Balls of Fury

Infobox Film
name = Balls of Fury


image_size = 200px
caption = Promotional poster
director = Robert Ben Garant
producer = Derek Evans
Ron Schmidt
Toby Emmerich
writer = Robert Ben Garant
Thomas Lennon
starring = Dan Fogler
Christopher Walken
Maggie Q
George Lopez
Aisha Tyler
distributor = Rogue Pictures
released = August 29, 2007
runtime = 91 min.
country = United States
language = English
amg_id = 1:337884
imdb_id = 0424823

"Balls of Fury" is an American sports comedy film starring Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken. It was directed by Robert Ben Garant and was released on August 29, 2007. It was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for crude and sex-related humor and for language.

Plot

The film begins at the table tennis finals of the 1988 Olympics. Twelve-year old Randy Daytona (Brett DelBuono) is the American contender. He is anxious, and his anxiety increases when his father (Robert Patrick) says that he bet on him despite his original promise not to. His opponent is Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon) from the German Democratic Republic. During the intense first point, Daytona runs back too far and hits his head on the table. This loss, combined with the fact his father, who bet on his son to win, got killed by Triad agents of the criminal Feng (Christopher Walken), Daytona left competive ping pong a disgrace.

Nineteen years later, Daytona (Dan Fogler) is working at the Peppermill Casino in Reno, Nevada, doing table tennis routines. After getting kicked out (for scaring someone that unexpectedly caused a heart attack), Daytona meets FBI agent Ernie Rodriguez (George Lopez) who requests his assistance in taking down Feng. Daytona eventually agrees as Rodriguez informs Daytona that he needs to win some championships in order to be noticed by Feng's scouts. After losing as a local tournament to get to state, Daytona is brought to a China Town noodle shop to be apprenticed under a blind man named Wong (James Hong), who was Feng's former mentor. With his niece Maggie (Maggie Q) aiding Daytona, Wong chides him in his training until China Town locals vandalize Master Wong's house for him going against their edict of teaching white people ping pong. They say that the only way to solve this is to defeat "The Dragon" (which is actually a small girl) in a ping pong match with Wong exiled from China Town if Daytona loses. After a short match, Daytona defeats The Dragon, who kicks him before running off in defeat. Feng's men take note of Daytona's victory and invite him to participate, with he, Rodriguez, and Wong leave for the tournament soon afterwards.

Once there, after a awkward night with one of Feng's sex slaves, Gary (Diedrich Bader), Daytona handily beats his first opponent Freddy "Fingers" Wilson. He becomes afraid when he discovers that the "sudden death" format of the tournament is exactly that, the loser is killed off with a poisoned dart. He attempts to escape unsuccessfully till Feng invites him out on a tour of the facility. He attempts to convince him to join his side and reveals that he only finished half of Wong's training. 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. Daytona gives Rodriguez the location while he battles the numerous opponents for his very life.

Upon learning that Wolfschtagg again is his opponent, Daytona tells Rodriguez that he wants to get out when the FBI agents didn't arrive yet. Rodriguez agrees to this, and breaks Daytona's arm before he can tell him that he's changed his mind. However, Feng discovers Rodriguez's attempts to contact the FBI and forces Daytona to face Wolfschtagg. But at the last second, Feng decides to have the abducted Maggie Wong take Wolfschtagg's place, killing him when he protested. 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 sex slaves to safety, but is stopped by Feng.

Feng and Daytona agree to a match using Feng's Ping-Pong gear in order to see who is the best student under Wong. During the game, as the facility's self destruct sequence is accidentally activated, Feng reveals that not only did he forget to add a off switch, but changed the rules so that the ball can now be bounced off 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 as the gang escapes the chaos. Two months later, all of the major characters are reunited for the reopening of Master Wong's rebuilt Mushu shop, with Rodriguez attempting to learn the sport under Maggie's tutelage with Daytona as one of the teachers.

The credits then roll as the entire cast performs a rendition of Def Leppard's, "Pour Some Sugar On Me".

Cast

Reception & Box Office

As of December 19, 2007, the film had a score of 38 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 27 reviews. [ [http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/ballsoffury Balls of Fury (2007): Reviews] . Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-12-19] On Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 111 reviews (28 "fresh", 83 "rotten"). [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/balls_of_fury/ Balls of Fury - Rotten Tomatoes] . Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-12-19] 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. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424823/business IMDB Business: Balls of Fury] . Retrieved 2007-12-19]

Video game

Two video games based on "Balls of Fury" were released for Wii and Nintendo DS called "Balls of Fury" [ [http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=148103&skip=yes Wii News: Four new Wii games revealed - ComputerAndVideoGames.com ] ] 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).

References

External links

* [http://www.ballsoffury.com/ Official website]
* [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809702030/info Yahoo! Movies]
*imdb title|id=0424823|title=Balls of Fury
*rotten-tomatoes|id=balls_of_fury|title=Balls of Fury
*metacritic film|id=ballsoffury|title=Balls of Fury
*mojo title|id=ballsoffury|title=Balls of Fury
*amg movie|id=1:337884|title=Balls of Fury