The movie centers around the reluctant hero, J-Tro, who loses his brother early on in the movie. At first, I thought he died due to the game. I mean, you see a plate attached to the screen that says "voltage" so you totally get the idea that he was somehow electrocuted through the dancepad when he lost the game, adding that Mad Max style fight to the death element to it. It turns out this is not the case (his brother's death was due to a more underhanded plot), and J-Tro probably shouldn't have been so angry at the game itself, but he quits it anyway and goes to live as a recluse lumberjack. So it turns out that the "voltage" plate was just a misleading bit of tchotchke that found its way to the background. J-Tro is later pulled back into the game by his former gang friend, KCDC. He is taken under the wing of a dance guru called BLT, who then makes J-Tro train to battle the rival gangs for revenge (and for control of the booze racket). A classic, 80's style training montage is included.
The dialogue is a difficult to understand mess of "gangster" and hip hop jargon. It sounds like nothing that anyone would actually say (Demolition Man seemed more realistic than this), and the source material seemed to be "what the actors thought ghetto slang sounded like in their head." It's always forced, and it's delivered with so much spitting and emphasis, it seems like all the actors probably went home with headaches at the end of the day. It's a shame, because the acting is pretty decent. There's no one here who can't understand motivation and can't properly deliver a line. It's just that the lines mostly come out as this muddy, unintelligible mess.
The movie goes off on some humorous tangents, but it just doesn't keep them going. One character describes the town's underground drug problem, which amounts to someone controlling the alcohol distribution in the city. Without the alcohol, townspeople are turning to "real" drugs like meth and... well, meth. That's about all this movie has for vices. He also describes the problem as an environmental issue of sorts, and says in a crying rage, "With no drunks there ain't no bums, and without bums, there’s no one to feed the ducks, what's a f***ing town without ducks?"
As much as this film could have been a kitschy kind of comedy film, it only manages to be boring and tasteless on so many levels. Yeah, I know this might be the point, but it doesn't make it any more entertaining. Misogynistic, racist, and homophobic speech abounds, and general nastiness like used condoms being thrown at people show up regularly. Women are used like trophies and tools for sexual satisfaction, and it’s basically like a world built on the foundations of a raunchy rap video. But then there's confusing stuff that just doesn't seem to achieve any sort of purpose at all. For example, at one point, a woman's shirt falls off for pretty much no reason, and she stands around kind of oblivious to it all, then half-heartedly tries to cover up. Ok, I'm not saying I don't actually get the purpose of this (nudity thrown in for a cheap thrill), but it still seems more confusing than exciting.
There's a surprising amount of extra content included with this movie. There's making-of videos, costume production, commentary, and more. And the features do let you get into the mind of the creators and actors with in-depth interviews, so you can count on at least a good package and not just a plain movie with trailers thrown in for filler. Overall, the production level is good for such a cheesy sort of low-budget movie. There are some moments of nice lighting, scene setup, creative costumes and a decent score to go along with everything. It's really not a bad example of how to set and film a movie, it's just the subject material that isn't interesting.
The FP is a concept that should have been a 15 minute webisode at the most. Instead, it draws itself out into a trope-filled yawn-fest. There's just not much substance to it once you introduce the core concept and get done with it. It is produced fairly well, however, so if you are a fan of this sort of low budget genre, it does work well enough for what it is.
