Beating Will Ferrell to the idea before he could churn it out as another one of his sports comedies, Balls of Fury follows a former child prodigy in the world of table tennis (Dan Fogler) as he tries to recapture his former glory in an underground tournament held by a Chinese crime lord (Christopher Walken). In other words, this is two parts Blades of Glory and one part Enter the Dragon, though it’s missing Ferrell’s absurd improvisational humor and, well, Bruce Lee. Instead we get Fogler, who
has so little presence he’s an anti-star and in his own way ironically fascinating. Aside from two lip-synching bits to Def Leppard, one of which comes over the closing credits, he just sits there, as if he’s waiting for something better to do. Too often during Balls of Fury, I felt the same way.
