Friday, June 5, 2009

Revisiting... Balls of Fury (2007)

With Sylar's apparent demise, a disillusioned Hiro tries to make the world a better place.

Balls of Fury is about disgraced ping-pong prodigy Randy Daytona, who gets the chance to avenge his father and redeem himself when he is approached by the FBI to help take down crime boss Lord Feng by participating in an exclusive underground table-tennis tournament.

Comedy, slapstick, and an ass-ton of cameos ensue. In other words, it's the Dodgeball of ping-pong, minus Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn.

Before seeing the movie, I had the impression that Dan Fogler was a knock-off Jonah Hill (since Balls of Fury was released after Superbad) which makes it worse, really, since I don't really like Jonah Hill, but the movie proved me wrong. Fogler was simply adorable as the misfit Randy trying to get his competitive groove back, and he reminds me of a younger version of Tim Curry, except American and stouter.


[He looks so huggable xD]

Christopher Walken easily steals the show as the flamboyant Lord Feng, who's really supposed to be Chinese and not just a Caucasian person heading the Triad. Even though Walken looks Asian, the first line he has in the movie dispels any notion of that. I'd never laughed so hard at "Okie dokie, artichokie" in my life. I would've preferred him to show up for most of the movie, instead of the second-half onwards.

Also, 'moar ping-pang' :D

James Hong is also hilarious as the blind Master Wong, with Maggie Q as Wong's niece and Randy's love interest. My only problem with the movie is that the love story was a bit, well, instantaneous (right 'round the part before Randy played the Dragon). George Lopez (playing FBI Agent Rodriguez) was a bit 'in-your-face' at times, but wasn't as annoying as I thought he'd be.

7/10.
Watch it if you're a Walken fan (which I am, by the way), or if you want a good laugh and don't give a crap about storylines.

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