Movie Review The Underdoggs

The Underdoggs (2024) 

Directed by Charles Stone III

Written by Danny Segal, Isaac Schamis 

Starring Snoop Dogg, Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps 

Release Date January 26th, 2024 

Published January 25th, 2024 

I know it's wrong. I am well aware that the new Amazon Prime-Snoop Dogg comedy, The Underdoggs is objectively, not a good movie. It's amateurish, it's childish, it's derivative, and it's needlessly filthy for a movie that features a mostly child cast. And yet, there is this undeniable element that I cannot deny and that is my affection for Snoop Dogg. Snoop has crafted one of the more eclectic and straight up odd careers in entertainment history. He was a fearsome gangsta rapper who may or may not have been involved in actual murders. He's also a close friend and partner to Martha Stewart. He's known for smoking more weed than your average small American city and is one of the most savvy marketers of his brand going today. He's an enigma, a dynamic, charming and entirely unpredictable character. 

It's that same unpredictable, enigmatic charm that Snoop brings to his first film leading role since the failed horror franchise Bones in 2001, Snoop has a laid back charisma that I find irresistible. Snoop is Jaycen Two J's Jennings in The Underdoggs, a disgraced former NFL Wide Receiver better known for his bad behavior than his on the field heroics. In a classic Mighty Ducks scenario, Jaycen gets himself into an accident that is entirely his fault and is sentenced to community service. In this case, Jaycen is sentenced to cleaning up a park in his old neighborhood in Long Beach. While cleaning up dog poop, Jaycen sees a group of kids playing Pee-Wee Football, badly. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Roll Bounce

Roll Bounce (2005) 

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee 

Written by Norman Vance Jr. 

Starring Bow Wow, Chi McBride, Mike Epps, Meagan Good, Nick Cannon

Release Date September 23rd, 2005

Published September 23rd, 2005

In preparing my review of the new roller-disco flick Roll Bounce I came across an article in the New York Post about roller skating movies of the past and it mentioned a true forgotten classic, Skatetown U.S.A. This 70's gem starred Scott Baio, Patrick Swayze, Ron Palillo (Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter") and former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick. The film is about rival roller disco gangs competing in a skating tournament set to disco rhythms. I thought I only dreamed of this movie.

Maybe someday someone will look back on Roll Bounce and be as nostalgic, or sarcastic take your pick, as I am for Skatetown U.S.A but without the perspective of time, Roll Bounce is a relatively relatively unmemorable 70's throwback that needed more of a sense of humor about its subject as opposed to trying to ring actual tension out of a movie about roller skating.

Rapper Bow Wow stars in Roll Bounce as Xavier or X to his crew of rolling skating friends including Junior (Brandon T. Jackson), Boo (Marcus T. Paulk), Naps (Rick Gonzalez) and Mixed Mike (Khleo Thomas). Together the boys spend every summer at the roller rink where they perform choreographed routines for fun. The fun stops, however, when the local rink is closed down and the boys are forced to go to the upscale rink on the other side of town where skating is a competition not a pastime.

The boys are harassed by the locals as they attempt their routines and get shown up pretty fierce in their first visit. However, you just know that when the time comes, as in the 500 hundred dollar cash prize skating competition, the guys will be more than ready.

Parallel to the skating story is the story of X's home life where he and his sister and his father (Chi McBride) are coping with the loss of their mother. Not only that but dad has also just lost his high paying gig as an airplane designer and has not told his son. The family drama is a tad bit cheesy in a movie as gregarious and loose as Roll Bounce and the father son tension only serves to weigh the film down when it should roll with the skating.

Roller skating is a goofy subject for a movie and the last thing any movie should try and do is take it seriously. Yet that is what director Malcolm D. Lee and writer Norman Vance Jr. try to do. They try to make you care about the outcome of this superfluous, overblown and rather ridiculous competition. Don't get me wrong, the action on skates is impressive but it's also quite goofy.

