THE UNDERDOGGS

Did you know Snoop Dogg smokes weed? 

He really does want you to know this, you know, and The Underdoggs will not waste a single opportunity to remind you.

Even in this story about a plucky young football team, fighting for the championship against all odds he cannot help himself, which ends up being one of the films biggest downfalls.

Because tonally The Underdoggs is all over the place. This is, at its core, a family sports comedy. Except, with a load of swearing and drugs references thrown in, because did you know Snoop Dogg smokes weed?

Therefore what you’re left with is a film that a lot of parents won’t want their children to see, but that is too boring and infantile for them to want to sit through themselves.

Apparently Snoop wanted a film that would appeal to children and adults alike, but has created something that will likely work for neither.

Here Snoop plays Jaycen "Two-J's" Jennings, a washed up retired footballer whose star fell rapidly during his time as a player, and whose increasing irrelevance in the world of sport, and the fact that those that do remember him despise him, is a constant source of frustration for him. He also smokes weed. Snoop is, as mentioned, keen for you to know that.

After getting into a car accident he is sentenced to community service in his old neighbourhood and falls into coaching The Mighty Ducks. 

(Alright, they’re not actually called The Mighty Ducks, but lets face it that’s probably due to some furious find and replacing on the script they’ve clearly pilfered)

Because this is pretty much just a Mighty Ducks rip off, and if you’ve seen The Mighty Ducks, or at least a couple of generic sports comedy-dramas, then you’ve pretty much seen The Underdoggs, because every single genre staple is present and correct. 

The kid who starts off rubbish but ends up great? Check. The coach in it for selfish reasons but through a series of events finds himself caring about the team? Check. The will they won’t they relationship between the coach and a parent? Check.

Everything you would expect to be here, is here. Except there’s some drugs references as well. Did I mention Snoop Dogg smokes a lot of weed? 

And the drugs references themselves are so unbelievably stale. For someone who smokes so much of it you’d think Snoop Dogg might have something to say about it. Some observation or opinion that might be at least somewhat amusing.

But no. They’re the same tired, schoolboy, hack jokes we’ve heard a thousand times before.

Granted I’m not the biggest fan of drug humour, but even if I were, there’s nothing funny here. At no point do they attempt to do anything remotely new or innovative. There is no attempt to shock or subvert expectations. The basic tenets of comedy are ignored in the hope that the mere image of Snoop smoking (he does like to smoke, you know) will be enough.

It isn’t.

The dialogue in The Underdoggs is also terrible. Whenever they were unsure what Snoop should say next they’d just get him to say “motherfucker” or “shit” or some other vague non sequitur. I’m sure the intention on some level was to make it sound authentically Snoop, but it just comes across like a parody of the man.

And yet somehow none of this is the scripts biggest flaw. Its biggest flaw is that has absolutely no heart. You feel nothing for the kids, or for Jaycen. Their on screen highs, don’t hit. Their on screen lows, don’t hit. 

It just flatlines. Failing to give you a single character to care about or root for. 

There is no emotional journey here - hell, there’s barely a narrative journey never mind an emotional one - and no real reason for anyone to stick around and see what happens.

The Underdoggs is one of the most distinctly average films I’ve ever seen. It is stereotype after cliche after trope from start to finish, failing to illicit even the most basic emotional response.

It is the R Rated Mighty Ducks that absolutely nobody needed. A tonal disaster akin to putting Mr. Bean into a Tarantino film.

It is a film where the only positive thing I can say about it is that due to its palpable mediocrity, I will probably have forgotten it exists in a month or two.

Still, at least we now know Snoop likes his weed. Mission accomplished on that front.