Underclassman (2005)

"Underclassman" is not a particularly memorable or impressive movie. It is sort of a clone version of "Beverly Hills Cop" mixed with "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air". Now, you might think that it would make for a good combination, so did I. But the movie doesn't offer anything new or innovative that hasn't already been done or shown in the aforementioned titles.The story is about a reckless undercover police man named Tracey who is sent into a private school to unravel a stolen car ring.Story-wise, then "Underclassman" is adequate, just don't expect to be blown away by anything overly impressive. If you enjoyed the aforementioned titles then you will enjoy this movie to some extend. I just thought that this movie was a bit weak.The acting in the movie was good, though. And it was nice to see Cheech Marin in the movie. Just a shame he didn't have more time on the screen. I bought this movie because of Kelly Hu, and was disappointed with the short amount of screen time she was given, especially when she was on the front cover of the DVD movie.This is the type of movie that you will watch once, bag and tag it, and only to forget about it as it collects dust on the shelf.

I don't usually give praise to many movies - am too critical. However, like a few others viewers who cared to remark, I'm shocked that so many on IMDb gave this flick such a low rating, so I have to retaliate. The reason I give this props is twofold: (1) I usually hate sophomoric humor and many films directed at a teen audience. However, Cannon's quick-witted, disarming lines made me laugh the whole way through. His dry, comic delivery is underrated and unpredictable, to say the least. As for the racism observations, I'm white, and I think that charge is ridiculous. Sure, there's racial humor, but get a funnybone - it's a joke. can't you laugh at yourself? We whites tend to have a stick up our butts - the characters played off each other. Why react with such sensitivity? The comedy definitely shines. (2) At least 4-6 of the characters develop to some extent. It's a kind of coming of age story for Cannon who proves not only his professional sense and skills but his interpersonal growth with peers. He's not sensitive to the rejection and pushes through, adapting his behavior until he wins confidence. A lesson for most of us. While it's true that most characters are foils by comparison to Cannon, the lead, the supporting cast are NOT completely flat characters. The Captain, two other police officers and at least two students and one teacher come to put things in new perspective or grow up, in one way or another. In short, this is not just the mindless fluff other viewers seem to see. Yes, there were clichés, and the script was often predictable, but welcome to 95% of big or small screen writing in America, these days. If you like sardonic wit, humorous ghetto-talk and a bit of silliness with some serious undercurrents, growth and bonding - lessons of friendship - ignore the dissing and take a look for yourself. It made me chuckle for over an hour and made my day.

The film's got laughable and insane plot of a young high school student working as an undercover LAPD cop working on a car theft case. The acting's pretty bad (I recognised only Kelly Hu and Ashmore among the cast) and the screenplay's full of tiresome clichés of racial harmony, student-teacher relationship, basketball and dead father's inspiration. Still the story carries itself to the end smoothly. As I was watching the film, I frequently found myself enjoying the poor-quality scenes and dialogues. Instantly forgettable it may be, but I never came to a point of actually hating this film. Come on, it's not that bad as the IMDb rated... I've seen much worse.

I was very skeptical about this movie: low rating, bad review but i really liked it!!! This is probably the most underrated movie ever!!!! I saw a lot of crappy movie made in 2005, some very bad, but they had always higher score than this!!!!!! why??? This is a nice adventure,cop, comedy movie.... OK this movie will not be a cult movie or a potential Oscar winner but it still worth watching. Absolutely not as bad as people say. So, if you are searching for a nice comedy,adv,cop,teen movie without deep plot and some laugh this is a good 90 minutes to spend in front of your TV!!! Don't believe the low rating!!!