Friday, August 31, 2007
A+E, Movies, Reviews
Dodge 'Ballof of Fury'
Table tennis film delivers few laughs
Dan Fogler in “Balls of Fury”
CREDIT: Courtesy of Rogue Pictures |
“BALLS OF FURY”
Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken
Directed by Robert Ben Garant
Rated PG-13
Wide release |
By Steve Warren
In comedy, timing is everything—and that goes double when planning a film’s release date. Following films such as “Superbad,” “Death at a Funeral” and “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” would be a daunting task, even for a far funnier film than “Balls of Fury.”
Made with the spirit, but not the skill, of the “Airplane!” and “Naked Gun” movies, “Balls of Fury” is a cheap-looking one-off by the “Reno 911!” team of Robert Ben Garant (Deputy Travis Junior), who directs, and his co-writer Thomas Lennon (Lt. Jim Dangle). Perhaps it’s significant that they didn’t mention this project when they were here a few months ago promoting the hilarious “Reno 911!: Miami.”
“Balls of Fury” spoofs the Bruce Lee classic “Enter the Dragon,” with Ping-Pong replacing martial arts at an international tournament sponsored by a major bad guy. In the 1988 Olympics, Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) narrowly lost the table tennis championship to Germany’s Karl Wolfschtagg (Lennon), who looks more like Kiefer Sutherland than Jim Dangle, except for the tight shorts.
Nineteen years later, Randy is wasting his Ping-Pong skills as a lounge act in Reno when he’s recruited by FBI Agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) to go undercover at a high-stakes tournament. It’s held every five years in a secret location by the notorious Feng (Christopher Walken), a criminal mastermind the FBI has been after forever.
Wouldn’t you know that Feng killed Randy’s father (Robert Patrick) years ago, so he’s got a personal reason to go after Feng, in addition to loyalty to his country, doing the right thing and restoring his own dignity. Are you laughing yet?
Randy needs a refresher course in pingpong and is sent to Master Wong (James Hong), the old, blind teacher (and Chinese restauranteur) who also trained Feng. While Wong spouts wisdom like Mr. Miyagi, the hands-on (but hands off!) work is left to his niece Maggie (Maggie Q).
At Feng’s jungle hideaway, Randy, Rodriguez and Wong are offered “courtesans of pleasure” (trafficking in sex slaves is one of Feng’s enterprises) to help them relax the night before the tournament. These courtesans happen to be men, which opens the door to a lot of mildly homophobic humor. The last part of “Balls of Fury” struggles frantically to resolve the story, leaving any pretense at coherence behind—along with most of the humor.
Fogler, who won a Tony Award for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” on Broadway, proves more of a good sport than a good actor here. The same goes for Walken, who’s brought more flair to sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” The cast also includes Jason Scott Lee, Terry Crews, Aisha Tyler and breakout “Heroes” star Masi Oka as a washroom attendant, but none of their performances are particularly notable.
It’s the combination of CG and stuntwork used for the pingpong sequences (especially one in which Maggie takes on four men at once) that yields impressive results. Maybe the filmmakers should have created a serious Ping-Pong movie, which couldn’t have been any worse than this one.
If you’re looking for pure silliness and don’t care that it’s rarely inspired—plus more Def Leppard songs than anyone’s heard in a long time—“Balls of Fury” may meet your needs. Still, its makers deserve a paddling. TWO STARS