There is still life outside of Hollywood, and it is good. Last year the brothers Jason and Brandon Trost released The FP onto the world. What is the FP you ask yourself? Well it stands for Frazier Park, which is a village in Kern County, California, spaning five square miles. In 2007 the Trost brothers made a short film/fake trailer called The FP. It told us about a dystopian future where gangs battled it out using Dance Dance Revolution type video games. Four years later they took that idea and made their first feature length film of the same name. The result is……..amazing.
Now you might have now said to yourself why would I want to watch a film about a video game that you dance with type of movie? Because it is fun, original and very campy. This is a film that reminds us of the late 70’s and the early 80’s. It has that feel of The Karate Kid, Footloose and The Warriors. But at the same time it offers us a true spoof feel which is not easy to accomplish properly. It’s almost like that Three Amigos type of spoof humor, but not like the “dumb” spoofy horror comedies of recent. As a spoof it takes itself very seriously, but what is it spoofing?
The FP tells the story of JTRO and BTRO, two of the 248’s finest Beat Beat Revelation players, which is a video game you dance with to compete. Then there is the 245, area code to L Dubba E who is the villain in the movie. After an unfortunate dance off between BTRO and Dubba E, JTRO preaches that he will never dance again. Only to realize later down the road that his town needs him due to the horrible things L Dubba E is doing to the FP. JTRO teams up with KC/DC and BLT to train and once again claim the honor back that his brother once had in these aggressive dance offs.
Right off the bat you should be aware of the names of the characters. Insane versions of the real names of the crew. JTRO and BTRO are Jason and Brandon Trost. L Dubba E equals Lee, get it? Who is portrayed masterfully by Lee Valmassy. But this is only the beginning The language that comes out of their mouths is unimaginable. It is a very urban over the top slang type of speech. And it works very well. I can only imagine the time spent on the script to get it just right. It is also nice to see that they keep family involved in the film, Sarah Trost did all of the costume design.
So do yourself a favor and seek out The FP for a good time. Available on Netflix, iTunes and plain old DVD, this film will not disappoint you. It is nice to see film makers have fun with what they are working with. I waited months before I could finally see this when it was released, and I was not disappointed at all. It is re-watchable and recommended to watch with a group of friends. It is one of those movies that is worth talking about when it is over.