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- Notes provided by Rogue Pictures. -

Balls of Fury is the outrageous new comedy from the team of Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, screenwriters of the blockbuster movie Night at the Museum and creators of the hit television series Reno 911!

Lennon notes, "We've been working together pretty much daily since we met at New York University in 1988 -- so, half of our lives and counting. By now, we tend to be thinking the same thing most of the time; it's sort of like having two halves of the same mind."
"We will come up with an idea together and write an outline. Then we split up parts of the script and write separately," reveals Garant. "Often, we'll work on a Hovercraft in the Amazon."
One day, the duo saw a news item about a Ping-Pong (a.k.a. table tennis) champion who, says Lennon, "couldn't walk down the street without being mobbed, as if he were a rock star." Cross-breeding that concept with their penchant for martial arts, the pair wrote a screenplay to rectify the fact that one of the world's most popular sports hadn't yet been exploited in motion pictures.
Garant elaborates, "We're big Bruce Lee fans, and we thought, what if you took all the kung fu out of a kung fu movie and replaced it with Ping-Pong? So we researched the game for a year; there's a training facility in Hong Kong that looks like something out of The Last Emperor."
Lennon remarks, "We like to look at silly things in a serious way, and serious things in a silly way."
Garant offers, "People in the world of Ping-Pong do take it seriously. There are legends in the sport, and bad guys and sexy girls. If you just walk into a Ping-Pong club, people really do stop playing and turn to stare at you.
"Writing the Ping-Pong sequences was an interesting challenge; we had to keep the scenes dynamic and show the tide of a game turning and/or people cheating."

Producers and Spyglass Entertainment Group co-chairmen and CEOs Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber note, "As screenwriters, Tom and Ben had delivered a big hit movie for us with The Pacifier, and so we bought this project at the pitch stage -- knowing they would deliver."
"They have a unique sensibility," adds producer and Spyglass president Jonathan Glickman. "They delivered a hilarious -- and emotional, even -- script, and we realized they should direct and produce Balls of Fury as well."
As the project began to come together, actors started hearing about the script, and responded to its uniqueness.
Glickman notes, "Several actors were interested in playing Randy Daytona, but we had to find someone who was a terrific comic actor but who would also jell with an ensemble."

Birnbaum and Barber add, "The actor playing Randy had to be highly physical, intelligent, and charming. It was Dan Fogler who best met all of those criteria."

Fogler, who had recently won a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, gravitated towards the material instinctively

-- "once I realized that it wasn't a porno film," he clarifies. "I'm a big fan of Ben and Tom's work on The State and Reno 911! Balls of Fury has so many elements of the movies I love, like Rocky, The Karate Kid, and especially Enter the Dragon. My character is an underdog who goes on a heroic journey."

"Dan, in his Broadway show, gave as funny a performance as we've ever seen, so we knew he'd be very funny in our movie," reports Garant. "He was also very accommodating, considering how many pairs of shorts we made him wear."

Oscar winner Christopher Walken, who has become an icon to moviegoers because of his eclectic body of work, plays the film's über-villain, the notorious Feng. Walken remarks, "When I read the script, the first thing I noticed was how good Tom and Ben's dialogue was. I felt Feng would be an interesting character to play. And I can still play Ping-Pong pretty well; it was very popular when I was a kid."

Garant reports, "He came to the set several days early, so he could watch everyone else and see the movie that was being made. One day, he also brought Tom and I into his trailer and acted out the entire movie -- to see if we liked what he was doing. Amazing."
George Lopez, the popular comedian and actor, plays FBI Agent Rodriguez, who -- like Randy -- needs redemption. In Rodriguez' case, he's been, as Lopez elaborates, "ostracized, and a desk jockey, for the last five years. All because he thought an airplane full of oregano was carrying marijuana. I myself play golf with a former FBI Agent, so I asked him if that would ever happen, and he said it would. He also gave me some tips on how to handle a weapon.
"I also did some stunt work in Balls of Fury, which I could pull off because I've had to subdue many of my uncles at weddings and quinceañeras..."
Lopez was particularly entertained by the script because "Chinese culture is so revered, and has been for centuries -- and Balls of Fury turns all of that inside out. The respect that the culture deserves is still there, but we harvest laughs."
Similarly, Garant and Lennon wrote the part of blind mentor, and Ping-Pong Master, Wong with veteran Asian-American actor James Hong in mind. "He is a hero of mine," states Garant. "We wrote Wong with James' distinctive cadences."
Filmgoers will remember the actor from, among dozens of movies, Chinatown and Airplane! Hong recalls, "Ben and Tom and I had coffee together, and they told me their wonderful idea for this movie. The script was wacky enough for me."
Quickly settling into character, Hong developed a fine ear for sensing the trajectory of the Ping-Pong ball. He intones, "If you can't see the ball, you can still hear it. A softer bounce off your opponent's paddle means that the ball is going to have more spin and a downdraft. If the ball sounds like it's been hit very hard, your opponent is going to slam it at you and it will have less spin. You must adjust accordingly..."
Yet it's Maggie, Wong's niece, who is the real hands-on trainer; Fogler reveals, "She and Randy turn out to share a passion -- two passions, in fact."
Actress Maggie Q was looking "for a comedy -- something that people wouldn't expect me to do. Oddly enough, in Balls of Fury I fight more than I did in Mission:Impossible III.
"I liked the dynamic Maggie Wong has. It's every woman's; she's delicate and sweet -- and in certain ways she can be a hard-ass."
Lennon admits, "Basically, we wanted to see Maggie Q kick people in the face -- a lot. We think many people will, actually."

