Snoop Dogg continues his journey toward National Treasure with this hilarious self-consciously genre-respecting underdog sports comedy. The dude even reveals that he literally has sponsored sports outreach for poor kids for the past decade. Could we love him more?
Snoop plays a not-even-remotely-thinly-veiled version of himself called Jaycen "Two Js" Jennings. He is a washed-up sports-star who longs for a lucrative commentating gig, and decides that coaching a bunch of foul-mouthed poor kids will look great on social media, and help him win back his childhood sweetheart. He does this with the help of his drug-dealer side-kick Kareem (stand-up comedian Mike Epps) and soon discovers his inner good guy. Naturally there's a climactic sports match in which our hero has to choose between being with his team OR debuting on Fox Sports. No prizes for guessing the ending.
What I love about this film is that it is - much like Snoop - unabashedly what it wants to be. It even references THE MIGHTY DUCKS in an opening and closing scene. The screenwriters aren't trying to do anything too clever with the genre. They aren't reinventing it. The only nod to modernity is putting in a discussion about consent. Otherwise the kids remain foul-mouthed, hilarious, and utterly loveable, to the end.
THE UNDERDOGS is rated R, has a running time of 96 minutes, and was released on Prime Video in January 2024.
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