Balls of Fury
Rogue Pictures, 90mins, PG-13

Directed by
Ben Garant    

Ping-pong, or Table Tennis, as it's more formally called, is actually a game of skill. I know this because when I was a kid, my baby brother would beat the crap out of me constantly. At about the same time, a US team was invited to Red China, as it was then called, paving the way to Richard Nixon's visit and then his reelection. Apparently, the game is extremely popular there, a fact that gives it an Asian patina, and that means martial arts.

So what better a subject to do a kung-fu spoof about, eh?

It's the 1988 Olympics, and Table Tennis is now an official Olympic sport. Young prodigy Randy Daytona (Brett DelBuono) is the odds on favorite to win, but his father, Sgt. Pete Daytona (Robert Patrick), is kidnapped by the henchmen of the evil Mr. Feng (Christopher Walken), forcing our hero to lose his concentration and his chance at gold to the obviously evil Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon).

Cut to a couple of decades later, and Randy (now played by Tony®-winner Dan Fogler), is a pitiful lounge act in Reno, where those who can't make it to Vegas go. But all that's about to change, when FBI special agent Ernie Rodriguez (George Lopez) shows up with a proposition he can't refuse, a chance to save the world from the evil you-know-who, and for that, he has to become competitive and join the bizarre ping-pong underworld, with the help of the mysterious blind master Wong (James Hong, who's priceless) and his niece Maggie (Maggie Q), he's ready for his mission.

The jokes, though obvious, for the most part, work. While this is not one of the great comedies of the decade, the writers and director get it, and the performances from a cast that way outclasses the film itself, makes this the last must-see comedy of the summer.

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