Dan Fogler stars as table tennis child prodigy and Def Leppard-devotee Randy Daytona, whose defeat at the hands of an East German (Thomas Lennon) during the 1988 Olympics forced him leave the world of table tennis competition in disgrace. Randy's life is a shambles until he gets recruited by a CIA agent (Barry Lopez) to infiltrate an ENTER THE DRAGON-style table tennis tournament (to the death), run by an evil triad leader (Christopher Walken). First Randy needs to get back in shape; enter James Hong (BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA) as the blind table tennis master Wang and Maggie Q as his sexy, kung fu-fighting niece. While BALLS OF FURY is a consistently funny comedy it also manages to slyly infuse some intelligence and compassion into its steady stream of genre spoofing and lowbrow crotch gags (similar in that sense to Mel Brooks' BLAZING SADDLES). Fogler has an engagingly scruffy underdog-style warmth and seems to really connect with the older pros like Walken and Hong; there's the sense everyone had a good time making this film, which carries over to the audience. Director Robert Ben Garant knows when to speed up the action and when to give his actors room to stretch out; the result is a generous spirit where all the cast is allowed to grab their share of the laughs.
