Like Candy - Too Much Is Bad For You, But It's Good While It Lasts

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2008)

Part of living a full life is indulging a guilty pleasure once in a while. That's my explanation (read: "excuse") for getting a huge kick of enjoyment out of "Balls of Fury"... and I'm sticking with it! The film borrows heavily from the plot lines of "Enter The Dragon", just about every 80s and 90s kung fu movie and (get this), at least 2 Will Ferrell movies! "Balls of Fury" replaces nunchakas and unrealistic sound effects with ping pong paddles and incredibly realistic sound effects. And all the while retaining a lavishly-dressed island-tournament setting.
Dan Fogler is believable as the slacker with a huge responsibility, but is totally unconvincing as a table tennis wunder-kind. He's incredibly lucky though and not only for having to play a character called Randy Daytona (I mean how cool is THAT name?!). He also gets to be cooed at by an incredibly hot Maggie Q (being hot in ways I've never seen her be hot before - did I mention she was HOT?) A decent comic performance from George Lopez, whose head looks less distractingly over-sized for his body for once - well done, Costume Department! Diederich Bader, Thomas Lennon and even Jason Scott Lee also turned in delightful and in Lennon and Lee's cases, hilariously over-the-top cameo appearances. Christopher Walken was Christopher Walken, and getting more and more caricatured in every outing.
But in my opinion, this picture belonged to the ubiquitous James Hong. He essentially reprises a role from a "Revenge of the Nerds" sequel and takes it up a good few notches. His ultimate triumph was to unseat, finally, from my memory this classic line: "to truly hawk a loogie, you must retrieve the phlegm not from the throat... but from the soul". In "Balls of Fury" he delivers a whole monologue that I am now moved to memorise in its place.
You've seen a movie like "Balls of Fury" a hundred times, and one wonders if anything except a predictable financial return motivates filmmakers to keep producing fare such as this.
But every now and then, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, you actually stumble onto one that you and your kids will be laughing about for the rest of the weekend.