'The Underdoggs' review: Snoop Dogg fans will love this 'Bad News Bears'-like comedy

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Snoop Dogg coaches a youth football team in “The Underdoggs,” and it so closely follows the template of what you'd expect based on the premise that there's almost no point in reviewing it.

It is exactly the movie it promises to be, no more and no less.

Snoop stars as the angry, washed-up former NFL receiver Jaycen Jennings, nicknamed “Two J's” because, in a truly shocking development, he has such a great love for marijuana that he made imitating smoking two joints his touchdown celebration.

Anyway, Jennings finds himself back in his hometown of Long Beach, California, and reluctantly coaching a team of scrappy youngsters as part of a community service sentence after a car accident. 

You don't need to be an expert on “The Mighty Ducks” and “Bad News Bears” franchises to know where it goes from here, albeit with exponentially more cursing.

The movie's based on Snoop's own youth football league in California. It's directed by Charles Stone III (“Drumline”), with co-stars including Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps and George Lopez.

MY SAY Snoop is such an idiosyncratic performer, such a one-of-a-kind presence, that the movie serves as a referendum on him. 

The plot doesn't matter; it's evident where it's going from the first scene. The ragtag team just needs someone with coaching talent to bring them together and get them on the winning track. Their coach needs to get out of his own, egotistical way. Reconnecting with Sumpter's Cherise, an ex of Jaycen whose son plays on the team, offers the further promise of redemption. There's a big game waiting in the wings.

The kids get the slightest bits of background — one boy has anger problems, another's lying to his parents about his after-school activities, a third's obsessed with “Game of Thrones.” But they're not the focus.

The extent to which any of this works has directly to do with Snoop. He's appeared in a lot of movies over the years and always basically plays himself. “The Underdoggs” is no different. But it also embraces this: In one of the funnier moments, Cherise asks Jaycen why he's decided to name the team “Underdoggs” with two g's. She doesn't get a great answer.

There are a number of other highlights, all consistently derived from Snoop being Snoop. The man can let expletives fly with the best of them. There's hardly a line of dialogue without one of his choice curse words in it. The clouds of marijuana smoke are vast. The star spends a good deal of time essentially winking at the camera.

It's a lot more amusing than the typical coach in a picture like this and it's just weird enough to give the movie a little something extra as it goes through its paces.

The question of whether Snoop's shtick offers enough of a reason to bother with “The Underdoggs” remains the fundamental one as there's nothing else going on here. But then again, the second you heard about this movie, you already knew that.

BOTTOM LINE If you love Snoop's acting, you'll enjoy “The Underdoggs.” Otherwise, don't bother.