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Underclassman

Overwhelming dislike
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Comedy | Crime | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
David Wagner (also story)
Brent Goldberg (also story)
Nick Cannon (story)
Directed by: Marcos Siega
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 2, 2005
DVD: January 17, 2006
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for violence, sexual references, drug material and some teen drinking
Starring Nick Cannon, Roselyn Sanchez, Shawn Ashmore, Angelo Spizzirri, Hugh Bonneville, Rob Bruner, Ben Cotton, and Kaylee DeFer
LA's youngest cop Tre Stokes (Cannon) is about to get his biggest assignment: he must go undercover to break up a dangerous crime ring rooted in a upscale prep school. The deeper Tre goes the more dangerous and volatile the situation becomes. Fighting both his personal demons and the forces determined to take him down, he must risk everything to catch the ones closest to him. (Miramax)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Pretty Persuasion
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Teresa Wiltz
If you saw "21 Jump Street" back in the '80s, or any of a number of shows featuring cute and cuddly cops, you pretty much know where this flick is heading.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Stina Chyn
If you have nothing more stimulating to do on a Friday night, Underclassman could provide the entertainment--not enlightenment--you seek.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Marcos Siega's direction is well-paced, but writers David T. Wagner and Brent Goldberg haven't brought anything sufficiently fresh or original to a formula plot to allow Underclassman to rise above the level of a mildly diverting video rental.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Yes, it's really silly, and no, you won't remember a thing about it the second it's over, but adults looking for fast moving, non-violent fun that kids might actually enjoy could do a lot worse.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Some fairly standard shenanigans ensue, and when the clichéd high school culture clash stuff stops, there's clichéd cop movie stuff going on.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
There's little that's special about Underclassman, certainly nothing that Murphy and Eddie Griffin haven't done better in movies far funnier than this.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
Nick Cannon, playing an L.A. cop who goes undercover as a prep school student, provides the few sparks this wan action-comedy can muster.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
So far-fetched as to make "Kindergarten Cop" look comparatively austere.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune John Anderson
What's remarkable is how absolutely every character in the film is a movie cliche.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Underclassman doesn't even try to be good. It knows that it doesn't have to be. It stars Nick Cannon, who has a popular MTV show, and it's a combo cop movie, romance, thriller and high school comedy. That makes the TV ads a slam dunk; they'll generate a Pavlovian response in viewers conditioned to react to their sales triggers (smartass young cop, basketball, sexy babes, fast cars, mockery of adults).
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The loserville teen comedy Underclassman is like a student project sloppily cribbed from other kids' notes -- kids who have seen "Rush Hour" and still can't get over how funny it is to stick a noisy black guy in a distinctly nonblack setting.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
The only hint of professionalism comes from Cheech Marin as Cannon's boss, who at times seems to be acting in a different movie.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
That sound you hear is from jet engines gassing up, about to zoom Underclassman to DVD-ville.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Less an original product than a shoddy tribute to other mediocre cop movies.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Grade Underclassman an "Unacceptable effort," and "D" for derivative.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The latest bit of damaged goods offered up in the Miramax clearance sale, Underclassman plays like the longest episode of "21 Jump Street" ever made.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
Its star, who injected such life into the surprisingly unformulaic "Drumline," is adrift in a sea of cop-movie clichés, and Siega's party-to-go direction hews more closely to his music-video beginnings than to his critically noted "Pretty Persuasion."
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
Conceptually, Underclassman is the stillborn spawn of "Beverly Hills Cop" and "21 Jump Street." Except its star, Nick Cannon, possesses neither the biting cool of young Eddie Murphy nor the sullen mystery of Johnny Depp. And the script, by David T. Wagner and Brent Goldberg, is breathtakingly bad.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Saved from total puff only by the obnoxiousness of its star, who seems to be laboring under the delusion that he's the next Eddie Murphy.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nick Sylvester
British bliss czars, the doughnut-loving LAPD, and bitchin'-hot Spanish profs, no matter how many, how fat, or how bitchin' hot, can't make up for easy double entendres and zero character development.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Almost comically unambitious, Underclassman seldom tries to be funny, and never even attempts to be original.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Once in a great while -- usually late August -- a movie comes along that's so lame, it doesn't deserve a bad review. It deserves a war-crimes tribunal. Ladies and gentlemen, Underclassman is that special film.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
The inconsistencies and continuity errors are staggering.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 1.8 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jodi F. gave it a10:
Outstanding. I agree with Roy. Perhaps the greatest single flim to grace the silver screen since "The Godfather". The acting is tear-jerking, along with an ending for the ages and a twist you'll never believe. Nicholas Cannon portrays his character so well, you soon forget that you're watching cinema and slowly believe you are drifting towards a utopia. If you do not see this movie before you die, you did not live a life worth living.
Roy gave it a10:
Underclassman is a rare treat indeed. Where previous reviews have cited each character as a cliche, I would hold them rather delicately in cupped hands and observe the tender development of each player as they blossom on screen in what has to be said is one of the finest movies to grace our screens since the thirtees.
Jay M gave it a0:
Just plain bad.
Sean P. gave it a0:
Saw it on a wim. It was terrible.
Prudence Khillers gave it a0:
Disgusting film.
Kristen R. gave it a0:
Painful to watch.
