Balls of Fury (DVD)

Balls of Fury is the type of movie which, as a critic, is rather difficult to review. It may not be as blatantly bad as something along the lines of Underdog, and while there is no way in hell I could ever call it a great movie, beating up on it would, for the most part, feel rather unfair. I can't recommend Balls of Fury to you by any means, but after all, how much can you really expect from a movie that tries to make ping pong a Samurai art?

Balls of Fury opens with the 1988 Olympic Ping Pong finals, introducing us to Randy Daytona, an adolescent prodigy poised to win. Needless to say, young Randy loses, and his father is murdered by the mysterious Feng (Christopher Walken!). Nineteen years pass, and Randy is now played by Dan Fogler. He's grown up to be sad and bloated, and he performs Ping Pong tricks as part of a Reno magic show. Randy's routine of misery is quickly disrupted, however, by Rodriguez (George Lopez, who seemingly signed on solely to do his Scarface impression), an FBI agent who wishes to use Randy to infiltrate Feng's smuggling ring. Shortly after Randy's recruitment, what started as a mildly entertaining concept quickly devolves into your typical Will Ferrell-style "kooky obscure sports" movie.

Balls of Fury does nothing but lose steam as it progresses, largely due to its reliance on Fogler to carry the show. I find Fogler to be an irksome presence, and the more you see of him, the more clear it becomes that he is merely a poor man's Will Ferrell. This is perhaps most apparent in a scene near the end of the movie, in which he dances and lip synchs to a Def Leppard song. The scene, meant to feel hilarious and spontaneous, instead comes across as cold and stiff, combining the worst bits of your annoying friend's worst Ferrell imitation and your other annoying friend's worst Jack Black imitation. This man should not be allowed in front of a camera.

Balls of Fury does do a few things right, however, and this mostly stems from the participation of Walken as Feng, the supposedly "Asian" crime lord. I'm not quite sure if Walken was having a good time chewing the scenery or acting his heart out, but either way, he's always good for a laugh (whether he means it or not). Walken excels at taking everything incredibly seriously, and fans of his brand of insanity will not be disappointed. I also feel the need to mention Patton Oswalt, who turns in an all too brief cameo as a local champion. Oswalt's "Werewolves and Lollipops" albums was one of the funniest things I encountered this year in any medium, and his appearance commanded my attention, and I felt let down that he did not have a larger part. Almost all of Balls of Fury's laughs come from the supporting cast, and when they're around, the movie does manage to maintain a sense of fun.

Want me to let you in on a little secret? None of the special features on the Balls of Fury DVD are worth your time. They're the generic and stale features that you would expect to find on the rushed release for this kind of movie, and devoting any more space to them would be a waste of time.

Despite its several flaws, Balls of Fury still manages to be mildly entertaining, and there are certainly much worse movies out there. It's an imitation of the many comedies that you've seen bits and pieces of other the past few years, and the results are more or less passable. As I write this review, it has been less than a full day since I watched it, but its memory is already fading. By New Year's, it will be completely wiped out.