by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Rating B- Rated PG13 90 min
There’s been a string of movies lately that capitalize on a particular joke: the idea that anything, no matter how trivial, can be high-stakes. Hence, Balls of Fury, a movie that takes us into the world of, um, high-stakes ping pong. Help me, I did find this funny.
It was juvenile. It was immature and sometimes even awkward, but, it was likable. The writers took every kung-fu movie ever made, spoofed it, and then took a left turn and decided it would be about ping-pong. If you’re a movie buff you’re going to find spoofs throughout, sandwiched between the silly jokes. Ethnic groups are also mercilessly used as joke fodder, which some will undoubtedly find offensive, but the writers do their best to offend everyone equally, even if some of those jokes seem a bit tired.
Our story starts with Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler), a young ping-pong prodigy humiliated in the 88 Olympics. Randy is all grown up now, with a substantial amount of pudge, ridiculous sideburns and an equally ridiculous hairstyle, circa the late 80s.
An FBI agent (George Lopez) tracks Daytona down and asks him to help with an investigation by joining a high-stakes table tennis game. The agent wants Daytona to help him take down Feng, a notorious Triad Underworld figure. Daytona’s motivated by the usual reason most heroes of action flicks are motivated. It’s a classic case of “you killed my father/mother/brother/best friend/battalion.” But Daytona has only been using his skills to do an amazing act in Vegas, which nobody watches. He loses his first neighborhood match and they realize that he’ll need training.
The training comes from the blind tutor Master Wong (James Hong) who plays his role like a cross between Mr. Magoo and Mr. Miyagi. While he might be perceived as a one-joke wonder, he tosses his lines out with such carelessness that they’re made twice as amusing by his deadpan delivery. Helping to train the hapless Daytona is the five-spice hot Maggie (Maggie Q), Master Wong’s niece.
At some point, Maggie inexplicably goes from loathing Daytona (who tries to pick her up) to wrapping both legs around him and kissing him. That in itself is humorous, since it follows movie convention to a ridiculous degree.
Most of the humor comes from the delivery of the lines and the fact that the entire cast just seems to be having a good time. That sort of feeling can be infectious. However, these jokes strike a particular comedic chord, hitting a note between being awkward and hilarious. This sense of awkwardness will no doubt lead many critics to say that the jokes fell flat, but that’s really part of the joke, and it’s a style of humor that’s becoming more popular.
The problem is that not all of the actors know how to work the lines they’ve been given all of the time. Christopher Walken does an incredible job of delivering the seemingly random dialogue, in a role so miscast it’s bound to be hilarious. It was rather like Liberace decided to have his costumes made out of tapestries from an Oriental brothel. There quite a few one-liners and bits that I found funny, but my favorite line came from Walken: “Kill them! Kill them all! We’re missing Antiques Roadshow.”
I liked that most of the really excellent players were not all that in shape. Table-tennis, in all its glory, is all-inclusive. You don’t have to work out to play. You can be pudgy, tiny, be a nun, and have to constantly take hits on your inhaler.
The middle of the movie mines most of the humor, with the beginning and end falling a little flat. Still, the ping-pong battle royale towards the end of the movie is flashy enough for me to forgive any weakness in the ending.
Do stick around for the after-movie bloopers and a really fun karaoke version of ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me.’ Watch this movie if you want mindless comedy for an afternoon, but don’t buy a ticket expecting it to be anymore than what it is. I think Christopher Walken alone was worth the ticket price.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
