Balls of Fury

In this wacky spoof of Enter the Dragon, former ping pong phenom Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler)—now a down-and-outer working in Las Vegas—is enlisted by FBI agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) to participate in an underground tournament of extreme table tennis as a means of penetrating the secret lair of gunrunning arch-fiend Feng (Christopher Walken). More than a little out of practice, Randy turns to blind ping pong sage and restaurateur Wong (James Hong) and his sexy niece (Maggie Q) for some intensive training before entering the competition. Scruffy, portly Fogler is perfectly cast as the has-been “athlete,” and Walken gets laughs simply by imitating himself, working from a script by Reno 911 co-creators Thomas Lennon (who also plays one of Randy's adversaries) and Robert Ben Garant (who also directs) that is loaded with cornball humor. Unfortunately, many jokes don't pay off (including an awkward scene between Randy and a sex slave played by Diedrich Bader), but there are still more laughs here than you might expect. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include the 14-minute “making-of” featurette “Balls Out,” seven deleted scenes (7 min.), a five-minute “Under the Balls: The Life of a Ball Wrangler” gag featurette, a two-minute alternate ending, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an often lame comedy.] (E. Hulse)