The duo also thought that many people would enjoy hearing songs from the rock group Def Leppard. Garant says, "There were a number of big-hair bands in the `80s, but Def Leppard was the real deal. We love how they epitomize that period, and we loved the idea of Randy unapologetically still loving the same music he rocked out to when he was 12."

Garant and Lennon knew that the comedy they had scripted wouldn't work without at least some basis in reality -- especially where the Ping-Pong action was concerned. Accordingly, Fogler and several other actors spent time training and trading serves with Wei Wang and Diego Schaaf.

Wang is a former table tennis Olympian who had competed in the 1996 Atlanta games for the U.S. and earned a bronze medal. "Those were the most exciting moments of my life," she says. "I've been playing since I was 11 years old."

Table tennis coordinator Schaaf adds, "If you want to be an Olympic player, you have to start at an early age -- 9 to 11 years old, with 6-8 hours of coaching and training every day. In China, kids live in table tennis camps and get schooled there."

Wang advises, "To play, you need to develop a stroke and a serve, and to learn how the ball spins. You also learn to create your own trajectory as you serve the ball -- trying to make it a little difficult for your opponent to see clearly, while also getting the ball served fast."

Maggie Q remembers, "We realized pretty quickly that they were serious about us looking good, so we had to get with the program. It's more physical and specific than people know. I think there's just as much discipline involved as in kung fu.
"We also had pro Ping-Pong players on the set as extras, and I would get coached by them as well; `Oh, Maggie, you should do it like this...'"
One of the [fictional] pros opposing Randy is his once and future bête noire, East German table tennis player Karl Wolfschtagg -- played by Lennon. He notes, "The leotard and hairdo were perfectly formed in my mind already. That was my preparation; it helps to have a specific outfit. On the set, playing a furious and possibly sinister type was easy because the dance belt on the leotard really hurt."
As to his Ping-Pong preparation, he reports, "I'd work on my form and ask Diego, `How did that look?' I'd mostly get a blank stare, or maybe, `It's okay. Can they fix that in postproduction?' Truthfully, though, I am way better than I used to be, thanks to Wei and Diego."
Schaaf emphasizes, "Hand-eye coordination is very important, and so is the mental aspect, because there is very little time for your strategic decisions; you hit the ball and you have about a third of a second until the other player hits the ball.

"You have to decide where and how you're going to play it back, while also evaluating what your opponent did with it and what he is expecting you to do. It has been compared to playing chess while running a 100-meter dash."

Ultimately, Wang says, "We only trained these actors for a few weeks, but they were very enthusiastic, so I gave them more and more to do. Dan Fogler loved it; after learning a stroke, he would say `Let's play more!'"

Fogler remembers, "At first, they put me up against a Ping-Pong ball-spitting machine, which was both ridiculous and intense. I hadn't played Ping-Pong since I was 11 or so, in my parents' basement. But now, I can beat some of my friends."

The increased Ping-Pong skills of the cast were not lost on Garant, who "did not once play the game during production. I had read an interview with [NBA Coach] Phil Jackson where he said, `Never try to shoot a basket in front of your players.'"

