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''Balls of Fury'' is a 2007 American
sports comedy A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spor ...
film directed by
Robert Ben Garant Robert Ben Garant (born September 14, 1970), credited earlier in his career as Ben Garant, is an American screenwriter, producer, director, actor and comedian. He has a long professional relationship with Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver ...
, who also wrote the screenplay with
Thomas Lennon Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'' Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...
, who also co-starred and produced with
Roger Birnbaum Roger Birnbaum (born November 14, 1950) is an American film producer who owns the company Spyglass Media Group, and was co-CEO and co-chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His two greatest box office hits as producer have been ''Rush Hour 2'' and '' T ...
,
Gary Barber Gary Barber (born 1957) is a South African-born American film producer. Barber was the chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is also co-founder of Spyglass Entertainment. Biography Barber was born to a Jewish family in Johannesburg, So ...
and
Jonathan Glickman Jonathan Glickman (born May 18, 1969) is an American film producer who served as the President of MGM Motion Picture Group from 2011 to 2020. Personal life and education Glickman is the son of Rhoda Yura and Dan Glickman, the former Kansas Congre ...
. The film stars
Dan Fogler Daniel Kevin Fogler (born October 20, 1976) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He has appeared in films including ''Balls of Fury'', ''Good Luck Chuck'', ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'', '' Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grin ...
, with a supporting cast of
George Lopez George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has rec ...
,
Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awar ...
,
Maggie Q Margaret Denise Quigley (Vietnamese: Lý Mỹ Kỳ; born May 22, 1979), professionally known as Maggie Q, is an American actress, activist, and model. She began her professional career in Hong Kong, with starring roles in the action films ''Gen- ...
,
Terry Crews Terry Alan Crews (born July 30, 1968) is an American actor, television host, and former American footballer. He played Julius Rock in the UPN/ CW sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris'', which aired from 2005 to 2009, and portrayed Terry Jeffords in ...
,
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Japanese: 田川 洋行, ''Tagawa Hiroyuki''; born September 27, 1950) is a Japanese-born American actor, film producer, and martial artist. Often cast as villains, he is known for his film roles in ''The Last Emperor'' (1 ...
,
James Hong James Hong (; born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. He has worked in numerous productions in American media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles. With more than 650 film and television credits as of 20 ...
and
Jason Scott Lee Jason Scott Lee (; born November 19, 1966) is an American actor and martial artist. He played Mowgli in Disney's 1994 live-action adaptation of ''The Jungle Book'' and Bruce Lee in the 1993 martial arts film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story''. He ...
. The film was released in the United States on August 29, 2007. ''Balls of Fury'' was Fogler's first lead role.


Plot

Eleven-year-old Randy Daytona becomes anxious when he learns that his father Peter has bet on his performance in the
1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...
table tennis tournament finals. During his semi-final game against Karl Wolfschtagg of the
German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
, Daytona has an accident and suffers an injury. Unable to continue, he loses the match.
Loan sharks A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...
, in the employ of criminal mastermind Feng, murder his father, and Daytona leaves competitive ping-pong. Nineteen years later, Daytona is dismissed from the Peppermill casino and meets
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
agent Ernie Rodriguez, who requests his assistance in arresting Feng for gunrunning. Feng's hidden jungle hideout hosts an underground table tennis tournament, and Daytona's invitation is a way for the FBI to infiltrate Feng's organization. When Daytona agrees, Rodriguez tells him to win enough championships that Feng's scouts notice him. After losing a local tournament, Daytona is apprenticed to a blind man in Chinatown named Wong, who was Feng's former mentor. Daytona also meets Wong's niece, Maggie. When locals vandalize Master Wong's house for violating their edict against teaching white people ping-pong, Daytona is forced to play against "The Dragon", a young girl, in exchange for Wong's right to stay. After Daytona beats the Dragon and gets punched, Feng's men take notice of his win and bring Daytona, Rodriguez, and Wong to Feng's facility. Daytona handily beats his first opponent, Freddy "Fingers" Wilson, though he is unnerved to learn that the tournament is literally sudden death—the loser is killed by a poisoned dart delivered by Feng's majordomo, Mahogany. After Daytona unsuccessfully attempts to escape, Feng invites 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. It is wired to special vests that give increasingly powerful and fatal electrical shocks for failure. Daytona informs Rodriguez of a hidden cache of illegal guns that are sufficient to put Feng in jail. While Rodriguez investigates the hidden facilities, Daytona defeats numerous opponents for his life. Upon learning that Wolfschtagg is his last opponent, Daytona requests extraction. Rodriguez comes up with a plan to brutally injure Daytona so that he can safely concede. Rodriguez breaks Daytona's arm before Daytona can tell him that he has changed his mind. Feng discovers Rodriguez's attempts to contact the FBI and forces Daytona to face Wolfschtagg, then substitutes Maggie. When Wolfschtagg protests, Feng kills him. Daytona plays one-handed and tries to stall for time. Maggie tries to lose on purpose to sacrifice herself. However, Daytona uses his ping-pong expertise to hit Maggie with the ball. While this goes on, they escape together. Enraged, Feng orders them both executed. Mahogany shoots a poisonous dart at Daytona, but Maggie thwarts her. Daytona throws the poisoned paddle back at Mahogany, killing her. The FBI swarms the place, during which the heroes attempt to escape, but Daytona's attempts to rescue Feng's slaves cause their capture. Feng plays Daytona to determine which of Wong's students is the superior ping pong player. During the game, Daytona trips Feng's bodyguard and sets off the self-destruct sequence. Feng reveals there is no way to turn off the suits. He also states that he changed the rules so that the ball can now be bounced off any surface once and still be in play. The game moves through several buildings and finally onto a bridge over a nearby river. After Wong informs Daytona that Feng has a weak backhand, Daytona exploits his weakness, and Feng is electrocuted, falling into the river. Daytona and his friends, along with Feng's slaves, escape in Wong's boat as the facility explodes. Two months later, the major characters are reunited for the reopening of Wong's rebuilt Mushu shop while also still hosting ping-pong games. Wong inadvertently falls down the elevator shaft, to Randy, Rodriguez, and Maggie's shock.


