We're sitting in front of the screen watching “The Underdoggs,” a new comedy starring Snoop Dogg as the fictional former NFL superstar Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings, who falls not on hard times (he's still filthy rich) but on insignificance and regardless of his selfishness and narcissism, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. I was never a big fan of Snoop. I'm not the audience for his music. Most of the time I just saw him on TV, smoking weed and trailing clouds of it. Then I noticed the names Kenya Barris (“Black-ish,” “Girls Trip”) and Mychelle Deschamps (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) in the opening credits and Mike Epps, Tika Sumpter, Kal Penn and George Lopez in the opening cast, and I thought, well, wait a minute.
As it turns out, “The Underdoggs” is an entertaining mix of classic children’s sports like “The Mighty Ducks” (1992) and even the venerable “The Bad News Bears” (1976). If you can actually imagine The Bad News Bears being reborn with a black cast, an R rating, foul language, a coach who smokes a lot of weed, and a scene where the underage kids get drunk on beer , then this is the case here you have it.
With his tall, thin frame and long salt-and-pepper dreadlocks, Jaycen resembles a human bullwhip. Someone else calls him “a hip-hop pirate.” He hopes to get a job as a television commentator, but doesn't play with others. He lives alone in a California mansion with a huge gold statue of himself at the entrance. Just like in “The Mighty Ducks,” Jaycen is assigned to community service in Long Beach by a judge (Kandi Burress), where he sees a “ragtag” group of Pop Warner football players from his old neighborhood while picking up dog poop former friend Cherise (Sumpter, “Sparkle”), who is also there. Next thing you know, Jaycen shows up at the soccer field in his shiny gold G-Wagon with his old buddy Kareem (Epps) trying to drive straight and tagging along to play assistant coach for the kids . Kareem recently put a gun to Jaycen's head during their “accidental” reunion and stole two pit bulls to serve as the team's mascots.
Director Charles Stone III (“Drumline,” “Uncle Drew”) does a very funny job with Snoop and the supporting cast, especially the young people, who are well cast and whose chants in the last game should have gotten them disqualified. Jonigan Booth is particularly good as the team's diminutive quarterback and Cherise's son. That's Kal Penn as Jaycen's greedy agent (prepare for a “Harold & Kumar” joke). Jaycen turns to his old, Yoda-like trainer (a submissive Lopez) for advice. Forced by Cherise to drive some players home, Jaycen discovers that one of them is ashamed to admit that he lives in the trailer park where Jaycen grew up. Stand-up comedian and podcaster Andrew Schulz is great in the role of the vile rival coach. There are no surprises.
The script by Isaac Schamis (TV's “Grown-ish”), Constance Schwartz-Morini and Danny Segal (“#BlackAF”) is nothing if not derivative. But it's a tried and tested premise, and it works. As it turns out, Snoop is the founder of the Snoop Youth Football League and has sponsored thousands of young soccer players in the Los Angeles area. Wearing a set of outlandish designer tracksuits and $2,000 sunglasses in “The Underdoggs,” the quirky Snoop Dogg is truly a football hero.
(“The Underdoggs” contains drug use, underage drinking, sexual innuendo and profanity)
“The outsider”
Rated R. On Amazon Prime.
Grade B
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