The Underdoggs can only be described as a passion project seemingly bought by MGM solely because it’s made by Snoop Dogg. It’s hardly his first leading role or film credit, but this one seemed to have a certain extra meaning for the iconic rapper.
That’s not to say it’s a particularly good movie. In fact, the first 20 minutes are so bad that I had to turn it off and come back to it. But, at the end of the day, if you’re a fan of Snoop, and you like overly raunchy comedies, this might tickle your fancy for an hour and a half.
The Underdoggs tells the story of Jaycen “Two J’s” Jennings (Snoop Dogg), a fictional former NFL star reciever who, after being essentially forced out of the league for his wild antics, is now living in retirement. Jennings is completely full of himself, which is obvious from the start.
When he gets into a wild accident, he’s ordered by a judge to do community service back in his hometown. While there, picking up poop at a park, he comes across a youth football team that is struggling to win or do anything on the field. Jennings, thinking it will help his image, decides to coach this team, not knowing how they’ll impact his life as much as he does theirs.
With this movie, you can effectively imagine the amount of profanity, drug references and inuendos someone like Snoop Dogg would make on the regular, and that’s basically the entirety of the film. There’s enough of that to make even the toughest, foul-mouthed sailor say, “alright Snoop that’s probably good”.
The rest of the film really didn’t have too much to say. An interesting, albeit overly done, message centered around someone high profile learning to humble themselves while they help children lay at the forefront of The Underdoggs. But this is something we’ve seen already even in 2023, with Champions having done the same sort of thing to a better degree.
I did, however, find myself enjoying Snoop Dogg in the lead role more than I thought. He brought a solid energy to the role that the movie needed. His chemistry with the team of youngsters worked well for the film. And it was obvious that this film did, at the end of the day, mean a lot to him. He was inspired to make it through the work his “Snoop Youth Football League” charity has done since its inception, and you can certainly tell he cares.
It’s just a shame that the film really doesn’t do anything special beyond that. The story is completely predictable and there’s just too much profanity going on to really matter.
Final Thoughts
If you’re into Snoop Dogg, then you may well like The Underdoggs. For everyone else, this film really just boils down to yet another forgetful comedy film. Much like last year’s House Party, You People, and others. And it is certainly the first of many, I’m sure, to come out in 2024.
