Snoop Dogg & Mike Epps Team Up For A Comedy Where The Jokes Actually Land

The Underdoggs is the latest from director Charles Stone III and writers Isaac Schamis, Constance Schwartz-Moriniand Danny Segal. Sports movies like this don’t demand much attention, but when they work it’s usually because there is real heart in the story and everyone in the cast is hilarious. The Underdoggs succeeds by having enough comedy and using Snoop’s natural charisma to invoke emotion. Mike Epps and the cast portraying the youth football team bring the jokes and the writers manage to move the needle just enough to make a meaningful connection.

Snoop Dogg stars in The Underdoggs, a sports comedy movie that follows a former NFL pro forced to re-evaluate his life after getting in trouble with law enforcement. Given the option to coach an underprivileged youth football team to avoid prison time, Jaycen Jenning (Dogg) decides to take up the task while hoping to revive his pro career.

Pros

• The Underdoggs is actually a funny movie
• Mike Epps is the best part of the film, and steals every scene

Cons

• The drama doesn’t fully land
• Most of the cast doesn’t deliver on the emotion

Snoop Dogg Is Lovable Despite Lacking Emotion

The Underdoggs is a standard sports movie. A former player without a purpose finds it in coaching the youth from his old neighborhood. It’s a tried and true formula, but the film also allows the entire cast to swear as much as they want. The film routinely succeeds in the comedy department thanks to raunchy writing and a group of kids that deliver the jokes perfectly. Though the film is inspired by the real youth football team Snoop Dogg’s Jaycen started, the story it tells is far less inspirational.

The R rating takes the film a long way. Without it, this movie would be more commercial, but nowhere near as good. Even random kids who aren’t named in the script will shout out the most heinous thing when you least expect it, and it gets a laugh every time. And the film also knows where to draw the line. We don’t actually see Snoop having sex with a soccer mom, he just implies it for 90 percent of the film. When a kid falls on hard times, the jokes pause and there is genuine care for what he is going through.

Snoop Dogg is one of the most lovable entertainers around and seems very comfortable in his own skin. As viewers, we don’t need heartfelt monologues and gravitas from actors like him because their personality is their capital. We watch such a movie to see Snoop be Snoop. While the script does call for emotional dialogue, most of the cast are not up for the challenge. But again, that is not the charm of this movie — it’s Snoop arriving at practice only to have a kid call him a Hip Hop Pirate.

Mike Epps’ Humor Is Undefeated

Everything Mike Epps says in this film is hilarious. He is a force unto himself and steals every scene he is in. The only issue is that he isn’t in the movie enough. With cameos from so many celebrities, I couldn’t help but wish for more of the veteran funnyman; he made the movie what it is and without him, it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny.

Stone has a filmography full of cult classics. Uncle Drew, Mr. 3000 and Paid In Full, just to name a few. All of those movies eventually found their audiences and maybe this one will, too. In the era of streaming, cult classics are becoming far and few between because of the release model. The Underdoggs is exactly the kind of movie that could fit the bill. Audiences might not find it immediately, but they could in time.

Cameos from George Lopez, Kal Penn, and a host of real sports icons help the audience understand Snoop’s place in the story, but they rarely crack a joke worth laughing at. However, Epps and the kids will have audiences in stitches. Snoop makes the most of his role and is a convincing lead, but when it comes down to emoting, he can’t get the job done and, frankly, neither can the rest of the cast. In short, the film is funny, but the drama doesn’t fully work.