Reviews

Balls of Fury

A comic mish-mash

By TOM MEEK | August 29, 2007

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Balls of Fury.

An Asian wise man in this film from Reno 911’s Robert Ben Garant says, “Ping-pong is like a fine, well-aged prostitute. She laughs at you when you are naked, but you keep coming back for more.” The movie is a bit like that too. The gags fall flat, Garant lifts from such staples as Enter the Dragon and The Karate Kid, and yet it doesn’t go away. Credit in part Christopher Walken’s evil Feng, a screwy triad boss sponsoring a death-match ping-pong tourney in South America. The FBI enlists fallen table-tennis star Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) to be its inside man — but the plot ceases to have any meaning as the film disintegrates into a sometimes comic mish-mash of Def Leppard riffs, gay male sex slaves, and George Lopez channeling Tony Montana. Walken and character actor James Hong as a blind, proverb-spouting mentor score all the zingers, a svelte Maggie Q adds sass as sidekick/love interest, and Garant keeps it all bouncing along.

Topics: Reviews , Sports, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Def Leppard, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 05/26 ] "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 05/26 ] George Orwell's 1984, adapted by Nick Lane @ Gamm Theatre

[ 05/26 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | May 17, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture ( i.e. , Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and American Idol ) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS | April 24, 2012
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | April 18, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: UNDEFEATED | March 15, 2012
Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's Oscar-winning documentary about an underequipped high-school football team competing against big-time programs across Tennessee offers a potent contemplation on race and opportunity.

REVIEW: DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX | March 01, 2012
Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism.