Balls of Fury
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| Balls of Fury | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Ben Garant |
| Produced by | Derek Evans Ron Schmidt Toby Emmerich |
| Written by | Robert Ben Garant Thomas Lennon |
| Starring | Dan Fogler Christopher Walken Maggie Q George Lopez Aisha Tyler |
| Distributed by | Rogue Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 29, 2007 |
| Running time | 91 min. |
| Country |  |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Balls of Fury is a comedy film starring Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken. It was directed by Robert Ben Garant and was released on August 29, 2007. This film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for crude and sex-related humor and for language.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film begins at the table tennis finals of the 1988 Olympics. Twelve-year old Randy Daytona (Michael Ragonese) is the American contender. He is anxious, which increases when his father (played by Robert Patrick of The Unit) says that he bet on him despite his original promise not to. His opponent is Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon of Reno 911!) from the German Democratic Republic. During the intense first point, Daytona runs back too far and hits his head on the table. His father is then murdered by the people he bet with.
Nineteen years later, Daytona (Dan Fogler) is working at a Reno casino, doing a table tennis routine. After getting kicked out (for scaring someone that unexpectedly caused a heart attack), Ernie Rodriguez (George Lopez) and two other FBI agents approach him and request his assistance in taking down the criminal Feng (Christopher Walken). He agrees and plays at a local tournament to get to state but loses 11-3 due to him being out-of-shape, having last played competitively at the '88 Olympics. They go to a noodle shop and apprentice him under a blind Master-teacher named Wong (James Hong of Big Trouble In Little China). His niece Maggie (Maggie Q) helps. Wong and Rodriguez inform Daytona that he needs to win some championships in order to be noticed by Feng's scouts, as his tournament is by invitation only.
Training goes well until someone vandalizes Master Wong's house. Both Maggie and Wong claim that this is because there is an edict against teaching white people like Daytona the sport of table tennis. They say that the only way to solve this is to defeat The Dragon in a table tennis game. Daytona agrees. He defeats The Dragon (who turns out to be a little girl). Feng's men take note of Daytona's victory and invite him to participate. He, Rodriguez, and Wong take off for the tournament the very next day.
Daytona does well during the competition, handily beating his opponents. He becomes afraid when he discovers that the "sudden death" format of the tournament is exactly that – everyone who loses is shot with a poisoned dart and dies. Feng invites him out on a tour of the facility. He attempts to convince him to join his club and reveals that he once was also apprenticed by Wong, but dropped out. He says it would be the ultimate satisfaction to win Daytona away from Wong. Feng also shows Daytona his specially-modified ping-pong table, which is wired to give electrical shocks when one side loses a point.
Upon learning that Wolfschtagg again is his opponent, Daytona tells Rodriguez that he wants to get out. Rodriguez agrees to this, and breaks Daytona's arm before he can tell him that he's changed his mind. Wolfschtagg is declared the winner of the tournament. However, Feng discovers Rodriguez's attempts to contact the FBI and forces Daytona to face Maggie Wong in battle. When Wolfschtagg protests, Feng kills him with a poisoned dart. As Daytona is in love with her, they keep playing back-and-forth until Feng breaks up the battle. The FBI swarms the place, causing chaos. Daytona goes down to lead Feng's hostages to safety, but is stopped by Feng.
Feng and Daytona agree to a match using Feng's wired table in order to see who is the best. During the game, Daytona appears to win the point, but he gets shocked instead. Feng reveals that he changed the rules – that the ball can now be bounced off of any surface, once, and still be in play. The game escalates. As the facility is about to blow up, both players hit the ball out of the room and eventually take the game out to the rope bridge over the river adjacent to the facility. Daytona loses the point and nearly falls into the river. Master Wong, on a boat, shouts to Daytona that Feng only completed half of his training. With this knowledge, Daytona serves to Feng's underdeveloped backhand. Feng lunges for the ball, misses, falls into the river and is electrocuted.
In the movie's final scene, all of the major characters are reunited at Master Wong's newly redeveloped training center, with Rodriguez attempting to learn the sport under Maggie's tutelage.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Dan Fogler | Randy Daytona |
| James Hong | Master Wong |
| Christopher Walken | Feng |
| Maggie Q | Maggie Wong |
| George Lopez | Agent Rodriguez |
| Thomas Lennon | Karl Wolfschtagg |
| Terry Crews | Freddy Fingers |
| Kerri Kenney-Silver | Bethany (Showgirl) |
| Aisha Tyler | Mahogany |
| Jason Scott Lee | Eddie |
| Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa | Mysterious Asian Man |
| Patton Oswalt | The Hammer |
| Diedrich Bader | Gary The Courtesan |
| David Koechner | Rick the Birdmaster |
| Brandon Molale | Courtesan of Pleasure #2 |
| Brett DelBuono | Young Randy Daytona |
| Jim Lampley | Himself |
| Robert Patrick | Sgt. Pete Daytona |
| Masi Oka | Jeff |
| Justin Lopez | Wedge McDonald |
| Kiralee Hayashi | Asian girl |
[edit] Reception & Box Office
As of December 19, 2007, the film had a score of 38 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 27 reviews.[1] On Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 111 reviews (28 "fresh", 83 "rotten").[2] The film opened well with a U.S. take (opening weekend) of $14,312,850. Final gross (November 4, 2007) ended up being $32,844,290.[3]
[edit] Video game
Two video games based on Balls of Fury were released for Wii and Nintendo DS called Balls of Fury[4] by Black Lantern. The storyline involves an underground ping-pong competition, based on the film. They were released on September 9, 2007 (DS) and September 25, 2007 (Wii).
[edit] Allusions
- When Daytona is debriefed before Feng's Tournament, he easily solves the riddle written on the Golden Paddle in a similar way to Nicholas Cage's character Ben Gates, in National Treasure.
- At the beginning of Feng's Tournament, when Feng sees his mentor, Master Wong after many years, he says 'My goodness, what a blast from the past!', an obvious allusion to Blast from the Past, a film in which Walken portrays a nuclear scientist who seeks refuge in an underground fallout shelter for decades when he fears the Cold War/Cuban Missile Strike became a reality and affected him and his family.
- During the tournament, the winner is declared after 11 wins.
- Random slow-motion effects are used for emphasis, similar to 300.
- There are many references to Reno, Nevada, Scarface, Jerry Bruckheimer films
- Daytona kills Mahogany in a similar fashion as Jack Burton kills Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China, who was also played by James Hong.
[edit] References
- ^ Balls of Fury (2007): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-12-19
- ^ Balls of Fury - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-12-19
- ^ IMDB Business: Balls of Fury. Retrieved 2007-12-19
- ^ Wii News: Four new Wii games revealed - ComputerAndVideoGames.com
