...it wouldn’t hurt to get your hands on these “Balls.”
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Universal sent two Ping Pong paddles with "Balls of Fury" marking as part of my screener package. This was some mighty impressive swag. I certainly didn´t need any nudging to have a positive impression of the film. They earned my interest when they signed Christopher Walken to the production. The man is an amazing character actor and having him take the role of an evil Chinese mastermind with a penchant for sudden death ping pong was more than enough to make "Balls of Fury" worth checking out. Fusing "Mortal Kombat" with "Enter the Dragon," "Balls of Fury" is a funny romp through the seedy underground world of ping pong that may not be a film for everyone, but it is certainly a film to satisfy those Walken fans out there.
Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is a former Ping Pong prodigy that was the favored Olympian in the 1988 games. However, his father Sgt. Pete Daytona (Robert Patrick) gambled on his game against Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon) and a distracted Randy injured himself during the match and was ruled unable to compete and handed a loss. With cameras pointing at the young man, he could only muster the words "I´m Going to Disney World." This became the motto of his humiliation and with his father dead and Randy being one of America´s greatest Olympic disappointments, the young man simply vanished from the public eye and the game of Ping Pong.
Years later Randy would emerge working in a small club as an entertainer. He used his Ping Pong skills to juggle balls and create humor in a highly ineffective show where his tenure would end when he accidentally killed one of the patrons at the club. During his final show, Agent Ernie Rodriquez (George Lopez) appeared to Randy and presented his FBI badge and an offer to infiltrate an underground Ping Pong tournament hosted by a man called Feng (Christopher Walken). Feng had killed Randy´s father. Randy first declines to join Ernie as an undercover operative, but eventually changes his mind.
The first tournament Randy enters is a complete failure when he loses 11-3 to a young man who is the reigning county champion. With only two weeks to go until the beginning of Feng´s tournament, Ernie takes Randy to meet the world´s greatest Ping Pong mentor, Master Wong (James Hong). Wong was Feng´s teacher, but Feng had left before his training was complete. Wong is also blind, but wise to the world and has a way of noticing what goes on around him. Especially when it comes to men´s advances towards his gorgeous daughter and fellow ping pong instructor Maggie (Maggie Q). Maggie is a tough young lady that is an amazing ping pong player and is fully able to defend herself against the advances of much stronger men. Randy quickly notices Maggie, but finds his tentacles in a death grip from Wong´s chopsticks.
The training is difficult, but Randy regains his skills as a world class ping pong player. When some dejected students ransack Wong´s school and denounce him for teaching a white man to play ping pong, Randy must battle Chinatown´s most gifted player, the Dragon. If Randy defeats the Dragon, he will save face for Wong and Maggie, but he will also surely gain entrance to Feng´s ping pong tournament. It turns out that the Dragon is a very young girl with a serious chip on her shoulder and a lot of skill. Randy handedly defeats her and ears the golden paddle invite to the ping pong tournament.
At the tournament, Randy learns that Feng is literal with the term ´Sudden Death´ and that losing players are instantly killed. In a direct homage to "Enter the Dragon" (or "Kentucky Fried Movie"), Randy is given entrance to Feng´s secret bunker and the Chinese crime lord details his plans to become a leading weapons supplier. He does so under the guise that he would love to steal the new prized student of his former teacher. This provides the opportunity for Randy and Ernie to plant their tracking devices and bring in the FBI assault squad to tear down Feng´s evil empire and stop the deadly ping pong tournament. However, their plan backfires and Randy must face Karl Wolfschtagg in a final battle to the death on the ping pong table. However, to punish Randy for his meddling, Maggie becomes his final opponent in the tournament; bringing Maggie and Randy´s blossoming love for one another to a possible fateful end.
"Balls of Fury" is a fun time that parodies "Enter the Dragon" to a mild extent that works effectively. The "Mortal Kombat" film had brought the concept of a death sport tournament back into pop culture. Movies like "Dodgeball" had made a mockery of competitive alternative sports, but "Balls of Fury" delivers an absolutely brilliant premise of combining the comedy and tournament nature of "Dodgeball" and combining the deadly aspects of "Mortal Kombat" with the undercover storyline of "Enter the Dragon." Adding Christopher Walken to the fray as the evil Chinese lord who runs the tournament and takes delight in the death sport of ping pong is beyond brilliance. His tongue and cheek performance is so nicely understated that it works with great effect. Part Elton John and part Kien Shih, the character of Feng is original and refreshing.
The film is a lot of fun, but it is not without its problems. "Balls of Fury" is one of the films that are slim in its length, but its short ninety minutes results in a story that is never fully realized and the film could have benefitted with just a few more minutes of runtime. For instance, the training segments with Randy, Maggie and Wong are very funny moments, but it rushes by faster than it can truly be appreciated. The bee swapping scene lasted just a few seconds. The tournament´s ping pong battles are short and hardly featured in the film. A few more amazing plays by Randy would have gone a long way. "Balls of Fury" is also uneven. The first half of the film is funnier than the second half and once Randy enters the tournament, the film seems to rush by. Christopher Walken is also underutilized. In short, "Balls of Fury" would have been a better film if there was more of it. It feels rushed.
Regardless of the shortcomings, I thoroughly enjoyed the little comedy. There were plenty of times when I laughed quite heartedly. The characters of Wong and Feng were strongly acted by Walken and James Hong. Maggie was another strong character. Dan Fogler delivered a number of laughs as the rotund, Def Leppard loving ping pong champ. Fogler is a low-budget version of Jack Black and his routine is much of the same as some of Black´s performances, but I have no argument with going with what works. You can never believe that somebody like Randy could really exist, but then again you can never fully believe people play ping pong to the death.
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[release]22399[/release]