Arts & Entertainment

 

 

Pec is inherently humourous.

The idea of hitting a tiny ball roughly
the size of a walnut back and forth with
extreme force over a miniature tennis
court is pretty funny. Competitive ping-

 

a gag is, it’s ultimately the delivery that
makes or breaks a joke. And the cast
of this movie—though not lacking in
effort—just doesn’t deliver. Dan Fogler
never seems genuine in the role of Ray
Daytona, a former ping-pong prodigy
who becomes

ive
haven “Christopher Walken ‘ashep ony
ae shines as the the tyerbio
tu willever evil mastermind, —tinstog
ks a but despite what the inorder
dog shows, previews allege, he ——
figure skating. Goesn't Show up Until avneis prevy
So I bet some ae “far out there,
waar the movie is halfway x¢iwous

“hey, men’s
figure skating
has Blades of
Glory, dog shows have Best In Show,
and dodgeball has, well, Dodgeball...
why don’t we make a comedy out of
ping-pong?” The fact that some people
actually take ping-pong seriously as
a sport is downright funny; it’s a joke
that can’t miss. Hell, even the words
“tiny balls” are funny. Say “tiny balls”
to yourself out loud right now. I bet you
giggled.

Unfortunately, no matter how funny

12

over”

comedic actor
to suspend your
disbelief, like
Vince Vaughn
in Dodgeball. Unfortunately, Fogler is
no Vaughn. George Lopez, who plays
the FBI agent behind the top-secret
ping-pong mission, and Maggie Q, who
plays the ping-pong tutor/love interest,
also suffer from poor acting skills that
prevent them from ever really engaging
the audience. Christopher Walken
shines as the the evil mastermind, but
despite what the previews may have led
you to believe, he doesn’t show up until

“Balls of Fury”
Misses the Mark

Fishin’ at the Movies

Mark Fisher

the movie is halfway over. If they had
made his role a bigger part of the plot,
and given him his own scenes—I’m
thinking along the lines of Dr. Evil
in Austin Powers—this movie could
have been a classic. His evil mob boss
character, known simply as “Feng,” is
utterly convincing as the organizer of
a tournament where the stakes are so
high that anyone who loses is instantly
killed. The final showdown between
him and Daytona—a ping-pong game
to the death as Feng’s headquarters are
about to explode—is inspired, and
it’s too bad that more of the movie
wasn’t like that.

One of the redeeming qualities
of the movie is its fast pace.
You may not laugh as often
as you'd like, but you
won’t be bored either.
If you’re desperate
for entertainment
the movie might
be worth your
while. Some of
the jokes fall
completely
flat, but
there
were a
few

times where the audience erupted

in fits of laughter. The ping-pong
sequences themselves are well filmed
and entertaining to watch, and the part
where Daytona manages to deflect a
projectile back at his attacker with his
ping-pong paddle and kill him was
well done. There are funnier things in
theatres right now, but whoever thought
it was a good idea to turn this script
into a feature film had balls the size of
walnuts—and that’s got to count for
something right?