Una loca competencia

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.

Taxi. The Pacifier. Herbie Fully Loaded. Let's Go to Prison. Night at the Museum. If this list of movies is an accurate representation of your DVD collection, then my friends, you either have a young child in the house or a strange fetish for average-to-below average comedies. Or "absolutely dreadful" in the case of Jimmy Fallon's Taxi. *shudders* I'm still trying to erase memories of that steamer from my mind.

Other than being part of the aforementioned pathetically sad DVD collection, do you know what else each of these movies has in common? They're all written by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, the duo who wrote, produced, and directed Balls of Fury. Are you trying to decide whether or not this is a film worthy of your time and money? Please let my above revelation stand as "enough said."

In all honesty, what can you expect when you take a poor man's Jack Black and give him the starring role in a poor man's Dodgeball? A little thing I like to refer to as "not much." Dan Fogler gives it the ol' college try, but perhaps the material is to blame for his mostly forgettable performance. He delivers a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, but by the time he's lip-synching to Def Leppard you'll be asking yourself, "So who's this guy, and why is he doing a bad karaoke impersonation of 'Jack Black Meets Sam Kinison'?"

I will give Balls of Fury three credits - 1) Maggie Q is adorable, 2) The film rightfully never takes itself too seriously, and 3) It's nowhere near as filthy as I expected. At the top of my notebook I wrote, "Balls/Genitalia References" and I was set to keep track. I just knew they were going to fly off the screen fast and furious, especially judging by the "a huge comedy with tiny balls" tagline. So I was quite shocked when the grand total was only one, and that one was merely Maggie Q's character disgustedly relaying an example of the comments she was forced to deal with from male players.

What more can I say about a film whose crowning achievement is, "Well, I didn't expect much, and it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, so whatever"? That certainly doesn't send you rushing to purchase a ticket, now does it? It'll be on TNT or TBS soon enough so just have patience and watch a few legitimately good comedies in the interim. There'll come a time when you're flipping channels, nothing else is on, and you'll cruise across this. You can decide then whether you want to sit through all of it. The end result will likely be a long email thanking me for saving you $8.

Before I commence, let me once again bring attention to my above "poor man's Dodgeball" quote. I overheard several disappointed people say, "I thought it'd be like Dodgeball." What's that? Yeah, they said it in unison, Wisenheimer. Now shut up. The consensus? It's not even close. So if that was the opinion you formed after watching the trailer then dismiss that notion immediately. It's an interesting concept that probably contains about ten minutes of solid comedic material.

What ultimately happens when you stretch that over an hour and a half? Unfortunately, the jokes suffer from what I like to call the "Kate Moss, Heather Mills McCartney, and post-2000 Muhammad Ali Syndrome." In other words, they're flat, lame, and they pack no punch. Let's see them put THAT on the DVD cover.

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.

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.

It is not that bad. I am one of the guys who like this. It is not bad comparing to the movies that were recently released in Singapore. Underdog is not very good, can't even be a superhero movie. Shoot em' up is for hard-core action fans and basically is very violent and bloody. Then it is Balls of fury which I enjoyed watching. I thought it was something like Prince of tennis, the live-action movie and the ping-pong ball fights scenes are something like that. That, the ping-pong ball fights, is the thing that attracted me to watch it. But Prince of tennis is better than this. Balls of fury got the comedy and the simple action which becomes a harmless fun movie. I like movies as long as they are fun or entertaining. Balls of fury, though fun, is considered quite dumb for some mature adults or teenagers, the director used stupid jokes like always get hit in the groin and banging into the wall. It has to be stupid to be funny. Sometimes, I admit that it is quite dumb in some of the scenes but it is fun, it got slow-motion ball fights, it got Maggie Q who is hot and it got dumb-a** jokes so what more you want for a dumb comedy.

Overall, it makes a harmless movie that you can watch in your free time. It can be funny sometime and it too can be dumb sometime. You may laugh or smile at some scenes. I don't know but I smiled when watching it even at the stupidest jokes. Best to leave your brains at home while watching. This movie is not to be taken seriously.