"The actors took it seriously," reports Schaaf. "Tom and Ben wanted them to look as realistic as possible within the framework of the comedy."
Further to that end, Garant remembers, "For some scenes, Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken would take their cues as to the right tone and pace from actors we cast who have starred in actual kung fu movies, like James Hong, Jason Scott Lee [Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story], and Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa [Mortal Kombat].
"It was a treat to watch those guys work. We hardly had to tell Cary a thing, for instance, and Jason is even cooler in person."
With production underway, the location and art departments for Balls of Fury took full advantage of Los Angeles locales. Locations in the Chinatown district were actively utilized. The exterior of Feng's palatial jungle estate was shot at the Arboretum, while his mansion was fashioned from a former Chinese restaurant located next to Universal City Walk.
Walken reflects, "Years ago, when I first came to Hollywood, there was a great restaurant on Sunset called the Imperial Gardens. The mansion set reminded me of that place; they should re-open it..."
Production designer Jeff Knipp says, "Ben and Tom wanted a very realistic approach to the settings. They had written certain colors and textures into the script. Even though this movie is a comedy, they didn't want the over-the-top cheesy factor."
The biggest challenge for Knipp's department was constructing a 150-foot suspension bridge over water. He reports, "We had to make sure that we could build something safe and secure. It doesn't have to last 20 years, but it had to be stable."
Knipp also worked on establishing a color pattern. He notes, "The script makes clear that Randy Daytona's life pretty much sucks in Reno, where he has been working. So we render that flat and nearly colorless. As Randy journeys into Chinatown, it's the Westernized version of China, far more urban with a lot of color and activity.
"Then there's Feng's world, which, like the man himself, is flamboyant. He's pretty out there, so everything has more gold, more texture, and more layering. Once the action gets going, everything else gets much busier."

Knipp imported some of the pieces used in Feng's tournament room from China. He explains, "It was a lot more cost-effective than producing it here. Plus, we wanted an authentic Chinese flavor and feel."

Garant notes, "I think all the actors took a cue from Jeff's sets and MaryAnn Bozek's wardrobe."

As costume designer, Bozek had the enviable challenge of dressing Feng. Garant and Lennon wanted their villain -- "who is mostly out of Tom's brain," confides Garant -- to look grand and ostentatious, so Bozek did considerable research on Japanese emperors and empresses.

Bozek also found that the actor and the filmmakers particularly sparked to "a Ming the Merciless look," referencing the villain from the Flash Gordon comics and serials. The compromise, she notes, was that "my favorite look for him was the hat and the wine-colored outfit. It's all very similar to Ming, but the hat is comparable to an emperor's hat. I feel that the hat made him look taller, more statuesque, and that much more domineering."

"Feng is obviously a show-off," laughs Walken. "But he has to be, doesn't he; he's a villain! So I wore different wigs, different colors of kimonos...it's the kind of guy Feng is."

Maggie Q notes, "Living in Hong Kong for years, I've met a few Fengs. There are these guys who dress very ornately and decadently."

The costuming further enhanced Walken's already heightened presence on the set. Fogler admits, "I was intimidated and excited. Thank God I only had two lines to say for the first couple of days with him. I stood back and watched Chris work, but my anxiety went away as soon as I talked with him. He's really cool and very open."
Bozek also had to design a special costume for Maggie Q, one that would allow Ping-Pong balls to bounce off different parts of the actress' body and help the visual effects department hit their targets just so.

All the actors on the Balls of Fury shoot found the Lennon/Garant partnership to be comparable to working with a single person. But, as Lennon remarks, "Balls of Fury was a little strange for us only because we so often work on completely improvised projects like Reno 911! But this, we had scripted."
Garant adds, "We did a lot of rewriting during pre-production; so, not too much on the set, but we'd mix it up a little. For example, some of the Reno 911! people came in and shot little parts, and almost every word out of their mouths was improv. We were reluctant to even show them the script."
Additionally, Garant and Lennon both encouraged the main actors to come up with bits of business and/or lines. Lopez offers, "First of all, both of these guys are very funny, so that makes you want to make them laugh."
Garant says, "We figure, why hire people if you're not going to let them do what they do best? We shot scenes that were suggested. George's improvs -- especially with Dan -- really added a lot to the movie. A lot of the actors put in stuff."
One of the few actors who didn't was Walken, who states, "On Balls of Fury, I said the words as written; I didn't need to improvise, unlike on so many other films I've done where I'd occasionally throw in a little zinger."
Garant marvels, "He loved the script and he listened to my direction -- not that I gave him much; what am I gonna do, tell Christopher Walken how to act? He is meticulous with his takes and line readings. Watching him work was like movie boot camp."

