Balls of Fury

A former ping pong prodigy, now grown into a down-and-out loser (Dan Fogler), is recruited by an FBI agent (George Lopez) to infiltrate a tournament staged by a mysterious crime lord (Christopher Walken) to see what the man is up to. Written by director Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (who appears as Fogler’s preening German nemesis), the movie poses the question: Is there anything dumber than a dumb ping pong joke? There probably is, but these are plenty dumb enough. Fogler is appealing in his scruffy way (he’s like a young John Belushi without the manic eyes), but he’s not ready to carry a script this weak—there’s even a kind of diffidence in his performance, as if he senses what clunkers the gags are. Walken’s lines are no better, but he does more with them. James Hong and Maggie Q round out the cast.