Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Balls of Fury
*** Balls of Fury. Comedy. Directed by: Robert Ben Garant.
Starring: Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, George Lopez, Maggie Q, James Hong, Diedrich Bader
We saw this with the boys at the Hercules, having seen the previews and finding them irresistible. Unfortunately, if you've seen the preview (and if not, check out the YouTube video above), you've seen the entire movie, or at least the good parts.
Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is a ping pong has-been, reduced to doing a variety act, until he's approached by FBI agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) to help take down Feng (Christopher Walken), the man responsible for his father's death.
To do that, Randy needs to be invited to Feng's extreme ping pong tournament, but he hasn't competed since his Olympic humiliation 18 years ago, so they hire blind ping pong master Wong (James Hong) and his niece (Maggie Q) to get him up to speed.
I didn't expect a whole lot from this, and that's pretty much what I got. The premise is tissue-thin, and the film (or maybe it was just me) seemed to be holding its breath until Christopher Walken showed up, halfway through the movie, which is when it really started.
Christopher Walken was brilliant, as usual, and James Hong is always enjoyable. George Lopez was amusing but underutilized, and Maggie Q was pretty much wasted as eye candy. Dan Fogler fit the character well, and was sympathetic and entertaining, and Diedrich Bader was hilarious as a male courtesan. It just felt like with a bit more to the script, it could have been better than it was.
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Categories: Movies, 3stars, Comedy
Labels: 3 stars, comedy, Movies
