The FP

Pepe LeFrits

In a dystopian future, a relentless turf war rages. Two rival gangs feud for control of rural wasteland Frazier Park ('The FP') in the deadly arena of competitive dance-fight video game "Beat-Beat Revelation." After hometown hero BTRO is slain on the dance platform by thug leader L Dubba E, his protégé younger brother JTRO (Jason Trost) goes into isolation, vowing never to duel again.

One year later, The FP is in ruins, and JTRO must find the courage to return and restore order in a ruthless battle for revenge that can only leave one man dancing. From the producers of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and featuring narration by James Remar (THE WARRIORS), THE FP is a fury of fierce footwork, triumphant montages and neon street wear that Moviefone calls "a rare ready-made cult hit."

Pardon if there's already been threads on this but I couldn't find them. I just watched (some of) it. It's an astounding film. The 80s style synth soundtrack is superb.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

*moves the life and death of colonel blimp off the favourite movie spot*

krudler

that looks ****ing hilarious, its like the Zoolander of dance movies

It's a terrible, terrible film that really is nowhere near as enjoyably bad as you would hope. I seen numerous ads for the film proclaiming that it James Remar, it doesn't. His only contribution is providing two lines of voice over for the opening scene. The problem with the film is that the film makers set out to make a cult classic and the problem with doing so is that much like the recent grindhouse resurgence, the people who made those original films were not try to emulate or ape a style but were simply making films. Repo Man is a great example of a cult classic, it's a film that has a dedicated and loyal fan base most of whom discovered the film through word of mouth. It's a film whose appeal and cult status never needs to be explained unlike The FP which feels like some joke that only the film makers are privy to. I'm still not sure if the film was intended as a comedy or if it's just inept that it became one.

The dialogue in the film is amongst the worst ever put on screen. Character dialogue involves nothing more than trash talking, racial slurs (nigga is repeatedly used though supposedly it means Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished) and classic lines such as "He wasn't expectin' the unexpected; but it sure as fuck expected him." Most of the dialogue is made up of what is obvious slang but as were not aware of what most of it means then we lose all interest in it. Thankfully the copy I had included a commentary so I could turn it on and listen to the film makers explain what the slang meant. According to them 80% of the dialog is "shit we've heard at parties" but then they go on to say that they made up a lot of the slang. Personally I found those statements to be rather insulting to the viewer, why should I invest time in a film if the film makers can't be bothered to even try and make the dialogue sound realistic to viewers outside of their world. It's not like this is a film heavy on exposition or that any of the lines are in the least bit fun though the film makers seem to think that they may be the next David Mamet.

Much as I'd love to rip into the film a little more, it's getting late and I have an early start but there is one aspect of the film that is amongst the laziest, most under developed and down right stupid moments in he history of cinema and a clear indicator of just how little thought, ambition or love went into the project. The events of the film hinge on one incident that sets in motion the events of the film. Early on in the film a member of the gang the 248 dies and the character of JTRO is deeply affected. Now so far it all sounds so straight forward but what isn't are the events surrounding the death. One second the character is playing the dance video game and the next he's collapsing to the floor. I assumed when watching that I had missed something so I went back to the start of the scene and watched it again and upon my second viewing I was still wondering what happened. I decided to see if it was discussed on the commentary track where I heard the film makers give this explanation "Whenever anyone asks, like, why did he die?, it's like, shit's tough in The FP. That's the only excuse you need. Like, we could go on, oh his lungs collapsed or he had a heart attack, and I don't—no. Shit's just tough in the FP, and that's the answer. That is why he died." I don't know if it's just me but when I'm watching a film, no matter if it's a comedy or a drama or a horror or whatever, I want to be invested in the characters but it's impossible to do so when the film makers clearly don't give a damn about the narrative or their characters. Imagine how uninteresting and down right poor cinema would be if every filmmaker applied this logic to their film?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

when watching the trailer I assumed that there was a strong electric shock for the loser of the dance dance game and that's how the dude died

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

when watching the trailer I assumed that there was a strong electric shock for the loser of the dance dance game and that's how the dude died

It may look like that in the trailer but it's never explained in the film and given the directors comments on the commentary they simply didn't bother to offer any explanation.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i guess lindelof had an uncredited role in the production so