DVD Review: Balls of Fury

Grab your balls and get down to the rec room – it’s time for ping-pong. What you thought I was talking about something else?

Although it has the plot from Enter the Dragon the focus of this comedy is not the drug trade but table tennis. Does it score or is it a scratch? Read on and find out.

In his youth, Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) was supposed to win table tennis gold in the ’88 Olympics. However that was not to be and he was knocked on his ass. His father (Robert Patrick), who had wagered on his son’s victory, is killed by the bookies. Randy’s life pretty much went to hell thereafter and he ends up doing tricks in a way off the strip Vegas show. Agent Ernie Rodriquez (George Lopez) shows up after Randy is fired from the show because he wants Randy to be a spy. It seems that a mysterious villain called Mr. Feng (Christopher Walken) is running a gun smuggling business that the CIA wants to infiltrate. Feng has a tournament and invites all of the table tennis champions to compete. Rodriquez thinks that if Feng gets word on the street that Randy has returned that he’ll get invited to Feng’s hidden fortress to compete. However, Randy’s a bit rusty so they go to Chinatown to Master Wong’s (James Hong) training school. Wong has a hot niece called Maggie (Maggie Q) and Randy is smitten. Eventually Randy gets into the tournament, but finds that the player that defeated him at the 88 Olympics, Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon), has come out of retirement for a chance to take on Randy and humiliate him again. Balls of Fury takes table tennis (or ping pong if you prefer) and uses it instead of karate in a parody of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. Dan Fogler reminds one of Jack Black lite, but still has some funny moments. My exposure to Fogler comes from seeing the trailer for Fanboys (which looks hilarious) but it has yet to grace theaters yet.

Director Ben Garant is no stranger to comedy and plays Deputy Travis Junior on Reno 911! His co-star on that show also joins him in writing duties and also stars as Karl Wolfschtagg. I can’t say that Balls of Fury rises to the hilarity that is on Reno, but it does have a laugh or two. You can always count on Christopher Walken to provide a sense of goofy fun and he does his thing in Balls of Fury – Okie Dokie Artichokie. The film does offer some amusement, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a classic. However, I’ve seen worse. Balls of Fury is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is available separately. Special features include 6 minutes of deleted scenes and a 2-minute alternate ending. The 14 minute “Ball’s Out: The Making of Balls of Fury” which interviews Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, James Hong, George Lopez, writer/director Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Jason Scott Lee (“Siu-Fu”), Maggie Q, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (“Mysterious Asian Man”), table tennis advisor Wei Wang, and table tennis tech advisor Diego Schaaf. The 5 minute “Under the Balls: the Life of a Ball Wrangler” is a comedy bit with Irina Voronina who handles the balls on the set – ping-pong balls that is. Balls of Fury is not exactly a balls to the wall comedy, but it does have some funny moments - especially how it apes Enter the Dragon. It might have some laughs if you approach it in the right way – balls out [insert rimshot here].