![]() The first 15 minutes of the film were fun, and there were a couple of inspired moments sprinkled through the movie, but overall it just didn't work. Can Randy's ping pong talents stand up to those of the other competitors? Once ready, they set off to Feng's tournament, where the sudden death matches are just that the loser is killed. Rodriquez takes him to Master Wong (James Hong) a blind ping pong master who trains him with the help of his niece Maggie (Maggie Q). The FBI wants Daytona to enter so that he and Rodriquez can get evidence of Feng's criminal activity.ĭaytona reluctantly agrees but first he has to hone his skills. FBI agent Ernie Rodriquez (George Lopez) approaches Daytona and informs him that Feng (Christopher Walken), the man who murdered Daytona's father, is holding a ping pong tournament at his secret hideout that's filled with the best players in the world. Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) was once a ping pong superstar, but now he's an overweight has-been working as the lunchtime entertainment at a buffet restaurant in Reno. How many times have we seen that done? Though it starts off promising, the movie is soon gets mired in unfunny jokes and people being kicked in the crotch.įlash forward a number of years. Not only does this film borrow its idea from those earlier films, but it's also a parody of Enter the Dragon. ![]() Dodgeball was funny and Blades of Glory was okay at best, but last year's Balls of Fury was just a disappointment. Balls of Fury is low-brow humour to be sure, but delivers a slew of silly, often amusing gags that shows the creative team have the stones to genuinely entertain.The obscure-sport comedy film seems to have run its course. Slipping into other languages, rushing back to catch the Antiques Roadshow, snapping Randy’s arm back into its socket when he fakes an injury, he’s off-the-scale funny in this film, and surely deserves a spin-off film of his own. Need further inducement? How about Robert Patrick, Beverly Hills Chihuahua star George Lopez, and Brooklyn ‘99’s Terry Crews, plus Patton Oswalt and Maggie Q as rival players? Best of all is Walken, who lifts things to a higher comic gear as Feng. Robert Ben Garant’s film goes to great lengths to establish the hero’s bona fides as a genuine Def Leppard fan, and their majestic power-rock anthems adorn many a musical montage as Randy makes his way to the bottom of the ping-pong underbelly. There’s some funny sight gags, like Randy’s father being buried in a graveyard next to a flume that routinely soaks Randy while he’s mourning. This falls under the heading of making fun of movie clichés (the blind swordsman trope) and the gags somehow fall just on the right side of acceptable. I’ve called out film after film for out-dated and offensive jokes at the expense of disability, but for once, I’ll make an exception here Randy’s tutor Master Wong (James Hong) is blind, and Balls of Fury endlessly makes jokes about his inability to see. ‘What part of sudden death don’t you understand?’ asks Feng, and soon Randy is playing for his life as the FBI gather outside Feng’s hideaway. Years later, Randy is playing improbable Vegas-style exhibition shows, when the FBI enlist him to infiltrate the infamous elite ping-pong tournaments run by criminal mastermind Feng (Walken). We meet Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) as a child protégée, watched by Ronald and Nancy Reagan as he flames out at the Olympics. He’s something of a casting coup in Balls of Fury, a deeply silly martial-arts movie spoof that seems to have few fans, but certainly made me laugh.īalls of Fury attempts to do for competitive ping-pong what Dodgeball did for, erm, Dodgeball. He’s an amazing actor I saw his performance in Martin McDonough’s play A Behanding in Spokane on Broadway a few years back, and he was simply electrifying. ![]() The Deer Hunter’s iconic scenes pretty much made him a household name, but he seems as comfortable in the high seriousness of Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral as goofing it up for kids in Mouse Hunt. ![]() Christopher Walken is an interesting character.
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