This movie takes place in my hometown. It was exciting to see some of the places I visit on the big screen. That being said, the movie is low budget all the way. Especially the acting. Terrible through and through. And, it always is a shock to see recruiting at the high school football level. Everything about the movie is cliché: from the ragtag losing football team at the beginning (no one seems to do anything right), to the champions at the end (way too over the top). I guess Americans are suckers for the underdog story, but how many times do we have to see the same thing portrayed on screen. Two minutes into the movie, anyone in the theater could have accurately written the ending. No surprises. And, the parallel storyline with the quarterback's father was a little too convenient. Couple items of note, there are no palm trees in stark county, Ohio (except maybe indoors), and the Underdog team didn't seem to have enough players to field both offense and defense.
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exphilesphan3 May 2014
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Prismark1013 February 2016Underdogs is a low key, slow burn underwhelming drama that just about sustains your interest.
D B Sweeney is a veteran football coach newly arrived at a struggling High School in Ohio.
Logan Huffman is the team's quarterback who is drawn to the cheerleader of the rival high school football team which leads to rivalry with her boyfriend who is the quarterback for that High School.
The interesting part of the film and this is based on true facts is that the Huffman's father is the inventor of the EdenPURE space heater and has to defend his invention from his former employer. The former employer is also the dad of the rival high school's quarterback.
The film is rather contrived and low key, there is enough spin put on it to make it viewable but it never rises above than just being average thanks to the space heater side plot because it never passes muster as a sports movie. -
This is the usual American sport production in which the « good » little beats the « bad » big. To be accurate, here, this thematic is multiplied three times : football, girlfriend, father's job. So it's full of values, maybe too much of them. However, this genre is interesting because it shows that American education (so poorly rated in my hypocritical country) offers a path for teens. In France, sports are totally rejected from schools but every one laments over teens violence ! The movie offers also a (soft) critic of wild capitalism and money, which is rather unusual ! At the end, the movie fails a bit because it's too much about winning ! In love, business or sports, the point is not to be a winner but to give everything, whatever the outcome may be ! But as the unknown cast for me is rather good, the movie is watchable, all the more than it offers Nat as a surprise guest-star ! I left you the pleasure to discover her part and i'm still wondering how after a decade of nearly break after « Johnny English », she decided to come back with this one ! Anyway, she is good and happy and maybe it was her the « underdog » ?
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Sergiodave30 March 2022I love sports movies, and 95% of them I can figure what's going to happen within the first five minutes, this movie is no exception. The acting is nothing special, but okay, the sports story is average but watchable, but the true tale about the inventor lifts the movie from a 5 to 6 star. It's a football movie, what's not to like?
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bratley-2324510 November 2023As my title says this is a movie where I became more worried about the potential business growth of the heater rather than the success of the football team on the field. I have seen many football-driven stories before but this one was lacking the appeal to the team. I felt it combined a bunch of stereotypical sports movie moments and even felt it was taken from previous movies.
For one - Big Mac felt like a complete ripoff of The Blind Side even adding in the scrawny cousin as a package deal.
The coach reminded me of Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights but instead of worrying about the football team he worried more about smooshing with the local bartender. Focus on the team Coach!
At the heart of the story to me really was how corporate America continues to look for ways to screw over the little man. The father who worked at the factory seemed to have a mental limitation which was taken advantage of - this happens in everyday life and this movie showcased it.
I will say the house of the CEO of the factory was almost too impressive when the kids jumped into the backyard lake I wondered if it was safe with the recent bacterial outbreaks in still water but with his money he more than likely treats it.
In the end I do hope for a spinoff for this movie where it focuses more on the fathers space heater and selling it. Maybe a Pursuit of Happyness sequal where he teams up with Will Smith as he sells his bone density scanners.
Anything is possible!
Long story short if you are looking for a non-sports movie about a father trying to sell his space heater and make his well deserved millions then this is your movie!
If you are looking for a Football movie then you may as well turn on the boob tube and hope that a rerun of Varsity Blues is on.
PS - How much did Joe Namath get paid for his appearance? Shouldn't be much more than $1000 and a case of Coors Light. -
yogi8924 August 2013Terrible movie with some bad acting. Mrs Burkett was terrible and stuttering dad was unbelievable. Turns out to be an ad for suarez's eden pure heaters. Good local flair and commentating by the local whbc sports reporter but not enough to make it worth the matinée price or the 1hr 45mins. of my time that I can't get back.
The best I can say about the movie is that quality filming was present. Doesn't look low budget.
My children and spouse graduated from Aquinas and they were embarrassed to see their school in this movie.
