Tony winner Dan Fogler stars as Randy Daytona, who was an Olympic table tennis contender as a youth but has been down-and-out ever since. He is still stuck in the 1980s, Def Leppard music and all. Randy gets another shot at competitive Ping-Pong when he's approached by FBI Agent Rodriguez (George Lopez), who wants to recruit him for a secret mission.
The FBI is after the mysterious international criminal genius Feng (Christopher Walken), who also so happens to be the man responsible for the murder of Randy's dad (Robert Patrick). Randy seizes the chance to avenge his father's death and to regain his past glory; unfortunately, he's more than a bit rusty. Rodriguez arranges for Randy to be trained by the blind sage Wong (James Hong) and his hot niece Maggie (Maggie Q).
Randy eventually finds himself participating in a secret tournament at Feng's jungle compound, a match where players face death should they lose. Randy will have to beat a number of wily opponents -- including his old Olympic rival Karl Wolfschtagg (Lennon) -- if he's to survive and bring down Feng.
Balls of Fury is being marketed largely on the novelty of Christopher Walken's casting as the Fu Manchu-type villain. The viewer waits with excitement for Walken to finally take the screen, but when he does all the energy leaves the picture. All narrative momentum simply grinds to a halt. Walken is operating at a different tempo than the rest of the cast and it doesn't jive with the rhythm that the film had established up until that point.
Worse, Walken's just not that funny in it. That YouTube video of him cooking chicken and pears is more interesting and amusing than his entire schtick here, which is quite shocking when considering all the hype surrounding his being in the film.
The rest of the cast tries, particularly amiable newcomer Dan Fogler and scene-stealer James Hong as a cross between Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Magoo. Lennon isn't in the film all that much, but he has a few good bits as Randy's arch-rival. Maggie Q doesn't have too much to do except look sexy and kick ass, which is pretty much all she's had to do in every film thus far.
Balls of Fury was losing steam incrementally until Walken finally arrived to run the film's one-note joke into the ground. It's a shame that a movie with so many genuinely funny and talented people involved wasn't better.
Score: 4 out of 10
Video and Presentation
Like most mid-range comedies, there's not a whole lot of visual polish here. It's fairly average in most respects, but it never looks particularly bad. The colors in this HD DVD transfer are only slightly elevated beyond the standard-def and the overall clarity remains intact. There's very little noticeable grain or ghosting and for all that's required of the film, the HD DVD looks perfectly acceptable, though it's relatively the same level of quality in either format.
Score: 7 out of 10
Languages and Audio
Normally, this wouldn't be the kind of film where one would noticable any real difference in sound quality between the standard Dolby 5.1 and the Dolby TrueHD, but the kung-fu inspired ping-pong sequences translate well across the format, giving the sound a small boost in quality. Otherwise, it's a fairly ordinary audio transfer, and so long as one can hear the jokes, there's not much more that's expected from a DVD of this caliber.
Score: 7 out of 10
Extras and Packaging
Sadly, there are no new, HD-exclusive features offered up by this disc -- not that there were all that many extras in the first place.
- Deleted Scenes
- Alternate Ending
- Balls Out: The Making of Balls of Fury
- Under the Balls: The Life of a Ball Wrangler
Each of the seven deleted scenes offers a few legitimate laughs, and while it becomes obvious why they were ultimately cut, viewers will certain find them amusing. The alternate ending is actually less funny than the theatrical finale, but quite obviously sets up the further adventures of our ping-pong playing friends.
Most effective, however, is the behind-the-scenes featurette, "Balls Out." Normally, this would be simply a studio-produced piece, but given the comedic chops of the talking-heads, it's funny from beginning to end. The featurette also helps to point out some of the more indirect kung-fu references throughout the film. And finally, "Under the Balls" is a comedic faus-featurette about the on-set "ball handler." It's about five minutes long and it's funny as hell.
Score: 7 out of 10
The Bottom Line
Despite getting a low score here, many readers are likely to find this flick imminently amusing. It's most likely a rental, but with a few beers and some friends, it's a funny rental with a strong set of extras.
