Movie: "Balls Of Fury"
Year: 2007
Rated: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Robert Ben Garant
Writing credits: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon

Reviewer: Dr. Boogie
Posted: 2/21/2010

Plot: Randy Daytona is a washed-up former ping pong champ whose life is going nowhere. After being fired from his dead-end job, he is approached by the FBI. In order to catch suspected gun runner Feng in the act, they need Randy to infiltrate Feng's underground ping pong tournament. Will Randy be able to shake off years of failure in time to survive Feng's high stakes tournament?

Review: I initially passed on Balls of Fury when it was in theaters because I thought it would be just another low-brow sports comedy in the spirit of Dodgeball. The stories seemed similar enough, with Balls of Fury being slightly more absurd. Seeing that Christopher Walken in it was encouraging, as were all the members of The State who make cameos.

I was less impressed by George Lopez’s presence in the film. As bland as he is, and as much crap as he’s been in, I was surprised that the people behind Reno 911 would want him in a movie. In spite of that, he does a decent enough job as the FBI agent hoping to catch the felonious Feng (Walken) in action. Not great, just middling. That’s about the best compliment I can give, especially in light of his hilarious Scarface impression late in the film.

Dan Fogler, who plays washed-up ping pong prodigy Randy Daytona, also does a decent job as the hero. Apart from an overly-long bit about homing bug suppositories, Fogler manages to pull off the role without being too lowest common denominator. You really do believe he’s a fat loser who’s not quite ready to get back into things, at least until he’s playing under threat of death by blowgun.

What can I say, I liked the movie. There was no shortage of absurdity, but the jokes always seemed to fall just short of completely stupid. At the same time, however, I’m hard pressed to remember any bits that were absolutely hilarious, and that’s not a good sign when you’re talking about a comedy. The best way to describe Balls of Fury would be to call it “good enough.”

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)