The FP

Hey folks! I haven't forgotten about my 2014 year of movies previews, but I watched a movie last night that I just had to review. Check out..."The FP"





The FP 
(R) 2013

Starring: 
Jason Trost, Lee Valmassy, Art Hsu, Caitlyn Folley

If you liked...:
Idiocracy, Malibu's Most Wanted, Grindhouse, Army of Darkness, The Warriors

What's it about?: 
In a near-future "post-apocalypse" wasteland, two gangs fight for dominance of Frazier Park (the FP), where gang members compete by playing "Beat Beat Revalation" (a parody of Dance Dance Revolution) against each other, sometimes with deadly consequences. No. I'm not making this up.

Are you serious...?:
Yes. And most importantly, DO NOT go into this movie with high expectations of Oscar-worthy performances, massive plot twists, etc. It's purely what it was made to be: a weird, hilarious, "watch it once and be done with it" kind of movie.

For anyone familiar with their work, myself not included, the movie is typical M.O. for the Trost brothers (directors), whose movies tend to be off-the-wall, inappropriate B-movies.

The Good:
The plot is absolutely ludicrous. The acting is purposefully bad, and the characters are just weird. You'll hear more curse words in the first scene of the movie than you'll probably hear in the entirety of any other movie this year. But this movie is by no means bad! I mean, its not an award winner, but it is made to be ridiculous, and it succeeds very well.

To get an idea of what you're in for, picture "Mad Max" with a dose of "Rocky" and topped with a sprinkle of "The Warriors", if all of those movies took place in an arcade in the late 1990's.

BTRO (left) dance battles L Dubba E (right)

After a few instances of sighing, "Whaaaaat....?" I finally just gave in to the goofy insanity that the movie had to offer. If you don't just enjoy the ride for the crazy that it is, you won't like it. But by the end of the first scene, I had to keep watching, and it  was definitely worth it.

Outside of the goofiness, the visuals were, for such an extremely low budget movie, very appropriate, and well done. Whereas the synopsis states that the movie is supposed to be "post-apocalyptic", I'd more so classify it as the American south in about 50 years. The cage match-style "Beat Beat Revelation" scenes were always a lot of fun, and filled with color, in a 80s-meets-2013 sort of way.

The Bad:
As mentioned before, if you're not a fan of vulgar movies, steer clear . As an R-rated movie, there are a few scenes with some brief nudity, and some odd sexual content, but again, they're all very brief, and if you've seen an R-rated movie in the past, its nothing surprising. I expected it to be WAY raunchier than it turned out to be, honestly. A couple of vomit scenes too, which felt unnecessary, but then again almost everything did at some point.

Outside of that, I can't really complain about this movie, not because it was astoundingly great, but because it wasn't trying to be. If I caught myself saying the acting was bad, its because it was meant to be bad. If I thought the plot was extremely predictable, its because it was parodying the predictable plots of countless movies before it.

JTRO, the protagonist

If you really want to give this movie a chance, I cannot stress enough how much you have to just let loose and not think so hard. If you want a deep movie, throw in "The Shawshank Redemption." If you want goofy, one-time hilarity, try "The FP." And guess what?! IT'S ON NETFLIX! (Seriously...I need an endorsement deal...)




Verdict:
7 awesome dance moves out of 10

Good, not great. Very fun once, but I can't see myself watching it again in the near future. It's a parody for the sake of parody.