Not the funniest movie of the year, but also not the worst movie of the year, Balls of Fury is a decent comedy for the Labor Day weekend, if you’ve already seen Superbad and The Simpsons Movie.
Balls of Fury is the story of Randy Daytona, the former child ping pong prodigy who sinks into oblivion after failure at the Olympic Games. Years later, he is recruited by the FBI to help them infiltrate the evil underground ping pong organization of the Evil Feng, who was responsible for the death of Daytona’s father. The cast includes many of the Reno 911 troupe, Maggie Q as the love interest, George Lopez as the bumbling FBI agent, and the incomparable Christopher Walken, who is as weird and out of place as ever, as the evil Feng. The thing about this movie is that it “almost” is really really funny. The writers get really close to really hilarious several times, but it feels like they just didn’t quite hit the notes. There are some absolutely funny parts of the movie, and then there are some parts that are just ok. It seemed like they couldn’t decide if they wanted to be funny in an Airplane style, or a Farreley Brothers style, or a Will Ferrell style, or a Scary Movie style so they mixed it up, and never quite got it together. That said, there are some very funny parts of the movie, and it moves along well. There isn’t a ton of foul language, mild violence, and almost no actual sex. There are, obviously, lots of Balls jokes, but other than that, it’s pretty tame. If you need a funny movie to go to this weekend, and you’ve already seen the better comedies, this movie is alright.