From Rocky to Rudy to The Mighty Ducks, there have been so many iconic sports films. There are also those like the last one listed that deal with a retired sport star who becomes a coach and tries to turn a children’s sport program around. However, that idea gets taken to a bit of a different place with The UnderDoggs.
Directed by Charles Stone III (Step Sisters), Snoop Dogg plays Jaycen “2J’s” Jennings, a retired professional football player who was successful but had an attitude, leading to a terrible public image. After an event that causes legal troubles, he is sentenced to community service for the parks department in the town he grew up in. During this time, completes his community service by becoming the head coach for a local underprivileged youth football team that starts out with him wanting to impress his high school girlfriend, Cherise (Tika Sumpter), but turns into so much more alongside his childhood best friend in Kareem (Mike Epps) and wisdom from his high school coach (George Lopez).
This film is nothing more than a remake of The Mighty Ducks with a different setting that Disney would never touch. It is so crude that it even starts off with a disclaimer that earns its “R” rating in about fifteen seconds and goes straight into shock humor, adult language, and adult situations. There are some good comedic moments, but the rest of it just gets old within about twenty minutes and the last hour and twenty minutes just plain turned me off with scenes of Jennings degrading the kids and calling them the “F Word,” which is just uncalled for. In return, the kids basically curse like a bunchy of sailors, which I also did not fin funny, and trust me: the profanity is in abundance here.
I understand Snoop has donated so much to the pee-wee football in this country (and even forming his own league in California), which I admire, but if you are going to make a movie with dealing with this type of thing, there are better ways to do it instead of how The UnderDoggs tells this story. With the swearing and total lack of respect, this is simply cinematic trash and I will never watch it again or in good conscious recommend it in any way. It may be only January, but this film gets my “un-coveted” Maze Runner promise that this film will become my worst film of the year list.