Balls of Fury

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

With late summer's Superbad a huge smash, things were clearly looking up for movie comedies. But now, along comes the long-delayed Balls of Fury, which is just simply superbad! There are very few laughs in this moronic table tennis tale, which was clearly designed for the most undemanding audience imaginable. Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is a former extreme Ping-Pong champ who somehow lost his way, and now uses those tiny balls to do a cheap Vegas-style lounge act. In walks an FBI agent (George Lopez) to enlist him in a secret plan where he must confront the arch villain Feng (a ridiculous Christopher Walken) and avenge his father's (Robert Patrick) death. To get his balls on track again, he enlists the aid of blind Master Wong (scene stealer James Hong), a Mr. Miyagi type, who trains him in the subtle arts of the game. He also ends up getting a lesson he won't soon forget from Wong's niece, Maggie (the hot Maggie Q). The final face-off at Feng's compound is just as dumb as you might expect, but by this point, the one-joke premise has long worn out it's welcome. Fogler tries sooooo hard to be funny, but just falls flat. And you have to wonder what Walken, an Oscar winner and respected actor, was thinking when he read the script—assuming there was one in the first place. Most of what they serve here looks like they just made it up as they went along.