Juxtapose the roller disco of Roll Bounce with the disco of Saturday Night Fever and they may look similar in their weightlessness. However, where Fever earned its melodramatic side by delivering a complex and fascinating lead character, Roll Bounce never establishes X as either fascinating or complex. X is a nice, kind of goofy kid who's a great dancer on skates. The detail of X attempting to cope with his mother's death seems tacked on to give him a dramatic weight and works only to take us away from the more genial and fun story of the roller disco.

Malcolm Lee is a terrific director as he showed in the friendly comedy The Best Man and the awesomely funny 70's send up Undercover Brother. One is left to wonder where that sense of humor is in Roll Bounce. There are occasional funny moments but the film goes for very long stretches without laughs. Lee and writer Norman Vance too often get bogged down in trying to create a family drama and trying to make you care about roller skating that they forget that their real subjects are fun and nostalgia.

Both Lee and Vance could use a refresher in how to write female characters. None of the women in Roll Bounce are anything more than minor characters. Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Goode and "The Bernie Mac Show"'s Kellita Smith each play a different variation of a love interest for the main characters and they are defined by being the love interest and nothing more. None of the women take part in the skating and are left in another typically female role as a cheerleader.

When Roll Bounce is in its retro groove with its killer soundtrack of seventies classics, Bee Gees, Chic, Kool and The Gang and such, it's an enjoyable little throwback. However, when Malcolm Lee attempts to shoehorn in the family drama the movie becomes bogged down and the good time vibe comes to a complete halt.

Roll Bounce does manage to find entertaining moments that showcase these young actors' talent for having a good time. The skating is pure kitsch and when the actors are allowed to take part in that kitsch spirit the film comes alive. That spirit is captured by Nick Cannon's cameo as a seventies style ladies man and Wesley Johnson as the skating rink superstar called Sweetness who enters the rink with his own 70's style theme music and two female valets on his arms like some roller skating pimp.

The retro good time vibe is there in spirit in Roll Bounce but it is too often undermined by forced melodramatics. Still if you were a fan of great disco, roller skating, or high camp you may find something to really enjoy in this inoffensive retro retread.

Me? I'm going on Ebay to find a copy of Skatetown, USA.

Movie Review Resident Evil Apocalypse

Resident Evil Apocalypse (2004) 

Directed by Alexander Witt

Written by Paul W.S Andersn 

Starring Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr, Jared Harris, Mike Epps

Release Date September 10th, 2004

Published September 12th, 2004 

As bad as the first Resident Evil film was, written and directed by Paul W.S Anderson (ugh), could the sequel be any worse? Paul W.S Anderson stepping aside as director was a good first step, as is a script and story more faithful to its videogame source material. However first time director Alexander Witt, who's assistant director resume includes Speed 2, XXX and The Postman seems uninterested in improving on the original, unless you call being bigger, dumber and louder an improvement.

We begin where the last film left off. Our heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) has just escaped from the Umbrella Corporation's evil underground lab The Hive, where she spent the previous night fighting the undead. Temporarily captured by Umbrella's evil scientists for a quick genetic upgrade, Alice finds herself in the chaotic remains of Racoon City, which has been overrun by zombies.

With most of the once peaceful town infected, and the evil Umbrella scientists having closed the only way out of town, Alice must team with the remaining survivors to fight the zombies and find a way out. With Alice are former cop Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), armed forces specialist Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr), former pimp L.J (Mike Epps) and a small band of cannon fodder who are picked off in rather predictable fashion.

As the survivors battle the zombies, the chance to escape comes from a former Umbrella scientist Dr. Ashford (Jared Harris). The good doctor will get them a helicopter if they will go to the town’s only school and retrieve his young daughter Angie (Sophie Vasseur). Standing in their way are an assortment of zombie children and a return of those feral organs-on-the-outside Dobermans from the first film.

Let's start with some good things like star Milla Jovovich who, though she has limited range as an actress, is amazingly hot and has a terrific physical presence. She's agile and good with a gun and a believable action heroine. In a better action movie she could be quite effective, but in the midst of this film’s mindlessness she's reduced to repeating herself into tedium.

