Balls of Fury is a comedy film starring Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken. It was directed by Robert Ben Garant and was released on August 29, 2007. Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler), a star in the world of table tennisis already making a name for himself at a young age. However, he trips and hits his head during the semi final of a 1988 ping pong tournament and unconsciously exclaims, "I'm going to Disneyland!". As a result, he is forgotten for the next 19 years. He attempts to recapture his former glory but is soon confronted by the FBI and asked to go undercover to smoke out a notorious criminal and ping-pong lord called Feng (Christopher Walken). Randy then seeks the help of a blind ping-pong sage and his niece Maggie Wong (Maggie Q) to complete his secret mission. This film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for crude and sex-related humor and for language. As of September 28, 2007, the film had a score of 38 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 26 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, 28% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 69 reviews (19 "fresh", 50 "rotten"). The film opened poorly with a U.S. take of 10.5 million, well below studio estimates. Two video games based off of Balls of Fury were released for the Wii, and the DS called Balls of Fury (video game) Randy Daytona is a huge Def Leppard fan. Half of the movie, he doesn't take off his Def Leppard shirt. His racket has the words on it "Def Leppard Rules". Mid movie, right before his "canceled" match with the German, Daytona pulls out a boom box and starts to dance to "Rock of Ages". He also at one point loses the ability to play ping pong with his right hand and uses his left with his right in a sling. This is an obvious reference to Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, who lost his left arm in a car crash and continued to play with only his right. Perhaps coincendentally, Def Leppard is signed to the Universal Music Group, once under common ownership with Universal Studios (the parent of distributor Rogue Pictures). The plot is very similar to Enter the Dragon. It also has many references to Star Wars and Mortal Kombat. |