Thanks to Saturday Night Live, Christopher Walken has reinvented himself as a comedic actor. His “More Cowbell” sketch is known, and the “Best of Christopher Walken” DVD has been a high vendor. Walken appeared in final yr’s Adam Sandler distant management comedy, “Click,” and he additionally was married to John Travolta within the huge display model of “Hairspray” earlier this yr. This week, Walken is again in what could possibly be his strangest position thus far in “Balls of Fury.”
The movie facilities on Randy Daytona (performed by Tony Award winner Dan Fogler), a baby ping-pong prodigy that was the star of the 1988 Olympic Games, (not in actual life, simply within the film). Daytona’s father locations a wager on his son’s championship match, which finally ends up costing Randy the sport, and his father his life. Randy is disgraced and spends the following 19 years doing ping-pong tips in Reno.
Flash ahead to the current, and the FBI is making an attempt to bust a Chinese crime lord named Feng, (performed by Christopher Walken). Feng additionally occurs to be the one behind Randy’s father’s dying and is a HUGE ping-pong fan. Feng is holding an invite solely ping-pong event and the feds recruit Randy to go in as their mole to bust Feng and get his revenge for the dying of his father.
An action-craving FBI agent, (performed by George Lopez), a blind ping-pong instructor and his niece, (James Hong and Maggie Q.), spherical out our group of heroes on this slap-stick comedy.
“Balls of Fury” is “Enter the Dragon” meets “Hot Shots,” nevertheless it would not fare almost in addition to both of these two movies. The humor is primarily bodily, and will get outdated fairly quick. Fogler is first rate because the washed up ping-pong participant, and George Lopez is as humorous as he might be in his restricted position. The huge disappointment for me, although, was Walken. It appeared like he by no means actually bought a deal with on his character of Feng. He’s taking part in a Chinese crime lord, however he is dressed like Gary Oldman in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” And, he is not Chinese! Maybe that is a part of the gag, nevertheless it’s not very humorous. He additionally delivers his traces in quite a lot of methods – starting from raspy and guttural to Liberace-like. The backside line is that I by no means purchased him because the unhealthy man.
The climactic scene is over-the-top and ridiculous, with Feng and Daytona taking part in a life-or-death sport of ping-pong…with no desk. It is unnecessary in any respect.
So, do you have to “go see it,” “wait for the DVD,” or “skip it?”
I’m going with “wait for the DVD,” or perhaps even HBO.
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