Starring: Nick
Cannon, Roselyn Sanchez, Cheech Marin, Shawn Ashmore, Hugh Bonneville,
Kaylee DeFer, Nicole Garza, Kelly Hu, Ian Gomez. Written by David
T. Wagner, Brent Goldberg. Directed by Marcos Siega.
Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual
references, drug material and some teen drinking.
‘Get Ready to be Schooled’—one
of the taglines in “Underclassman”—need
not have bothered with the warning. Instead it should have warned
you to ‘Arrest Your Mind at the Door’ because that
is what you will need to do to survive this insipid attempt by
director Marcos Siega to combine pale knockoffs of “Beverly
Hills Cop” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”
Tre Stokes (Nick Cannon) is a Los Angeles bicycle cop who spends
his time chasing after penny-ante toy-peddling crooks as if they
were mega-narcos. At the end of the opening sequence, Tre has
chased the crooks to a fiery, explosive halt. Just before the
crooks’ vehicle explodes, Tre says out loud, “You
have the right to remain silent.” After the explosion, he
makes a quizzical face first perfected by Will Smith in his “Bad
Boys” films, then yells to the burning heap, “I said
silent, not violent!” Go ahead, you can groan now. That
Johnny Cochran-esque gem is just the beginning of a slew of supposedly
hip witticisms that trip off of Tre’s tongue throughout
this tediously predictable cop film without eliciting nary a chuckle
from anyone—case in point: when sitting down to a meal of
Alaskan King crab legs he says, “Crabs in my neighborhood
meant a totally different thing” or when he’s on a
dance floor between two white girls he yells, “I feel like
a reverse Oreo!” Go ahead, you can groan again.
Tre
is the son of a deceased LAPD detective, who before he died asked
Captain Victor Delgado (Cheech Marin) to be Tre’s mentor.
He has had enough of cycling around town after criminals wreaking
chaos and damage wherever he goes and is intent on advancing to
detective. Fortuitously he is standing nearby as an FBI agent
debriefs the Captain on a murder case that requires a detective
to go undercover as a student at The Westbury School, an elite
prep school. Of course, after a perfunctory objection, the Captain
assigns babyfaced Tre to the case and the only black incoming
student is loosed on an all-white campus. As a black male high
school dropout (which begs the question, “was it nepotism
that allowed Tre to sidestep the minimum education LAPD requirement
of a high school diploma or G.E.D.?”), Tre bristles under
the new school rules and uniform. As a result of Tre’s undercover
operation, a stolen-car ring is uncovered, the culprits are apprehended
and an improbable love interest with his Spanish teacher Karen
Lopez played by the beautiful and underrated Rosalyn Sanchez thankfully
never fully sparks.
As
a high school dropout, Tre brings with him and reinforces many
of the ignorant stereotypes that students of color in similar
realms of academia confront on a daily basis, e.g., he got in
only because of affirmative action, his best skill set is basketball
and he will with a quickness call in Reverend Al Sharpton to form
a march for even the most minimal racial slight. Pointedly examining
stereotypes through laughter is a hallmark of comedy. But there’s
the rub: you’ve gotta be funny. Sadly, “Underclassman”
not only rehashes stereotypes, it also fails miserably at making
those stereotypes humorous. With this humorless film categorized
as a comedy, you have to ask yourself, “What’s its
point?”
So here’s the deal with
“Underclassman”:
if you’re willing to completely turn off the better part
of your sense of humor, go see it, otherwise do yourself a favor
and skip it.
Tre
is the son of a deceased LAPD detective, who before he died asked
Captain Victor Delgado (Cheech Marin) to be Tre’s mentor.
He has had enough of cycling around town after criminals wreaking
chaos and damage wherever he goes and is intent on advancing to
detective. Fortuitously he is standing nearby as an FBI agent
debriefs the Captain on a murder case that requires a detective
to go undercover as a student at The Westbury School, an elite
prep school. Of course, after a perfunctory objection, the Captain
assigns babyfaced Tre to the case and the only black incoming
student is loosed on an all-white campus. As a black male high
school dropout (which begs the question, “was it nepotism
that allowed Tre to sidestep the minimum education LAPD requirement
of a high school diploma or G.E.D.?”), Tre bristles under
the new school rules and uniform. As a result of Tre’s undercover
operation, a stolen-car ring is uncovered, the culprits are apprehended
and an improbable love interest with his Spanish teacher Karen
Lopez played by the beautiful and underrated Rosalyn Sanchez thankfully
never fully sparks.
As
a high school dropout, Tre brings with him and reinforces many
of the ignorant stereotypes that students of color in similar
realms of academia confront on a daily basis, e.g., he got in
only because of affirmative action, his best skill set is basketball
and he will with a quickness call in Reverend Al Sharpton to form
a march for even the most minimal racial slight. Pointedly examining
stereotypes through laughter is a hallmark of comedy. But there’s
the rub: you’ve gotta be funny. Sadly, “Underclassman”
not only rehashes stereotypes, it also fails miserably at making
those stereotypes humorous. With this humorless film categorized
as a comedy, you have to ask yourself, “What’s its
point?”