• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
  
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit)
  
• Subtitles: English SDH
  
• Subtitles Color: White
  
• Region: A (Region-Locked)
• Rating: PG
  
• Run Time: 83 Mins.
• Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray + Digital Copy)
• Studio: Image Entertainment/Drafthouse Films
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: June 19, 2012
• List Price: $29.97

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Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

[Rating:1.5/5]

When The FP first started up it didn’t take too long for me to start thinking, “are these guys for real?” Of course, I already knew the answer to that, which was “no,” but I somehow needed confirmation that what I was seeing was actually occurring, that I wasn’t on a hidden camera show or something. The current golden boys of cult film cool, the young upstarts Drafthouse Films, make another feature film effort with this play it straight gangland satire about drugs, violence, and, umm, do or die video game dance competitions? Yeah, you read that correctly.

Now, the story is straightforward and torn from every sports film and crime thriller ever made. The dancing video gamer JTRO (Jason Trost) loses his brother in a Beat-Beat Revolution video game throwdown to mohawk wearing gold-toothed thug L Dubba E, played in a convincingly unhinged, over the top performance by Lee Valmassy. Deciding to leave the gangsta life for good, JTRO skips town, leaving behind The FP (Frazier Park) and all its fighting and video game wars, heading for a clean country life of hard work. His friends track him down, however, convincing him to head back to The FP and help save it from the clutches of L Dubba E who, in his absence, has taken control of the city’s booze business, wielding cruel power over all the alcoholics.

Returning to The FP, JTRO finds his love interest, the capricious Stacy (Caitlyn Folley), now hooking up with L Dubba E in order to keep her abusive father lubricated with the gin and juice. His pal KCDC (Art Hsu) sets him up with a gruff, ball busting trainer, BLT (Nick Principe), to get him in shape and ready to challenge L to another Beat-Beat Revolution throwdown for control of The FP.

As satires go, The FP misses the mark completely. The idea of a bunch of white boys running around speaking urban patois and throwing around the word “nigga” for 80-minutes is ridiculous enough. Maybe that in and of itself is meant to be the whole running joke, but it really isn’t funny. It’s not that it’s offensive, it’s just that, it’s not funny. They play this whole alternate universe so seriously that, somewhere along the line, they forgot about any actual parody. But it should be mentioned that the Trosts are to be commended for actually crafting a believable even if silly alternate universe for this parody. It’s too bad the satire is completely aimless.

Video Quality

[Rating:3.5/5]

The FP does not hide its relatively low budget ($1 million) in this AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 transfer from Image Entertainment. While the Trost Bros. and Drafthouse did a pretty good job making the film look glossier than the budget would otherwise have told, the artifacts in the image, color banding, some instances of posterization, and a little softness in detail, give the secret away. It’s not that The FP looks horrible — I’ve seen far worse than this — it’s just that the image doesn’t quite reach the level of the best films out there.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

The English DTS-HD Master audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) soundtrack fares a bit better than the video effort offering sufficiently active dance music scenes with beefy low frequencies, punchy gunshots and clean dialogue with good amounts of chatter and other atmospherics in the surround channels. While it isn’t the most balanced mix or smoothest sounding in the upper regions I’ve heard, it is nonetheless effective for his material.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2.5/5]

There are decent production featurettes offered up in HD, just in case you were really itching to get the lowdown on how this classic bit of cinema was created. Additionally, an audio commentary by the Trosts is thrown in for good measure.

The supplements:

• Commentary with the Trost Bros.
• Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished: The Making of The FP (1.78:1; 1080p/24):
  • The Making of The FP
  • Costume Designing The FP: Interview with Sarah Trost
  • Scoring in The FP: Interview with Composer George Holdcroft
• The FP in The FP: A Return to Frazier Park (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:10:30)
• Green Band Theatrical Trailer (2.35:1; 1080p/24)
• Red Band Theatrical Trailer (2.35:1; 1080p/24)
• Digital Copy

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:2.5/5]

The FP tries too hard to be cool and instead is an epic fail. If this is what passes for an instant cult classic amongst the Gen-Y crowd these days, then perhaps they need to finally learn the real meanings of irony, parody, and satire. The only thing funny here is the fact that someone decided to make a feature film out of this. Skip it.

Additional Screen Captures

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Purchase The FP on Blu-ray at CD Universe

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Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

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