Balls of Fury (2007)

I gave this a 4 because it could and should have been way funnier. Basically a Kung Fu pastiche, but with Ping Pong in place of Kung Fu, some of the jokes and situations are very funny and some are not. Worth seeing once.

Now I do enjoy this film to a certain extent but due to a lot of things it is just distinctly average and really fails to push through to the levels of other comedies like Anchorman or Dodgeball. Now the guy that they got to play Randy Daytona in this film I have not heard of now or ever but he is functional in this film and has some good funny moments but it does leave you with the wish that somebody of Jack Black or Will Ferrell's calibre had been chosen to play the role. The side characters are really good with Christopher Walken totally stealing his scenes and having the best and most outrageous lines in the film, also his wardrobe is awesome in this film. George Lopez is a good addition with some good lines even though his character is a bit simple. The trainer and love interest are good as well even though you don't buy the romance at all she still is cool and the trainer has some funny lines. The story is just lazy it is so basic it is unreal and it doesn't have any real interesting dynamics and it is definitely not one of the positives of the film which can take away from the film. The script is like what you would expect solid though some of the lines aren't really that good and it doesn't hit like it should. The style is a mixed bag as the costumes for some of the characters are pretty cool but it is so stereotypical and a bit insulting with its interpretation that doesn't really add to the film. Overall Balls of Fury is an average film that will give a couple of laughs.

"Balls of Fury" is a poor, obvious comedy notable only for starring Christopher Walken as a....as a what? A mixed race, Manchurian, mafia, robot-loving super villain with a fetish for ping-pong? The film's a comedic take on Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon", but its jokes are mostly all dated. Even by the standards of similarly trashy "sports comedies" like "Dodgeball", "Blades of Glory" and "Semi Pro", "Balls of Fury" is weak. The film stars actress Maggie Q, who is some kind of statistical anomaly: a Vietnamese, Hawaian, Polish, American Irish woman. That's what the Q stands for. Quirky.According to IMDb stats, females under 18 adore this film. Must be all the balls.5/10 – Worth no viewings.

There are probably those that say that a little feature of the sport of table tennis, like in Forrest Gump, is as far as it will go, it's not exactly a game of football or golf, but it happened! Basically Randy Daytona used to be a champion Ping Pong pro when the game was made an official sport in 1988, but then his father is killed and he stops playing. Now grown up, Randy (Dan Fogler) can only make money doing hardly watched magic tricks involving his skill, but they may have some better use when he is met by FBI Agent Ernie Rodriguez (George Lopez). He is recruiting Randy for a secret mission to get close to Most Wanted fiend Feng (Christopher Walken), who is also responsible for the death of Randy's father. To get a bit more professional practise before seeing the villain, Randy gets some guidance from blind but wise Ping Pong expert Master Wong (James Hong), and is trained by his feisty daughter Maggie (Die Hard 4.0's Maggie Q). Eventually, Randy is ready to face Feng, entering his mysterious jungle compound and the most unique Ping Pong tournaments, facing fierce players, like old opponent Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon). I admit that I dozed off about half-way through, and I woke up pretty much at the conclusion, where Feng is defeated in a final game of Ping Pong on an unstable rope bridge, and that's about it. Also starring Norbit's Terry Crews as Freddy, Robert Patrick as Sgt. Pete Daytona and Jason Scott Lee as Siu-Foo. Walken is an alright camp villain, if a little ridiculous, the Enter the Dragon inspired stuff is silly, and just the whole idea of basing a film around Ping Pong does seem very slippery, so it's a sports comedy flop for me. Adequate!