Posted on September 4, 2007
Many people have played pingpong and have developed a real talent for it, while others have considered it a waste of a good beer pong table. The new end-of-summer comedy, “Balls of Fury,” will change any outlook on the game. Filled with scenes that are dumb, yet funny, this movie may be one of the greatest movies about the game of pingpong that has ever come out. But then again, that’s not saying much at all.
From the minds that brought everyone “Reno 911” comes this movie about a man who is one of the best pingpong players this world has ever seen, Randy Daytona (played by Dan Fogler). He is so good that he gets invited to the tournament of champions that the evil Feng (played by Christopher Walken) has at his hidden palace every year. Once he gets there, he becomes involved with a secret FBI investigation that is in pursuit of Feng, who is a major arms dealer and the real killer of Randy’s father, who died when Randy was a kid.
“Balls of Fury” satisfies the comedic hunger of those who like stupid comedies. Walken makes this movie worth watching, because of the way he plays a Chinese emperor who deals illegal guns and has an extreme fascination with the game of table tennis. His lines are so memorable that you have no choice but to quote them to your friends on the ride home. Fogler is OK as the pingpong phenomenon Randy Daytona, but he really doesn’t stand out well in this crazy movie of absurd characters. Thomas Lennon, made famous for playing the eccentric Lieutenant Dangle on Comedy Central’s “Reno 911,” steals the show with his homoerotic rage-filled ping-pong player Karl Wolfschtagg who returns to play Randy at the tournament of champions.
This movie probably isn’t going to go down in the history books as being a classic, but it isn’t totally worthless either. Some parts are boring and the humor feels forced, while other parts are laugh out loud funny. This movie is to pingpong as “Dodgeball” was to…well, dodge ball. It’s goofy, but it sheds a positive light on the actual sport of pingpong.
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