The supporting cast of Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr and Mike Epps don't have much time to make an impression in between all of the explosions, zombie bites and gunfire. Epps at least has a couple of humorous moments that he is well suited to deliver. The film could have used a little more of Epps' humor but that would require a far better script.

We cannot be surprised that a script this witless and banal was written by the master of witless banality, Paul W.S Anderson. Every line of dialogue, every moment of exposition is just killing time till the next explosion of big, dumb, loud violence. This can work if you have the slightest bit of wit or sense of irony but Anderson has none. Director Alexander Witt doesn't have any either. His visuals consist of properly framing for the explosion and.... well, that's it.

This plot is at the very least more closely related to the popular video game, a fact that might appeal to fans of the game but is of little comfort to non-fans. Compared to the first film, this Resident Evil manages to be bigger, dumber and louder than the original and that is certainly not an improvement. On the bright side it's still a better video game based movie than Tomb Raider.

Movie Review How High

How High (2001) 

Directed by Jesse Dylan 

Written by Dustin Abraham

Starring Method Man, Redman Mike Epps, Jeffrey Jones

Release Date December 21st, 2001 

Published August 1st, 2002 

I'm a total sucker for movies set in college. Maybe it's because I went to community college and never experienced real campus life, thus I enjoy the idealized versions on the big screen. I love movies like the small-time comedy PCU with Jeremy Piven or Reese Witherspoon's 2001 hit Legally Blonde, I even liked With Honors! So I had an immediate soft spot for How High, though it is more about pot than college. The classic college movie cliches are in place and their familiarity along with the stars' relaxed performances help make How High one of the funniest movies of the year.

The plot creates the quickest way to get two drug-addled goofs into Harvard where the typical culture clash cliches come up. Battles with white-bred jocks and overly officious school officials, and the obvious romantic angles. Yet I still found ways to like How High. The two lead rappers, Method Man and Redman, have such a relaxed manner onscreen they look like they've been doing it forever. For the record they both have acted before, Method Man showed the same relaxed manner and chops in Black & White, more than holding his own opposite people like Robert Downey JR and Ben Stiller.

Of course the title may suggest another origin for their laid back acting styles. Whatever it is, both Method Man and Redman are fun to watch and hysterically funny and the supporting players are even better, especially Mike Epps best known as Ice Cube's foil in Next Friday. Epps plays the funniest pimp since Antonio Fargas was Huggie Bear.

The film is directed by first-timer Jesse Dylan, and yes if you were wondering he is related to Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers. He directed How High not as just a pot comedy but as a broad, over the top satire of college movies and it worked for me. I laughed almost from beginning to end.

How High is stupid, ridiculous and one of the funniest movies of the year. And more than likely, High Times movie of the year. 

Movie Review: All About the Benjamins

All About the Benjamins (2002) 

Directed by Kevin Bray

Written by Ice Cube, Ronald Lang

Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Anthony Michael Hall, Eva Mendes

Release Date March 8th, 2002 

Published March 8th, 2002

I've always liked Ice Cube as both a rapper and an actor. His performance in 1991's Boyz In The Hood was a blistering announcement of an actor who was here to stay. While at times Cube's style can be a little too laid back, his persona is such that he's always likable. In All About The Benjamins, his laid-back style is put to good use against the backdrop of sunny south Florida.

Cube plays Bucam, a bounty hunter who picks up petty criminals who skip bail while indulging in his love of expensive rare fish. After taking down a redneck criminal (Anthony Michael Hall in an unnecessary cameo), Bucam is once again assigned to pick up Reggie Wright (Mike Epps) a small time hustler whom he has picked up numerous times. Things are different in this pursuit however as Bucam, while chasing Reggie, happens upon diamond smugglers who try to kill him as Reggie hides in the back of their getaway car.

We've seen all of this before; the difference this time is the chemistry between Cube and Epps who have the easy rapport of a couple of good friends. Unfortunately Epps act is tiresome and Cube can't get out from under both Epps's hamminess and the script’s clichéd action.

