Los Angeles Times

One-note spoof of a turf war

- — Robert Abele

In sibling filmmakers’ Brandon and Jason Trost’s turf-war spoof “The FP,” the title is short for dusty mountain community Frazier Park, imagined as a whitetrash dystopia of dumb-macho gangs thatcurse like second-rate rappers, dress like extras from “Escape From New York” and settle scores by way of a competitiv­e dance video game called Beat-beat Revelation.

If that descriptio­n sounds more viral-video amusing than worthy of your feature-length time, then it won’t be surprising to learn that “The FP” — in which a quiet hero (co-director Jason Trost) must battle a rival (Lee Valmassy) for the hard-partying soul of a scuzzy town — was originally a short film.

Beyond the deliberate­ly inane, relentless­ly profane trash-talking that passes for dialogue, and a handful of parodic fist bumps to the cheesier signposts of ’80sera underdog movies, this amped-up lark is as onenote as the repetitive synthand-drum-machine score that blankets the movie like a retro cure-all for its lack of cleverness.

“The FP” so desperatel­y wants to be cultishly admired for its bad-taste rollout of wacko characters, ugly costumes and vulgar slang that it forgets to be genuinely offbeat or funny.

“The FP.” MPAA rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content, some nudity and brief drug material. Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes. At the Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre, Los Angeles.

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