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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 20656
Released: December 18, 2007 |
| Our Price: $3.70 |
| Used Price: $0.25 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Watch the balls fly in this hilarious, action-packed comedy starring Christopher Walken (Hairspray) and George Lopez (The George Lopez Show)! When former professional table tennis phenomenon Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is recruited by FBI Agent Rodriguez
Description of Balls of Fury (Widescreen Edition):
Balls of Fury will score points with anyone who ever wished that Enter the Dragon played out in the subterranean "underbelly of ping pong" instead of the world of martial arts. Tony Award-winner Dan Fogler (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), joining the ranks of Jack Black, Seth Rogan, and Jonah Hill as a schlub (romantic?) hero, stars as Randy Daytona, a Def Leppard-loving ping-pong wizard who, as a 12-year-old, was disgraced at the 1988 Olympics. Nineteen years later and gone to seed, he is reduced to performing a novelty act in Reno until an FBI Agent (George Lopez, and yes, at one point, he will proclaim, "Say hello to my little friend" a la Al Pacino in Scarface) recruits him to infiltrate an underground ping pong tournament run by Feng (Christopher Walken), the arch villain who killed Daytona's father. Co-written by Reno 911 colleagues Robert Ben Garant (who also directed) and Thomas Lennon (who costars as Daytona's taunting East Berlin rival), Balls of Fury is hit and miss, but it fitfully kills with some ace performances, including Walken, bringing more cowbell, as Feng, resplendent in silks and red fingernails (his Christopher Walken impression, while perhaps not as uncanny as Kevin Spacey's or Jay Mohr's, is dead-on). James Hong puts a wicked spin on the clichéd role of mentor, and action babe Maggie Q rocks as his niece. Look quick for David Koechner as hopeless entertainer Rick the Birdmaster, Patton Oswalt as an obnoxious early opponent, Kerri Kenney-Silver as a showgirl, and Diedrich Bader as one of Feng's imprisoned sex slaves (don't ask). With less go-for-the-groin humor than the title might indicate, Balls of Fury brings its A-game with some subversive bits of business, such as an ominous moment that is undercut when a menacing character is forced to re-enter the scene to ask for directions back to the highway. --Donald Liebenson
Balls of Fury (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
Ridiculously funny 
2009-02-18 - "Ping pong is not Macarena, it takes time and patience to learn". If you can appreciate the comic genius of this sentence, pronounced by your typical old and blind martial arts asian master you 're gonna like this ridiculously funny movie. If you can like what comes next ".. in fact it 's a like an old prostitute.. it takes years to master all her tricks.. and she keeps laughing at your mistakes.. but you still cannot help coming back to her and why.. oh why... well because it's the only one cheap enough that you can afford!" well then you 're actually going to love this movie :)
It's kind of an hybrid between a parody and an homage to various martial arts movies, and what I especially like about it is that it's "overcharged".. I mean.. the jokes and funny moments are just gratuitously jumping one over the other giving that exceptional "overwhelming fun" sensation that you can also find in the "Naked Gun" series. Warning: not for people who take movies, life and themselves too seriously...
A Solid Three Stars 
2009-02-09 - Lame and inane, yet with more than it's fair share of quirky comedic moments, BALLS OF FURY is not bad, not good, just. . .three stars. A spoof on extreme table tennis (where matches are to the death, of course) is interesting to begin with, and when our protagonist (Dan Fogler) is a short, pudgy guy sprouting Elvis sideburns and a mop of hair that looks like it's been through a Veg-O-Matic, this movie is a lock to have its moments. On top of that, Christopher Walken as the bad guy, a villain wearing some of the most outrageous satin outfits imaginable, is delightfully fun to watch.
Forget the plot (is there one?) and just go along for the ride; the table tennis action is a howler (which can be good or bad), while this film is Exhibit X that George Lopez is not, nor never has been, funny. Maggie Q is visual viagra, while soft-spoken James Hong steals the show as the elderly, blind mentor who gets to throw out the best zingers. BALLS OF FURY is dumb, but fun, and very much deserves its middle-of-the-pack three stars. Your serve.
--D. Mikels, Author, Walk-On
Disappointing 
2009-01-24 - I am so disappointed with this film. I wasn't expecting much from this flick, after all, just look at the title. I was hoping that it would at least be enjoyable, but it almost is a waste of time. This is definitely one of those movies where the best scenes are shown in the trailers. So, if you have seen the trailers, you have seen the best parts of the movie. The rest of the movie is a thing where you smile at best, there never is a bust-a-gut laughing moment. Such a sad thing to admit, because I love Christopher Walken as an actor. He is always interesting to watch, but even he is kind of dull in Balls of Fury. This is worth watcing on TV for sure when it is free, and maybe renting, but I wouldn't buy this movie. It is only worth buying if you find it dirt cheap used.
Wong As 'Hong' A Surprise In This Pong Farce
2009-01-19 - f you like ping pong, laugh at the insane characters Christopher Walken likes to play, enjoy dark comedy, don't mind a bunch of stupid-but-funny scenes and a wildly outlandish story....you should like this movie. I did, and - yes, I realize it is a dumb movie but it's entertaining.
Many times, these new comedies overdo the sleaze factor to the point they aren't funny, but this one didn't cross that line.....although it tetered on it at times. I can't recall how many times I laughed out loud at some ridiculous sight or sentence that I saw or heard in here.
Walken, even though he doesn't play the lead guy, is fascinating, as always. To me, though, James Hong, an actor in his late '70s (78), just about stole this film as "Master Wong," the blind instructor. He was flat-out hilarious and had a lot of great lines. Of course, so did Walken and the film's star, Dan Fogler ("Randy Daytona"). and the villain Thomas Lennon as "Karl Wolfschtagg." Kudos to Lennon for also co-writing the script.
Humor-wise, it is another "Dodgeball," except now it's ping-pong, and it's funnier. In addition, you get profound words to live by, such as "To die like a tiger is better than living like a pussy."
So Bad That it Almost Becomes Kind of Good.
2008-12-27 - This was a bad, bad, baaaad movie. So bad, in fact, that it becomes funny and raises it's score an entire star. The people involved are all talented, so it's just strange to see soooo many jokes fall flat. You get the feeling that the script was terrible so all the actors just embraced it and went over the top.
There is one joke that I can think of that elevates itself above the garbage heap and is genuinely genius. The joke is set up about halfway through and pays off in the finale, so you are forced to sit through this entire butcher job before it earns even one laugh.
I don't know if I can recommend this one. I love "dumb" comedy, but Balls of Fury is a whole other type of dumb. What I can say is that for my friends and I, this film has taken on the cult movie role. This is a film we will pop in on a Saturday night, drink some beer, and laugh at how bad it is.
