Balls of Fury (2007)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Robert Ben Garant

Writers (WGA):

Thomas Lennon (written by) &
Robert Ben Garant (written by)

Release Date:

29 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

A huge comedy with tiny balls

Plot:

Down-and-out former professional ping-pong phenom, Randy Daytona, is sucked into a maelstrom when FBI Agent Ernie Rodriguez 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.

Plot Keywords:

Ping Pong | FBI Agent | Competition | Murder | Olympics

Cast

Dan Fogler	...	Randy Daytona
Christopher Walken	...	Feng
George Lopez	...	Rodriguez
Maggie Q	...	Maggie
James Hong	...	Wong
Terry Crews	...	Freddy
Robert Patrick	...	Sgt. Pete Daytona
Diedrich Bader	...	Gary
Aisha Tyler	...	Mahogany
Thomas Lennon	...	Karl Wolfschtagg
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa	...	Mysterious Asian Man
Brett DelBuono	...	Young Randy - 12 Yrs. Old (as Brett Delbuono)
Jason Scott Lee	...	Siu-Foo
Toby Huss	...	Groundskeeper
David Holmes	...	TV Producer (as Dave Holmes)

Also Known As:

Una loca competencia (Mexico) (Venezuela) [es]
Balles de feu (France) [fr]
Balles en feu (Canada: French title) [fr]
Balls of Fury (Italy) [it]
Bolas de fuego (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]
Pelotas en juego (Spain) [es]
Ta balakia tis orgis (Greece) [el]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, and for language.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (# 43255) | Ireland:12A | Singapore:PG | Malaysia:U | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-11 | Argentina:13 | Canada:PG (Canadian Home Video rating) | Netherlands:6 | Australia:PG | Iceland:7 | Iceland:L (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Rogue Pictures

Trivia:

Thomas Lennon wrote the character of Feng expecting to play it himself.

Goofs:

Continuity: The scene after Randy meets face to face with Wolfschtagg, Ernie is seen bringing a coconut to the table and spilling it. Suddenly, it disappears.

Quotes:

Feng: Ping pong, or as the Chinese say: "Ping pong".

Movie Connections:

References Finding Nemo (2003)

Soundtrack:

Seven Minutes In Heaven

A fun, silly movie. What's everyone whining about?

What are people whining about? Balls of Fury was quite funny! A few years ago, the people who are now trashing this movie would have been going gaga and adding a 100 million to its gross revenue...but that's part of the problem. Tastes have changed.

I'm going to go on the record as saying that this movie is at least as funny as anything Adam Sandler or Will Ferrel has ever made. Why is it doing worse then? People just don't want silly, stupid comedies anymore, which is why Superbad is doing much better instead.

Balls of Fury is a very funny movie with a wonderful cast (especially Christopher Walken and Thomas Lennon), and if some of the jokes fall flat, or gave themselves away in the trailer, the movie moves quickly enough that it doesn't matter. They're already onto another joke.

Times have changed, and unfortunately for the movie, so have tastes. These days, even silly spoofs are expected to meet a required level of maturity, and for those that were raised on Naked Gun, Hot Shots and Police Academy movies, that's a little sad.

Go ahead, say the movie is juvenile. Say it's stupid. Just don't say it isn't funny. There were at least three moments during the movie when the entire theater was rolling in the aisles. I've never seen a SNL alumni movie do that.