generally being awful to everyone around him, he ends up getting in a highly destructive CGI car accident for which he is blamed. Wouldn’t you know it though, instead of serving prison time, he is sentenced to community service coaching a scrappy yet misunderstood young football team. It takes a minute to get there as he’s mostly doing other things first like picking up poop which we are reminded of several times. Of course, he eventually wanders over to this stock plot that has been done what feels like a thousand times before, and just about everything plays out as you’d expect there. Before you can criticize it as being a derivative The Mighty Ducks rip-off, the characters themselves say this for you. So it’s all water under the bridge, right? Wrong. This attempt at calling attention to its clichés is cloying rather than clever. One could overlook this if the film was more cheeky, leaning into its absurdity by playing on our expectations, but it mostly just feels like ass-covering than it does absurd fun.

This is not to say that Snoop Dogg can’t deliver the many vulgarities with the appropriate verve, but this gets old real fast when that is largely all he does. In one early scene, he angrily yells at his manager, played by Kal Penn, by saying that he is a “Harold & Kumar looking motherf****er” (get it?) before making a similar version of this line seconds later without any sort of actual joke attached. The first one is at least slightly silly, but even this is lost when we keep hearing the same lines delivered with the same cadence. The biggest problem with this, in addition to the rapper not having much range as a comedic performer, is that we just don’t get to know the kids other than they also just swear a bunch. Much like the recent Next Goal Wins, we get basic details here and there, though not much else about who any of these people are. What worked in other sports movies, again like Mighty Ducks, is that all the kids on the team at least had their individual quirks. This allowed them to have their own moments of humor and also bounce off each other. The funniest moment in the film comes in one brief scene where the children begin drinking alcohol, as it at least feels a little more unhinged, but the rest of it plays it all rather safe. Even some recurring Game of Thrones references feel more dated than anything else in the film. That is, until we arrive at a heartfelt emotional throughline, which, much like everything else in the movie, is a retread of other sports movies.

‘The Underdoggs’ Is a Losing Comedy in Futile Search of a Win
Image via Prime Video

Going through all the motions, this team of football players starts winning and bonding as a group just as their coach begins to learn a lesson about the importance of teamwork. Surprise surprise, it turns out that there is a late conflict where Jaycen may have a chance to leave behind this young team. This comes complete with Penn shouting “America loves poor kids” to hammer home how he used this “feel good story” for his own advancement. This isn’t a spoiler as it is yet another recycling of a familiar emotional beat from these types of sports comedy movies. Snoop is then called on to deliver a more serious outburst that he isn’t up to the task to convincingly do, after which he is told that Emilio Estevez would be disappointed in him so that the movie can get one more Mighty Ducks reference in. Again, putting aside the fact that this is less of a knowing wink as much as it is just a way to paper over it lifting the structure of sports stories of yesteryear, this joke was also played out the first time they made it. Whatever mileage it gets out of poking fun at itself is held back by how repetitive it all is.

It is the type of movie that any review of it can itself start to feel like it is making the same criticisms or, as can often be the case once these dry up, trying to find ways to go after it for its lack of originality. The Underdoggs is not bad enough to warrant some sort of scorching takedown, but that doesn’t mean it is any good either. Where other sports comedies were then imitated, this one is destined to be forgotten. By the time it arrives at the big climactic game, there is just nothing left in the tank. There is a reasonably funny musical moment where the team gets amped up for one final comeback, but it isn’t enough to make up for the tiresome way everything else plays out. It certainly is a throwback, but it not only stops far short of being a comedy touchdown, it barely feels like it brings anything new to the field.

The Underdoggs REVIEW’The Underdoggs’ is a derivative sports comedy where the novelty of seeing Snoop Dogg act wears out quickly. ProsThere are a couple of scattered scenes, including a musical one near the end, that create reasonably funny moments. ConsThe film is derivative of countless other sports comedies that it unsuccessfully tries to play off. A sense of repetitiveness takes way from any comedic mileage it gets out of poking fun at itself. The film is not unique enough to be a memorable comedy of its own that others will imitate.

The Underdoggs is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S. starting January 26.

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