Balls of Fury parents guide

Balls of Fury Parent Guide

Overall C-

Billed as a comedy, Balls of Fury follows a former professional Ping Pong champ (Dan Fogler) who meets his match after agreeing with the FBI to join an underground club where he can take on the villainous Mr. Feng (Christopher Walken) in an extreme sport competition.

Release date August 28, 2007

Violence C+
Sexual Content C
Profanity C
Substance Use C

Why is Balls of Fury rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Balls of Fury PG-13 crude and sex-related humor, and for language

Run Time: 90 minutes

Parent Movie Review

When he was a boy, Randy Daytona (Brett DelBuono) was the Number 2 guy in the world of professional ping-pong. Then a fateful match with East German contender Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon) crushed the young man’s hopes of ever reaching the top.

Now, several years later, Randy (Dan Fogler) earns his keep in seedy clubs doing ping-pong ball tricks. And that is where he is found by Ernie Rodriquez (George Lopez), an FBI agent desperately trying to capture a Chinese criminal named Mr. Feng (Christopher Walken). Convinced they only way to catch this ping-pong-passionate crook is by infiltrating an underground tournament, Rodriquez coaxes the down-and-outer back into the game.

To help the reluctant Randy dust off his competitive skills, he is introduced to Master Wong (James Hong), who is rumored to be a supreme teacher of the sport—although there are some questions about his real abilities when it’s discovered he’s blind. However, his beautiful and apparently unbeatable daughter Maggie (Maggie Q) seems to make up for these shortcomings, and provides Randy with incentive to focus on his task. After days of painful training (thanks to some strange Martial Arts moments and kicks to the crotch), the pupil is prepared to enter the ultimate championship under the rule of Mr. Feng. What he isn’t ready for is the literal interpretation of “sudden death” in the obsessive tyrant’s rulebook.

While billed as a comedy, the movie offers a dark story with just a few moments of mildly humorous antics. Most of its attempts to get laughs rely on sexual innuendo, racial slurs, and insults of visually impaired people. The bulk of the script comes off as improvised—in the worst way possible—with performances that are weak and outright foolish. (If this had been Christopher Walken’s first role, I don’t know if we would ever have seen this capable actor again…)

Not surprisingly, there are content concerns throughout; including verbal sparring about male anatomy (like the double meaning of the film’s title), an extended sequence involving male courtesans, and a scene where tracking transmitters are put into private body cavities. Fortunately, the situations are more verbal than visual, stopping the “gross out” humor just short of being excessive, but that’s hardly an endorsement for family viewing. With only the tiniest of redeeming messages about overcoming childhood fears to recommend it, Balls of Fury quickly fizzles into one of the lamest comedies to be served this year.

Starring Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q, George Lopez. Running time: 90 minutes. Theatrical release August 28, 2007. Updated

Balls of Fury
Rating & Content Info

Why is Balls of Fury rated PG-13? Balls of Fury is rated PG-13 by the MPAA crude and sex-related humor, and for language

 

Relying on sexual comments and ridiculous antics to generate humor, Balls of Fury presents various content concerns. Sexual innuendo is frequent, with comments about male and female anatomy, often using rude terminology. A character puts chopsticks down a man’s pants and up another man’s nostrils, then resumes using them to eat his food. Comments are made about masturbating. Men are forced to accept the company of a male courtesan for the night; the next morning a blind man makes statements implying he thought he was with a woman. Characters are forced to conceal tracking transmitters in body cavities (they talk about their discomfort and walk strangely). A couple of women wear revealing tops. Violence played for comedy includes a man getting kicked in the crotch various times, a man getting shocked by an electric vest, and Martial Arts style fighting resulting in injuries (with added sound effects). Gunplay and killing with poisonous darts are depicted. Principal characters smoke cigarettes and drink socially. Derogatory remarks are made toward Chinese and Caucasian people, as well as the handicapped.

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Balls of Fury Parents' Guide

If you’re interested in the sport of Ping-Pong, you’ll find an amazing wealth of information from around the globe at: www.pongworld.com

Is it table tennis or ping-pong? The debate of what these terms mean continues. Read this article by a historian from the governing body for the Olympic Sport of Table Tennis in the United States.

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Balls of Fury movie is December 17, 2007. Here are some details…

DVD Release Date: 18 December 2007

Get your paddles ready for the DVD release of Balls of Fury. Included on the disc are deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a making-of featurette (Balls Out) and a mockumentary (Under the Balls: The life of a Ball Wrangler). Audio tracks are available in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), with subtitles in English and French.

Related home video titles:

Christopher Walken plays a fatherly role in the family friendly films Sarah Plain and Tall and Skylark. In Batman Begins, another movie character gets training from an Asian mentor.