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Balls of Fury
Not since Dodgeball has the name and poster for a movie inspired such great anticipation of true dodginess. And I was not disappointed. Balls of Fury played like a bad Kung Fu movie without the Kung Fu. Well, there were two fight scenes, but they were kind of incidental, very cool, but incidental.
The movie starred Dan Fogler as the child prodigy who loses his father as a result of an error he made while playing in the 1988 Olympics. He doesn’t compete again until the FBI agent played by George Lopez approaches him. So, he picks up his paddle for honour, glory and revenge, the three building blocks of any good Kung Fu film. Throw in the wise Chinese master and love interest, two separate people, although it might make an interesting take on an overdone concept for the love interest and Chinese master to be the same person, and you have you film.
Unfortunately for the rest of the cast, Christopher Walken really stole this movie. Looking like a rejected villain from Flash Gordon with a love for sudden death table tennis, and you have a villain that you love. We all know he dies in the end, as that is the formula, but you kind of hope that it is the last scene in the film as you want him to be around for as long as possible.
Dodginess
As a kung fu movie, Balls of Fury would probably have rated a 3 on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man scale. It was a little formulaic, but the fight scenes (read table tennis matches) were done very well. Two moments really stand out for me as the dodgiest in the film. The first is during the opening sequence when the East German table tennis player rips off his tracksuit to reveal his one piece leotard. Any guy that comfortable to seem that proud in a skintight outfit rates quite high in the dodgerometer. However the crowning moment of the film comes when Feng (Christopher Walken) is introducing the players in his tournament. I can’t do it justice with words, so you’ll just have to watch it. This film ultimately gets a 4 on the stay puft marsmallow man scale, if only for the novelty of table tennis fight scenes.
Rewatchability Rating
How rewatchable is Balls of Fury, hard to say. I don’t regret watching it, but I can’t see myself going out of my way to watch it again. Having said that, I also wouldn’t go out of my way to avoid rewatching it. For this reason, it gets a 3 on the rewatchability index.
Most Memorable Quote
One liners abound, mainly from the lips of the blind Chinese master, but it was difficult to top “He played table tennis like the devil wore short shorts”. Oh yeah, I also really like the title, but that’s not really a line from the movie.
Final Thoughts
If you like old Bruce Lee kung fu films, you should watch this, if you like sports films, you should probably watch this, and if you enjoyed Dodgeball, put this one on your list.