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.

Balls of Fury (2007): Dir: Robert Ben Garant / Cast: Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, George Lopez, Maggie Q, James Hong: One joke comedy about smaller factors conquering the masses. Dan Fogler plays a washed out ping-pong player recruited by FBI to go undercover at a ping-pong tournament in order to bring down his father's murderer. Funny setup becomes repetitious and perhaps too carefree in the third act. Director Robert Ben Garant throws in every martial arts joke he can but his biggest aid is the mock production that add both look and satire appeal. Fogler loses his passion only to find it again. He aims to avenge his father's death but becomes embarked upon many amusing training sessions that often place him in pain. To say that he wins the tournament and avenges his father is obvious. What works is Christopher Walken who is terrific as the underground tyrant out to create fatal tournaments for pleasure not realizing that his past is catching up to him. George Lopez as an FBI agent is a great idea but the role is pretty routine. Maggie Q plays the daughter of Fogler's blind trainer, which is to say that her existence is purely as a sexual tease with predictable results. James Hong provides much amusement as Fogler's trainer of sort, whose methods provide some of the best laughs. Well made satire of martial arts films using a harmless sport to more devastating results. Score: 6 ½ / 10

"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.

Balls of Fury seemed like a clever idea; take all the clichés from martial arts b-movies and apply them to ping-pong. Unfortunately, this flick doesn't deliver on its promising premise. First from seeing the trailer, I didn't know what to expect but it looked alright. This film wasn't be taken serious but just silly and comedic. There are some jokes there but some also childish acts. Most of the jokes are toilet jokes, jokes involving the blind man. It was surprising to see Christopher Waken in this. Though he was pretty god as the villain. He's a natural; his timing is terrific and he makes nearly everything he says worth a giggle or two in "Balls." Without him, there wouldn't be much to write about this movie at all. It could have been much better but it was pretty okay imo