It could have been so much more.

Rating: 2/10 (3 September 2007)

If you enjoy martial arts films, parodies, campiness and the occasional fart joke, Balls of Fury has it. But the train never really picked up steam. Unlike Naked Gun and Airplane!, Balls doesn't really open up with a lot of jokes in the first place. The movie opens up the usual martial arts story (father dies, son is shamed) where the only highlight is a crazed East German. The first real funny joke is 15 min in where, you guessed it, the well-timed fart joke continues the story. They could have done so much more than this, obviously!
12yr. old ping-pong sensation Randy Daytona fails his country, his father and himself at the '88 Seoul Olympics. It costs his gambling Dad his life while Randy further ruins his by headlining shows in Reno. But an FBI agent needs to catch the man responsible for murdering Randy's father and forces Daytona back in ship-shape so they attract Feng's invitation to his ping-pong tournament.
Balls of Fury's real grace is the clever parodying of all films dealing with martial arts. We have the cricket, the Dragon, Feng's secret lair in Central America, Gary. And the movie wastes no time on what could have wasted our own. We know that Randy would win the rematch against Karl, that ten seconds on Fogler dancing to Def Leppard is too much for anyone, and that one or two Scarface references by an agent wishing he would have been James Bond is good enough. Once again, Balls of Fury is a good film, but it could have been way much better.