Movie is predictable and takes part of the local storyline into the movie. Those that worked at the Hoover company lived the working part of the story.
Save your time and if your local wait for the DVD release, should be in about 2 weeks. -
elizgomez14 May 2014As in really, really bad. The writing is terrible, the actors are horrible. We did get a good laugh at how terribly awful the movie is. I thought it was made 20 years earlier and my husband had dug up a gem from the unwatched movies tucked in to Netflix. There was not one appealing character, the scenes were clichéd... you could guess every single line and outcome. I love football and usually will sit through anything and at least partially be attracted. All I can say is, "Wow!" Was this movie cast from the dregs of an acting school in Akron, Ohio? And what kind of music makes up the background? The music would be better matched to a fern bar. I was stunned to learn this film had grossed over $30,000. Much like "Snakes on a Plane," "Underdogs" movie copies will fill bins in WalMart at a few hundred pennies for hopeful sale for many years to come.
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lauriejeangamble8 May 2015This was a good idea on paper. The terrible acting completely sabotaged this film.
When the movie started I had high hopes. Underdog sports movies kick ass. I was hoping for an Invincible/The Little Giants/The Blind Side feel good movie. What I was left with was a disappointment I haven't felt since the student film I did in college. Only that had better acting. I stopped paying attention at some point.
What a bummer.
On a side note, the two stars are for Natalie Imbruglia. Solid talent there. -
I just saw this film yesterday at the Cleveland International Film Festival. I must say, I was very impressed.
The overall cinematography is in line with most modern day multi-million dollar Hollywood productions, even though this was produced as an independent film and shot in less than a month in Stark County, Ohio. It's amazing to see how far film makers can go when they actually have talent and aren't relying on a bloated budget and over-hyped marketing campaign. UNDERDOGS shines in that the shots themselves are well composed and can, at times, even evoke emotion.
The actors and actresses all performed extremely well. Though this is a family-oriented film, there wasn't a lot of "cheesy" moments or poor acting typically associated with those types of films. The characters themselves are very memorable and you could almost hear the audience praising the heroes and booing the villains as the film went on. There is enough humor sprinkled throughout to keep it from becoming too serious.
Though this was primarily a football movie, I found it quite engaging even though I didn't understand a lot of the football jargon. The parallel plot of an employee fighting against his greedy employer really helps drive home the whole spirit of being an underdog, which most people can really relate to.
Overall, fun and enjoyable film and highly recommended! -
chopprz15 August 2021... with all the cheese they serve in this movie.
A lot of gaffes; misspelling 'thiry' for thirty in the newspaper, no crowd at a State Championship (D4) game, but if you're from Ohio, you'll watch intently because it's filmed in its entirety there and the story of the EdenPure heaters.... creatively speaking, the performance of the inventor, by William Mapother is unsettlingly strong and Val Kilmer-esque in that it owns the movie.
The rest of the story is perfect for a PG audience. Enjoy! -
mark-120-97090621 March 2018Incredibly flat movie that had a promising cast and a nice story.
The movie just lacks any punch as everything is predictable and just kind of fumbles along. And, while the lead actor was OK, he was physically too small and underweight to portray any standard high school QB - not believable at all.
There's too many classic football movies to re-watch vs watching this one. -
I'm a veteran of sports movies... "Rudy", "We Are Marshall", "One on One"-- I grew up on them and still can't resist the genre. So I'm well aware of the underlying metaphor of struggle and victory as it applies to daily life. I also hold a college degree in Literature, so I can sniff out cheese in a movie. "Underdogs" was refreshingly different.
Yes, I loved it because I grew up in the region-- in the cradle of the birthplace of football. But I liked "Rudy", even though I've never worshiped the Football Jesus at Notre Dame. So, only minimal kudos for my love of place. I loved this movie because, unlike many sports movies, it was clear-eyed and real.
The cinematography was sharp and by no means low-budget. The camera was so omnipresent yet graceful that it was able to pick up the subtleties of actors' expressions that catapulted the story along. The pacing was never slow either. The movie roared along like a high-school football season,with the viewer caught up in the play-by-play of the tumultuous season, as well as the companion struggle of the movie's main protagonists. The movie really let its young actors tell the story, too, so the point of view came right from the characters' hearts. Although the adults in the film did the usual pontificating, it was really the kids' story.
As a veteran of many Film Festivals, I can say that this movie is not traditional Film Fest fare. As Sally Sparrow said so well in an episode of British TV series "Dr. Who", 'sad is happy for deep people'. So not your typical Film Fest Sturm und Dang, but plenty of clear-eyed, uncliched retelling of the football myth and legend in our culture.