Cast: Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q
Direction: Robert Ben Garant

Sometimes I can look at a film’s trailer and know exactly what to expect from the film, which is why I really wasn’t looking forward to seeing Balls of Fury, this week’s other new release from Hollywood.

It looked like one of those ridiculously slapstick films with your usual racial stereotyping - and ten minutes in my seat watching the film, I knew my prediction had been bang on target.

Balls of Fury is the kind of film whose idea of comedy involves a blind man bumping into things and fat men getting kicked in their groin by little girls - if you think that’s funny, then the guys who made this film obviously know better than me and they’re right in assuming that an audience actually exists for this kind of film.

Now the balls being referred to in the movie’s title are of the ping-pong variety, just in case you thought otherwise, and the film’s dreadful plot centres around a former disgraced ping-pong champion who’s hired by the FBI to infiltrate an underground table-tennis championship so they can get their hands on the criminal weapons dealer who’s the chief patron of this tournament.

Other characters central to the plot include a blind Chinese Ping-Pong Master and his ball-busting niece who trains our hero before the big match. Apart from maybe three genuinely funny moments in the film, I thought Balls of Fury was a complete waste of time and energy.

I still can’t understand why an accomplished actor like Christopher Walken would agree to be dressed up as a Chinese transvestite and play the film’s chief bad-guy. Also, the least you expect from what’s essentially an underdog story, is a lead actor with some charisma.

Not only is Dan Fogler a lardy, lumpy, unfunny version of Jack Black, he’s got no presence at all on screen, which makes me wonder why in the name of the devil would anyone want to spend close to a hundred minutes watching him.

Replete with tasteless jokes about Asian people, gays and the handicapped, Balls of Fury is first a waste of money on the part of the studio that financed this idiotic film, and then a waste of your money if you’re idiotic enough to go see it.

I’m going with just one out of five and a thumbs down for Balls of Fury, believe me this is several notches worse than anything bad you’ve seen lately.

Rating: 1 / 5 (Poor)