Wednesday 21 March 2012

Capsule reviews of new releases

In this image released by Lionsgate, Jennifer Lawrence portrays Katniss Everdeen in a scene from One gets the sensation while watching this low-budget '80s parody that a bunch of people went trolling at a vintage clothing store one day, found some moon boots, acid-washed jean jackets and neon tank tops and decided to make a movie about them. "The FP" makes fun of several genres â€" dance movies, underdog sports flicks, glossy action pictures â€" and mixes them together in an attempt at kitschy cult infamy. But rather than crafting a movie that's so bad it's good, writer-director brothers Jason and Brandon Trost have come up with something that's just plain bad â€" and boring, and repetitive. Once you get past the initial laugh factor of the hideous retro trappings, there isn't much left. The predominately white characters talk in the sort of co-opted, clunky hip-hop slang that might have worked for a little while in a sketch but soon grows tiresome. As an attempt at social commentary, this approach feels half-baked; as comedy, it just feels numbing. In a futuristic wasteland known as "The FP" (actually the Southern California mountain town of Frazier Park), a turf war is raging between trash-talking dance gangs. Jason Trost stars as JTRO (pronounced JAY-tro), who loses his older brother, BTRO (Brandon Barrera), in a deadly "Beat-Beat Revelation" video game showdown with their gold-toothed rival, L Dubba E (Lee Valmassy). A year later, JTRO is dragged out of hiding to avenge his brother's death in a rematch. R for pervasive language, sexual content, some nudity and brief drug material. 83 minutes. One star out of four.


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