Like a Greek god — Dan Fogler plays a disgraced Olympian

Balls of Fury

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Crotch shots, the odd gay panic joke and the ’80s. Though it’s not difficult to parse the zeitgeist of the modern sophomoric comedy — Will Ferrel seems to have a subgenre around himself — it’s still a pleasant surprise to see the formula plugged with efficiency, or even with a glimmer of originality. While Balls of Fury is no more than a competent entry into the world of ’80s sports parody, its slower pacing makes it practically subtle compared to the constant absurdity of movies like Blades of Glory.
            Directed by Ben Garant, who co-wrote the script with fellow Reno 911 alumnus Thomas Lennon, Balls of Fury is part Rocky, part Karate Kid, fusing can-do sports destiny with good ol’ fashioned Orientalism.
            A former ping pong phenom whose loss at the ’88 Olympics sends him spiraling into embarrassing obscurity (he ends up performing tricks at a skeezy Reno buffet), Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is given a chance for redemption when an FBI agent (George Lopez) offers him a chance to use his unique talents. After training with blind ping pong master Wong (James Hong), Daytona must infiltrate an elite underground ping pong tournament created by a mysterious crime lord — a role filled by a man whose very presence brings absurdity: Christopher Walken.
            What sets the movie apart is Garant’s commitment to his ’80s clichés, played straight until knowing nods from characters remind the audience that they aren’t dimly regaining consciousness during a 20-year-old midnight movie. Examples include Walken’s goofy American slang breaking through his Triad façade, or Agent Rodriguez asking why Master Wong bothers holding a walking stick when he seems to run into every available surface.
            Balls of Fury is a movie that revels in its stupidity, whether it’s a multi-scene riff on anal tracking devices or a series of jokes about Master Wong’s blindness. With a title culled from the depths of an elementary school giggle fest, it’s no surprise that “balls” are injured at every opportunity — Daytona has his clamped between chopsticks and kicked by a juvenile ping pong prodigy before the end of the first act.
            With Walken playing a gwai lo (Cantonese slang for “white boy”) Fu Man Chu with accessorized silk ensembles and Lennon as Daytona’s barking/mincing German arch-rival, even the movie’s slower pacing doesn’t make it any less absurd. Its only inconsistency comes in the sped-up love plot between Daytona and Master Wong’s niece, Maggie (Maggie Q) — a shortcut that doesn’t fit with the movie’s otherwise straight play.
     Straight or not, Balls of Fury is a solid parody whose self-referential double-takes keep it full of laughs. And puns about balls. So very, very many.