Funny, inventive comedy...

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2008)

1st watched 1/29/2008 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Robert Ben Garant): Funny, inventive comedy without the benefit of big name comedians. This movie did very well from beginning to end of moving the story along and providing funny and captivating characters every step of the way. Usually a gimmick-type movie stalls about ½ the way thru, but this one does not let up and is not happy with just a few jokes repeated over and over again. The story revolves around an Olympic table tennis player who lost a big game and has been in exile since that loss. An FBI agent, played by comedian George Lopez, seeks the ping-pong player out to compete again so that he can get to a wanted mean guy by being invited to his tournament after all his wins. It doesn't start out very well as he loses his first tournament but in typical "rocky-style" he gets focused with the help of a trainer and picks up the pace. This happens fairly quickly, which is the only down part of the movie in my opinion. A blind, karate-kid style mentor helps him believe in himself(believe it or not). Next steps in the evil and feminine tournament organizer, played by Christopher Walken, as the long big name in the movie. He is hilarious in this role and helps the last half of the movie continue in it's fun onslaught. Yes, I am a fan of table tennis(aka. Ping-pong) and I was looking forward to this movie because of this, but it exceeded my expectations as a funny movie from beginning to end. Don't miss it.