''Underclassman'' is a 2005 American

action comedy film Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of acti ...

directed by

Marcos Siega Marcos Siega (born June 8, 1969, in New York City) is a film, television, commercial and music video director. He has also worked as a producer, a musician and an artist. In the late 1980s, he helped to form the New York-based punk band Bad Trip, ...

and starring

Nick Cannon Nicholas Scott Cannon (born October 8, 1980) is an American television host, actor, rapper, and comedian. In television, Cannon began as a teenager on ''All That'' before going on to host '' The Nick Cannon Show'', ''Wild 'n Out'', ''America's ...

, Shawn Ashmore,

Roselyn Sánchez Roselyn Milagros Sánchez Rodríguez (born April 2, 1973) is a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, producer, and writer. On television, she is best known for her roles as Elena Delgado on the CBS police procedural ''Without ...

Kelly Hu Kelly Ann Hu (born February 13, 1968 ) is an American actress, voice artist, former fashion model and beauty queen who was Miss Teen USA 1985 and Miss Hawaii USA 1993. Hu starred as Dr. Rae Chang on the American television soap opera '' Sunset ...

Hugh Bonneville Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams (born 10 November 1963) is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series ''Downton Abbey''. His performance on the show earned him a no ...

, and Cheech Marin. It was released on September 2, 2005, had been originally set for a release in 2004. The film was a critical and box office disaster, receiving only a 6% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

and grossing $5.6 million on a production budget of $25,000,000.

Plot

Tracy "Tre" Stokes (

) is a 23-year-old bike cop working for the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

. Tre dreams of being a police detective, like his late father, but his mentor Captain Delgado ( Cheech Marin) believes he is not ready based on his reckless behavior. While playing basketball, Delgado is approached by a representative of the Mayor's office looking to place an undercover detective into the prestigious Westbury School after a student was killed at a party. Tre volunteers to go undercover, and Delgado reluctantly agrees to give him a chance. Tre's mark is Rob Donovan ( Shawn Ashmore), whose name was written on a piece of paper at the scene of the crime. Attempting to befriend Rob on the basketball court after school, Tre learns about a local basketball tournament, the Blacktop Battle, which Rob is captaining for Westbury. Tre arrives at the Blacktop Battle where Westbury is being handily defeated by their crosstown rival. Joining the game, Tre wins the game and impresses Rob, but antagonizing his friends with his selfish play. The next day Tre learns of a party at the marina that Rob routinely throws, and shows up with a borrowed jetski for a race. When a former student and rival of Rob's shows up at the party there is a fight and Tre and Rob are thrown in jail where they form a bond. Tre soon discovers that at every high school party in the area a luxury car seems to be stolen. Tre plans a sting involving throwing his own party at Captain Delgado's home using the Captain's prized '65 Corvette Stingray, Juanita, as bait. Tre sees Rob steal the car, but allows him to escape instead of stopping him, resulting on him getting fired from the force. Continuing the investigation himself, Tre discovers that the cars have been housed at a warehouse on campus and that Rob and his friends have been forced to steal the cars against their will. Headmaster Felix Powers (

), realizing Tre is an undercover cop, enlists his co-conspirators to kidnap and murder Tre at the Blacktop Battle championship game. Tre is abducted along with Karen and they are brought to the campus warehouse to be killed while Powers goes to the docks to trade the stolen vehicles for drugs. Tre, with the help of backup, escapes and interrupts Powers’ drug deal and rescues Karen. Tre then kills Powers during a high speed boat chase in the harbor. In the end Tre graduates high school and is reinstated to the force.

Cast

as Tracy "Tre" Stokes *

as Karen Lopez *

as Lisa Brooks * Ian Gomez as Det. Gallecki * Shawn Ashmore as Rob Donovan *

as Headmaster Felix Powers * Cheech Marin as Captain Victor Delgado *

Johnny Lewis Jonathan Kendrick Lewis (October 29, 1983 – September 26, 2012), also credited as Johnny K. Lewis, was an American film and television actor. He played Kip "Half-Sack" Epps in the first two seasons of the FX series ''Sons of Anarchy'', and o ...

as Alexander Jeffries *Angelo Spizzirri as David Boscoe *Vishiss as Edward Murdock *Adrian Young as Jose *

Don McManus Don McManus (born November 8, 1959) (sometimes credited as Don R. McManus) is an American character actor of film and television. He became better known after his performance as Duncan in the ''Seinfeld'' episode “The Race”. Born in San Dieg ...

as Julian Reynolds * Mary Pat Gleason as Mrs. Hagerty *

Peter Bryant Peter Bryant (27 October 1923 – 19 May 2006) was an English television producer, script editor and former actor. He acted in ''The Grove Family'' as a regular cast member and later became the producer of '' Doctor Who'' from 1967 to 196 ...

as Michael Barry * Sam Easton as Oliver Horn * Kaylee DeFer as Des *

Terry Chen Terry Chen (born February 3, 1975) is a Canadian film and television actor. Early life Chen was born in Edmonton, Alberta, to Taiwanese and Chinese parents originating from Taiwan (father) and mainland China (mother). After primary and secondary ...

as Sleepy Morris *

Jamie Kaler Jamie Kaler (born September 14, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian and actor who has gained fame by portraying the character Mike Callahan on the TBS comedy ''My Boys''. Career Kaler hosted '' America: Facts vs. Fiction'' on American Heroes ...

as Beach Police Officer *

Ben Cotton Ben Cotton (born July 26, 1975) is a Canadian film and television actor. His most notable roles are on the TV series ''Stargate Atlantis'' playing scientist Dr. Kavanagh, his portrayal of "Leon Bell" in the game Dead Rising 2, Shane Pierce, the ...

as Raver *

Zak Santiago Zak Santiago (born January 3, 1981) is a Canadian actor and DJ. Early life Santiago was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Career Santiago has appeared in many television shows, including ''Young Blades'', ''Smallville'', ''Robson Arms' ...

as Anderson * Dan Shea as Weston * Sarah Jane Morris as Jamie (uncredited)

Production

In June 2003, music video director Marcos Siega was announced as director of Underclassman. Shanwn Ashmore joined the cast in August 2003.

Reception

Box office

''Underclassman'' was released on Labor Day weekend (September 2) in 2005, and performed poorly at the box office opening at number 11 with $3,393,610. Overall ''Underclassman'' earned just $5,655,459 against a budget of $25 million in seven weeks of release.

Critical response

''Underclassman'' received universal negative reviews from critics. On

, only 6% of the critics gave it positive write-ups with the consensus: "Despite the appealing presence of Nick Cannon, ''Underclassman'' is a shopworn knockoff of both ''

Beverly Hills Cop ''Beverly Hills Cop'' is a 1984 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Martin Brest, screenplay by Daniel Petrie Jr., story by Danilo Bach and Daniel Petrie Jr., and starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop ...

'' and ''

21 Jump Street ''21 Jump Street'' is an American police procedural television series that aired on the Fox network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focuses on a squad of youthful-loo ...

''." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has received 20 poor and 5 medium reviews for an overall score of 19. ''Underclassman'' is currently the sixth worst reviewed film on Metacritic released in 2005.

References

External links

* * * * {{Marcos Siega 2005 films 2005 comedy films 2005 drama films 2005 comedy-drama films 2000s high school films 2000s police comedy films 2000s teen comedy films American comedy-drama films American crime comedy films American high school films American police detective films American teen comedy films Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department Films directed by Marcos Siega Films scored by BT (musician) Films set in Los Angeles Films shot in Vancouver Miramax films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films