Cast

*
Dan Fogler Daniel Kevin Fogler (born October 20, 1976) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He has appeared in films including ''Balls of Fury'', ''Good Luck Chuck'', ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'', '' Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grin ...
as Randy Daytona *
Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awar ...
as Feng *
George Lopez George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has rec ...
as Agent Ernie Rodriguez *
Maggie Q Margaret Denise Quigley (Vietnamese: Lý Mỹ Kỳ; born May 22, 1979), professionally known as Maggie Q, is an American actress, activist, and model. She began her professional career in Hong Kong, with starring roles in the action films ''Gen- ...
as Maggie Wong *
James Hong James Hong (; born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. He has worked in numerous productions in American media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles. With more than 650 film and television credits as of 20 ...
as Master Wong *
Robert Patrick Robert Hammond Patrick (born November 5, 1958) is an American actor. Known for portraying villains and honorable authority figures, he is a Saturn Award winner with four other nominations. Patrick dropped out of college when drama class sparked ...
as Sgt. Pete Daytona *
Aisha Tyler Aisha Nilaja Tyler (born September 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, director, and talk show host. She is known for playing Andrea Marino in the first season of ''Ghost Whisperer'', Tara Lewis (Criminal Minds), Dr. Tara Lewis in ''Crimi ...
as Mahogany *
Thomas Lennon Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'' Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...
as Karl Wolfschtagg *
Diedrich Bader Karl Diedrich Bader (born December 24, 1966) is an American actor and comedian who is best known for his comedy roles. He has appeared as a series regular in television sitcoms ''The Drew Carey Show'', ''American Housewife'', and '' Outsourced'' ...
as Gary *
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Japanese: 田川 洋行, ''Tagawa Hiroyuki''; born September 27, 1950) is a Japanese-born American actor, film producer, and martial artist. Often cast as villains, he is known for his film roles in ''The Last Emperor'' (1 ...
as Mysterious Asian Man *
Jason Scott Lee Jason Scott Lee (; born November 19, 1966) is an American actor and martial artist. He played Mowgli in Disney's 1994 live-action adaptation of ''The Jungle Book'' and Bruce Lee in the 1993 martial arts film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story''. He ...
as Eddie *
Terry Crews Terry Alan Crews (born July 30, 1968) is an American actor, television host, and former American footballer. He played Julius Rock in the UPN/ CW sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris'', which aired from 2005 to 2009, and portrayed Terry Jeffords in ...
as Freddy "Fingers" Wilson *
Patton Oswalt Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is known as Spence Olchin in the sitcom ''The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and for narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–present) as ...
as "The Hammer" *
David Koechner David Michael Koechner ( ; born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the ''Anchorman'' films and Todd Packer on NBC's ''The Office''. Koechner first became involved in perf ...
as Rick the Birdmaster


Reception

, the film holds a 21% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 131 reviews with an average score of 4.2/10. The site's consensus reads: "Tasteless, yet harmless, ''Balls of Fury'' nevertheless fails to generate enough laughs despite its lowbrow intentions". On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film has a score of 38 out of 100 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Brian Lowry of Variety magazine wrote: "Relentlessly silly in spoofing martial-arts movie conventions, Balls of Fury has roughly enough laughs for a first-class trailer but wheezes, gasps and finally goes flat through much of its 90 minutes." Film historian
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
was even less kind, declaring the picture a BOMB (his lowest possible rating), while describing it as a "...One-joke comedy that's every bit as inane and stupid as its premise. James Hong steals every scene he's in; but, alas, it's petty theft."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
was more favorable in his review for the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'', giving it two-and-a-half out of four stars and recommending it as a modest comedy of "sheer absurdity". The film opened with a U.S. take on the opening weekend of $11,352,123. The U.S. final gross, on November 4, 2007, was $32,886,940.


Video game

A tie-in game for ''Balls of Fury'' was released for
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
and
Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
by Black Lantern. The storyline involves an underground ping-pong competition, based on the film. The Nintendo DS version was released on September 9, 2007, with the Wii version following on September 25. Both versions take advantage of
motion controls In video games and entertainment systems, a motion controller is a type of game controller that uses accelerometers or other sensors to Motion capture, track motion and provide input. History Motion controllers using accelerometers are used as c ...
to play ping pong, and were not well received. The Wii version was panned by critics, while the Nintendo DS version received better, but mixed reviews. IGN scored the Wii version a 1.2 out of 10, but scored the DS version a 6.5 out of 10.


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balls Of Fury 2007 films 2007 comedy films 2000s sports comedy films American films about revenge American sports comedy films 2000s English-language films Films about the 1988 Summer Olympics Films directed by Robert Ben Garant Films produced by Roger Birnbaum Films scored by Randy Edelman Films set in Los Angeles Films shot in California Focus Features films Intrepid Pictures films Rogue (company) films Spyglass Entertainment films Table tennis films Triad films 2000s American films 2000s Hong Kong films