Balls of Fury (2007)

Solid Comedy, if you are in the mood

Reading the reviews I can understand why this movie can be funny. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I could imagine someone not liking it if their funny bone wasnt working that day.

I would say if you liked these movies - Dumb and Dumber, Reno 911, Dodgeball - then this movie will be very funny to you.

July 7, 2008

if you've seen the previews, you've seen the movie

We bought this, having seen the previews and finding them irresistible. Unfortunately, if you've seen the preview (and if not, check it out on YouTube), you've seen the entire movie, or at least the good parts.

Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is a ping pong has-been, reduced to doing a variety act, until he's approached by FBI agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) to help take down Feng (Christopher Walken), the man responsible for his father's death.

To do that, Randy needs to be invited to Feng's extreme ping pong tournament, but he hasn't competed since his Olympic humiliation 18 years ago, so they hire blind ping pong master Wong (James Hong) and his niece (Maggie Q) to get him up to speed.

I didn't expect a whole lot from this, and that's pretty much what I got. The premise is tissue-thin, and the film (or maybe it was just me) seemed to be holding its breath until Christopher Walken showed up, halfway through the movie, which is when it really started.

Christopher Walken was brilliant, as usual, and James Hong is always enjoyable. George Lopez was amusing but underutilized, and Maggie Q was pretty much wasted as eye candy. Dan Fogler fit the character well, and was sympathetic and entertaining, and Diedrich Bader was hilarious as a male courtesan. It just felt like with a bit more to the script, it could have been better than it was. June 29, 2008

Failure Of Comedy

I don;t even want to explain what this is about, it's just not worth me saying anything more then you should avoid having to sit through this movie. It's jokes are lame, it's humor is dull and it's plot is a seen-it-before 100 times scenario.

The pacing is too fast, the ... euhh, sigh... take my word on it, avoid it. May 21, 2008

mildly amusing at best

**1/2

The humor is broad and predictably predictable in "Balls of Fury," a low-grade, though admittedly good-natured, sports farce that elicits roughly one laugh for every five attempts at being funny (not a bad ratio as movie comedies go these days, but not really high enough to make the film worth seeing). The plot, which is barely worth detailing here, involves a has-been table tennis champion (Dan Fogler) hired by the F.B.I. to infiltrate a ping pong tournament (a literal "death match") being hosted by a notorious underworld kingpin (played to the hilt by the one and only Christopher Walken). George Lopez, James Hong, and Diedrich Bader ("The Drew Carey Show") round out the likable cast.

Despite a handful of laugh-out-loud moments and an air of genuine sweetness, there's no compelling reason to recommend "Balls of Fury," aside from Walken`s campy performance. My advice, therefore, would be to skip "Balls of Fury" altogether and re-watch "Airplane" or "Naked Gun" instead. April 21, 2008

So Bad, It's Good

This is one of those guilty pleasure movies; it's really bad, but its degree of putridness is so severe that it's impossible to turn away from. Whether it's the bad acting, stupid dialogue, nut-knocking jokes, or sexual/racial/social stereotypes that offend your sense and sensibilities, this movie has it all! I recommend lowering your expectations and simply enjoying campy acting by Christopher Walken and the rest of the cast.

So bad, it's good! But not good enough to say it's really good. It's not. April 13, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...