The film attempts to buck action movie conventions but the attempts are obvious as if the film is trying to tell us, “See normally it's done this way but we are doing it this way.” This “too clever by half” approach only calls more attention to the clichés rather than subverting them.

Cube is great and has a great future as both a writer and actor. Epps on the other hand needs to work on his shtick, which gets tiresome quickly. The same energy and over the top attitude worked in How High, but in All About the Benjamins it's gone from funny to obnoxious.

Movie Review Friday After Next

Friday After Next (2002) 

Directed by Marcus Raboy 

Written by Ice Cube

Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, John Witherspoon, Don D.C Curry, Katt Williams 

Release Date November 22nd, 2002 

Published November 25th, 2007 

For all the talk about how great Eminem is, people lose track of the man who paved the road Em is now traveling. In 1991, an L.A rapper took an acting role. Mind you, not an easy role, but a serious dramatic role in the inner-city drama Boyz In The Hood. Ice Cube in the role of Doughboy showed real depth and emotion and brought real experience to a character that would have seemed inauthentic if played by anyone else. Cube had every opportunity to take the easy road. He could have played the same gangsta roles and picked up bigger paychecks, but instead he chose to go out on his own and by 1996, he was writing his own movies.

After several stops and starts Cube finished a script for an urban comedy simply based on real life in South Central Los Angeles. Friday was a raunchy comedy, in the vein of Cheech & Chong. Most memorable for launching the career of Cube's co-star Chris Tucker, no one would have imagined that Friday could inspire two sequels. Now with the release of Friday After Next, could a third sequel be far off?

As we rejoin Craig (Ice Cube) and his cousin Day Day (Mike Epps), it's the day before Christmas and as they sleep their apartment is being robbed by a guy dressed as Santa Claus. Craig wakes up to find Santa in the kitchen but can't stop him from getting away with all of the Christmas presents and the rent money they owe the next day. Craig and Day Day wouldn't worry about the rent so much, except that the landlady (Bebe Drake) has a son named Damon (Terry Crews) who is fresh from prison and ready to extract rent from any tenant unwilling to pay. In one of the movie’s many low points it is revealed that Damon has an affinity for prison sex, if you know what I mean. Craig and Day Day's only hope for avoiding a date with Damon is their new jobs as security guards at a strip mall, where their fathers have just opened a rib joint.

While Craig just wants to get through the day and get paid, Day Day takes to the job a little too much leading to even more problems and another run in with Santa Claus. Among the other businesses in the strip mall is a new clothing store called Pimps & Ho's. No I'm not kidding. It's run by a pimp named Money Mike (Katt Williams in the film’s funniest performance) and his 'Ho,' Donna (the unbelievably gorgeous K.D Aubert).

All of the film leads up to a Christmas party at Craig and Day Day's apartment that they use to raise the rent money and where Money Mike has an unwanted meeting with Damon. Of course, there is one more run in with Santa Claus and a chase scene that provides the film’s funniest moments. Unfortunately, it isn't until the end that the film picks up steam and provides the few chuckles of the entire film. Until the end, it's mostly unfunny stereotypes and misogyny. Throw in a little gay bashing and you have a comedy that is attempting to push the boundaries of political correctness but failing miserably.

I believe anything can be funny in the right context and intent, but there is nothing funny about the character of Damon threatening to force guys to have sex with him. Ice Cube's script too often falls back on the excuse that because the characters are black they can make fun of black stereotypes. The problem is that the stereotypes aren't funny. You would expect stereotypical characters to be played broadly and over the top but too often on Friday After Next, they play straight.

At some point in his career, I vaguely remember this, Mike Epps act was funny, but now it's so tiring. Epps quickly wears out his welcome in Friday After Next and his work provides the film’s lowest of low points. As for Cube, it was sad to see such a talented actor go through the motions as he does here. Even with material he wrote himself, Cube can't seem to wake up. And sadly, with the successful opening weekend box office for Friday After Next, don't be surprised to see yet another sequel. If it happens, though, I think I will take next Friday off.