Director – Robert Ben Garant.
Cast – Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q, George Lopez, Aisha Tyler.
Balls Of Fury is that rare film that will divide moviegoers based purely on the title alone. I myself am all for films that feature both fury and balls, especially when they star the unhinged, but still slightly scary, Christopher Walken. Not very surprisingly he plays the baddie here who stages an underground table tennis tournament every five years where the best players from all corners of the globe come to see who is the one true champion. It is sudden death, literally, so the last man standing wins.
You are probably wondering how a concept as foolproof as this might fail especially as Will Ferrell has taken it upon himself to revitalise the sports comedy genre with Talledega Nights, Blades Of Glory and the upcoming Semi Pro but unfortunately it’s a missed opportunity. Which is a huge shame as Christopher Walken is a tornado of bizarreness in every scene he steals.
Many of the scenes feel rushed and the jokes-per-minute quotient is just not high enough. Allied to this is that lead actor Dan Fogler is not Jack Black which is a gigantic problem as the part was blatantly written for Black. Half an hour watching a charisma-free Jack Black clone hammers home just how amazing School Of Rock and Nacho Libre actually are. And as the Tenacious D movie proved even a genius (you heard me!) cannot compete against a lazy script.
Not that Balls Of Fury is all bad, apart from Christopher Walken and his completely off kilter delivery the very, very highly-strung East German player, played by Thomas Lennon from Reno 911 is fantastic and the table tennis scenes are entertainingly ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining. I was looking forward to Balls Of Fury and while I was disappointed I can think of worse ways to kill an hour and a half.
Cast – Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q, George Lopez, Aisha Tyler.
Balls Of Fury is that rare film that will divide moviegoers based purely on the title alone. I myself am all for films that feature both fury and balls, especially when they star the unhinged, but still slightly scary, Christopher Walken. Not very surprisingly he plays the baddie here who stages an underground table tennis tournament every five years where the best players from all corners of the globe come to see who is the one true champion. It is sudden death, literally, so the last man standing wins.
You are probably wondering how a concept as foolproof as this might fail especially as Will Ferrell has taken it upon himself to revitalise the sports comedy genre with Talledega Nights, Blades Of Glory and the upcoming Semi Pro but unfortunately it’s a missed opportunity. Which is a huge shame as Christopher Walken is a tornado of bizarreness in every scene he steals.
Many of the scenes feel rushed and the jokes-per-minute quotient is just not high enough. Allied to this is that lead actor Dan Fogler is not Jack Black which is a gigantic problem as the part was blatantly written for Black. Half an hour watching a charisma-free Jack Black clone hammers home just how amazing School Of Rock and Nacho Libre actually are. And as the Tenacious D movie proved even a genius (you heard me!) cannot compete against a lazy script.
Not that Balls Of Fury is all bad, apart from Christopher Walken and his completely off kilter delivery the very, very highly-strung East German player, played by Thomas Lennon from Reno 911 is fantastic and the table tennis scenes are entertainingly ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining. I was looking forward to Balls Of Fury and while I was disappointed I can think of worse ways to kill an hour and a half.
No comments:
Post a Comment