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Balls Of Fury (2007) DVD Review
Balls Of Fury (2007) DVD Credits:
Balls Of Fury (2007) Directed by:
Ben Garant
Balls Of Fury (2007) Written by:
Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant
Balls Of Fury (2007) Cast:
Dan Fogler, George Lopez, Maggie Q, Christopher Walken
Balls Of Fury (2007) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Balls Of Fury (2007) DVD Release Date:
18th December 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Balls Of Fury (2007) Synopsis:

An outrageous new comedy. In this secret society, the competition is brutal and the stakes are high. It is the unsanctioned, underground, and utterly unhinged world of clandestine Ping-Pong tournaments. Down-and-out former professional Ping-Pong phenom Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is sucked into this maelstrom when FBI Agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) recruits him for a secret mission. Randy is determined to bounce back and win, and to smoke out his father's killer - arch-fiend Feng (Christopher Walken).

Balls Of Fury (2007) DVD Review:

DROPPED THE BALLS

The trailer for Balls of Fury burst out of the gate with the same comedic gusto that films like Dodgeball, and School of Rock had. Unfortunately, the whole movie is somewhat less furious. In fact, I think a more appropriate title would have been: Balls of Apathy. But that’s just me.

The sad thing is, with a cast line up like this, the movie should have been hilarious. George Lopez. Terry Crews. Diedrich Bader. All names that are nearly synonymous with great comedy. But every one of them either over or under performs to a point where they are no longer even part of the equation. Relatively new to comedy, Jason Scott Lee and Cary-Hiroyuku Tagawa were chuckle inducing on many occasions, though. But, I must say, the biggest disappointment was Walken. It seemed like he was just phoning it in. A man whose mere persona is able to make a faux audition for Han Solo on Saturday Night Live funny, should have no trouble with a ambiguously gay gwailo who has built an empire playing ping pong for the triad. And, while Dan Fogler adequately executes the lead role of Randy Daytona, I couldn’t help but think that part was written for Jack Black.

Ultimately, what really kills this film is the fact that they were never sure whether it was supposed to be an out and out farce in the vein of the Scary Movies, and Not Another Teen Movie, or if they wanted something with more heart like The Replacements, or Dodgeball. Every serious moment in the film is ruined by crude low-brow humor. There is a great moment where Daytona is saying goodbye to the Maggie Q character, aptly named Maggie, and she kisses him. As they extricate from the kiss, the camera pulls out, and she has her legs wrapped around him and there is a moment of awkwardness as they unwrap. Never-mind that this relationship has bloomed almost completely out of nowhere, given her rather violent rebuffs of his early advances, it completely blows a tender moment that could have helped to develop the heart in this film. Each one of these scenes flip-flops and leaves the viewer somewhat cold. The over the top humor in some cases becomes so ludicrous it’s no longer funny.

Which is not say that there were no gut busting laughs to be had. Lopez’s ham-handed homages to Scarface were absolutely hilarious, and the bumbling antics of the inimitable James Hong, as the blind Master Wong, are usually worth a chuckle. But unfortunately these moments do not string together to create anything more than one or two laughs at a time.

This single disc release comes across the table with some decent technical specs. Anamorphic widescreen in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio along with Dolby Digital 5.1 make this thing at least passable for those who have invested in a decent home theater system. The usual array of subtitles rounds out the technical aspects of the release. As for the special features, they line out a couple of times, but other wise keep things in play pretty well with an alternate ending, a couple of deleted scenes and two featurettes. The Balls Out: The Making of Balls of Fury is surprising in depth for such a shallow comedy. It seems as though they were attempting to make something with a little bit of heart from what I can tell, but the farce just got away from them.

All in all, Balls of Fury just doesn’t have the stuff to get the gold. As a matter of fact it won’t even get the bronze. Unfortunately it drops back, trips over the barrier, and knocks itself out cold. “I’m going to Disneyland?”

The Breakdown

*All values out of 5*

Film

Overall: 2
Story:2
Production Design:3
Funny Factor:1

DVD

Overall: 3.25
Specs.: 3
Extras: 3.5

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Balls Of Fury (2007) DVD review written by: Joe Burns

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