Balles de feu

I went into the theater expecting almost nothing good coming out of it. I read the reviews- Washington Post, USA Today, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. I knew they were horrible and quite honestly, I thought I would hate the movie. But my friend wanted to go, and me having no life whatsoever, I agreed to join her.

I have to say, I should go into to more movies with such low expectations, because I really enjoyed it. Was the acting superior? No. Was the script well-written? No. But it was funny and Christopher Walken makes all things glorious, so all in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend a Thursday night after an especially terrible day of work. The actors all seemed to realize that they weren't participating in a project that would make movie history and they all seemed OK with that. It was very much a movie done to simply enjoy the play on the word "balls" and in this particular case, it was forgivable.

Overall, don't go in expecting complete comedic genius and you just might find yourself laughing.

Amusing comedy staring Dan Folger who won a Tony for the 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee. The film concerns a Ping Pong Tournament run by madman Christopher Walken. A spoof of films like Enter the Dragon and everyone of those spy films where the FBI or CIA use a regular Joe for a secret mission this is an amusing romp I'm glad I didn't pay big bucks to see on the big screen. Don't get me wrong its a funny movie but not worth the 11 bucks it would take to see in a theater. Dan Folger clearly is a man of limited ability,He's okay here but its clear between this and Good Luck Chuck he's headed for a limited film and TV career in supporting roles. As I said he's good the role doesn't require him to do little more than mug at the camera and he's fine, but I doubt very much he'll be able to ever really do more than that. Christopher Walken on the other hand is a scream, and its clear why he took the role, he can go as far over the top as he wants and still be amusing. The rest of the cast including veteran James Hong and comedian George Lopez is up to snuff, though Maggie Q is given little to do other than look good. Absolutely worth seeing on both DVD and cable.

This has to be, quite possibly, the dumbest movie I have seen in a very, very long time.

However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think there was a single moment in this film that purposely wanted any smidgen of intelligence whatsoever.

And, heck, the reason I went to see this movie was because I thought it looked funny. And, guess what? I laughed. I don't know if this will go into the treasury of greatest stupid movies ever made, but it did leave me with a smile on my face.

I think it was because it was ping-pong. Yes, I like a good game of ping-pong as much as the next person, but come on. It's ping-pong. Just try telling that to these characters. The fact that anyone could take so slight a game so seriously cracked me up.

And that's where this movie works.

It's pointless, silly, and down-right brain cell killing. But I found myself forgiving everyone because they were so good-hearted in waltzing around with their idiotic humor.

No, it will probably not be nominated for Best Picture. But as for dumb comedy goes, this nicely held its own.

What are people whining about? Balls of Fury was quite funny! A few years ago, the people who are now trashing this movie would have been going gaga and adding a 100 million to its gross revenue...but that's part of the problem. Tastes have changed.

I'm going to go on the record as saying that this movie is at least as funny as anything Adam Sandler or Will Ferrel has ever made. Why is it doing worse then? People just don't want silly, stupid comedies anymore, which is why Superbad is doing much better instead.

Balls of Fury is a very funny movie with a wonderful cast (especially Christopher Walken and Thomas Lennon), and if some of the jokes fall flat, or gave themselves away in the trailer, the movie moves quickly enough that it doesn't matter. They're already onto another joke.

Times have changed, and unfortunately for the movie, so have tastes. These days, even silly spoofs are expected to meet a required level of maturity, and for those that were raised on Naked Gun, Hot Shots and Police Academy movies, that's a little sad.

Go ahead, say the movie is juvenile. Say it's stupid. Just don't say it isn't funny. There were at least three moments during the movie when the entire theater was rolling in the aisles. I've never seen a SNL alumni movie do that.

In a time when we are mostly given the sequel to a rip-off of a sequel to a blockbuster, I'm grateful for any movie that is slightly original, and I haven't seen any other movies yet about a Ping-Pong tournament to the death - have you? Even if some elements were familiar like the secret agents and Asian villains and although a couple of jokes fell flat, "Balls of Fury" has enough fresh ideas to offer to work well as a comedy. It helped that the hero was played by an unknown actor instead one of the usual comedy stars because he plays a nobody - somebody who once almost became a hero at the Olympics but lost. He doesn't deserve a second chance but gets one, anyway - encouraged by his coach with words of wisdom like "believe in yourself when nobody else does... like now"! Maggie Q as his training partner is hot, and Chris Walken as Feng adds the eccentric element which fits the colorful scenery. I liked it.