Balls of Fury

Judged on its previews alone, Balls of Fury is a fun, silly movie with a circus of characters engaged in a series of funny gags involving the sport of ping pong. Add in the rest of the film and the fun and the funny get stretched so saggy that not even Christopher Walken or the film’s lone bright spot, newcomer Dan Fogler, can prop it all back up. This Dodgeball-lite is dragged down by a hyper-rushed plot (something about a former ping-pong prodigy (Fogler) who infilitrates an underground tournament-to-the death—imagine Enter the Dragon, but with paddles instead of nunchakus) and one very flat, flat, flat scene after another with actors seeming to not notice one another’s presense. Any potential for getting the most from its over-the-top characterizations (á là Dodgeball, or even BASEketball) is wasted on worn-out, low-brow racial humor (Chinese people sing Engrish funny) and extensive plot-padding.