American Underdog
LIONSGATE
The only underdog audiences should entertain themselves with are to be found within Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. As the title would suggest, it is the definitive and true story of a team like no other, pulling together and defying the odds to save their futures together. American Underdog is similar to the Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller-led comedy from the 2000s in just a handful of ways. None of those comparisons can draw on the good-natured and heartfelt fun the early 2000s comedy could have, but American Underdog feels like a film as uninspired as many of the sports-based features that dribbled out around that time.
It does not help that American football is a terribly dull sport. Rugby for those who do not want to hurt anything but their minds as they absorb rule after rule of jagged playing time. American Underdog feels almost as dull as the sport it adapts. Directors Jon and Andrew Irwin open with the almost impossible odds of playing in the Superbowl, as though these were exclusively monumental odds. It is probably harder to reach the top of another sport or system, but it is easy to assimilate characters into it when the footage of the past is used to convey it and Zachary Levi is used to bolster it. Between him, Anna Paquin and Dennis Quaid comes that spirit of the All-American sport and the blinkered view that comes with it.
As the generic country music oozes through and the ten-gallon hats are on full show, it is only a matter of time before American Underdog poorly realises it is a faith-based film that ties itself to football – and not naturally so. Levi is not a likeable lead, not because of his performance but because of how caricature-like he is presented to be, how unreasonably led his faith is and how poorly it can be utilised. Flashbacks and flashforwards to pockets of life that are brought together with a terribly unnatural quality are displayed far too frequently. The reunion of characters under the outdoor fairy lights and the poorly handled camera are too much to bear for the cliché-riddled contemporary takes of the footballing dream.
Should anyone be proposed to via a series of poorly-lit fairy lights, they should run for the hills. Crying is also an option, as that appears to be what happens to the leading pair in American Underdog, a shamelessly nothing film that relies on simplistic camera movements and the wholesome Americana caricatures that audiences are meant to care for. Karaoke at a wedding, heartfelt respect between a superhero star and a washed-up actor whose last big credit saw him turned into a dog. The story of Kurt Warner should be an inspiring one for the Average Joe out in the audience, but the lack of passion from a bulk of the supporting performers and a real loss of intention and meaning for the directors behind the camera make American Underdog a simplistic and diluted story that can never get to grips with the heroes at the heart of it.