Walken comments, "I was very impressed with Ben as a director. He has real confidence, makes a nice atmosphere on a set, and he's quick; everything happens when it's supposed to. He makes it seem effortless."
The cast's other screen stalwart concurs; Hong adds, "I found that I could work with Ben better than any other comedy director I'd ever worked with. Why? Because he's still very humble. Maybe two films later, he won't talk to me...
"I haven't seen Dan on stage, but he's multi-talented; he can sing, he can moonwalk -- and he can do pratfalls. He reminds me of Red Skelton."
As an actor who is successfully making the transition from starring on stage to starring on film, Fogler comments, "In theater, there's a little bit of a wait, then you're thrust out of a cannon -- and you're done. In film, there's a lot of a wait, then you're thrust out of a cannon but only for a few moments -- and then you're waiting again, another thrust out of a cannon for a few moments -- and then waiting again.
"But I've always wanted to be in movies, and fortunately I was in good hands; Tom and Ben know comedy. Balls of Fury is funny precisely because they take it so seriously."
Fogler further clarifies, "I'd often go for the joke, but Ben would come up to me and whisper, `Pull it back a little.' He and Tom are really good like that, and they taught me so much. They were also incredibly open to our insanity on the set, so we had a hell of a lot of fun making Balls of Fury."
Maggie Q adds, "Tom and Ben are so funny, and so intelligent in their humor. On the set, you can feel this chemistry between the two of them, in that they care about their material and also respect each other's opinions."

Garant notes, "The funniest -- and most fun -- days on the set were when Tom was directing scenes on second unit at the same time I was directing a scene, and right nearby too. I think the actors got a kick out of it, because we would Ping-Pong them from one end of the set to another, back and forth, back and forth...

"We did have some ball-related accidents on-set, but, happily, none of them had anything to do with Ping-Pong balls."
 

What was it like working with Walken? 

George Lopez: Walken… he was nice.  I think a lot of people were intimidated by his presence, because he’s so eccentric and he’d spend a lot of time in the trailer in back and forth to the set.  But Dan and I actually kind of broke him down.  Especially Dan.  Dan had a lot of scenes with him.  It added quite a relationship with them.  We were talking one day and he was telling us about Studio 54 and the bathhouses of New York and how people would perform and sing in the bathhouses.  Bette Midler and stuff.  To hear Christopher Walken say this 25-minute monologue about Studio 54 and how (imitates) “Back then if you got in trouble, you only had to avoid three people.  Now, it’s the world.”  He did this whole thing with camera phones and how back then if you got drunk and made a fool out of yourself, you just had to avoid the people you were with.  (laughs) 

Dan Fogler: It was huge.  It was a dream come true.  As a young actor, suddenly you’re face to face with someone that you have bits about in your comedy – in your standup act.  Everyone’s got an impression of this guy from the toddlers on up to their grandmothers. 

Do you have an impression of Walken? 

Dan Fogler: (imitating) “Yeah.  I didn’t want to hear about it.” 

George Lopez: He’s aware that everybody has an impersonation of him.  There was a guy who played one of the courtesans.  He would do Schwarzenegger.  And Dan does a little of it in the movie.  Christopher Walken was smitten by the fact that this guy would just break into Arnold Schwarzenegger.  As an actor, hearing probably the most impersonated actor have an actor impersonate Arnold Schwarzenegger, it would bring a smile to his face.  There are a couple of those smiles in the movie.  It entertained him. 

Dan Fogler: Oh, yeah, yeah.  I had a good Schwarzenegger and another guy had a good Schwarzenegger on set.  Walken doesn’t like… I don’t think it’s a good idea to do an impersonation of somebody for the person.   99% of the time it’s completely insulting to them.  So, he made it clear (imitating again) “It’s fine if I’m not around.”  So we would go off into the dark corners and all these Walken impressions were going on with all the young actors on set.  Then we’d feel him coming and be like (imitates) “Cheese it, fellas…” and everyone would run.  (laughs and then imitates again)   “Hey, where’s everyone… ohh…” http://www.popentertainment.com/foglerlopez.htm

MTV: Speaking of Chris Walken, he's your co-star in "Balls of Fury." Does he have an off switch, or is Chris Walken exactly what I think he'd be like off screen?

Fogler: He's a robot. He does have an off switch, and I've seen the off switch, and it's weird. It's right at the base of his neck. He'd be chilling, [eerily accurate Chris Walken impression] "Wow, right now," and an assistant will come by and [power him off], and he'll sit in his director's chair waiting for the next take. And someone will "click," and he's back on again, acting up a storm. [He laughs.] Does that answer your question? He's as eccentric and as wacky as you'd expect him to be, but he's also cool. He's got a certain smell, a real Walken-y kind of smell.

MTV: Can you describe the Walken smell?

Fogler: I'd say lilac and orange peels. http://blogs.ign.com/BallsOfFury/
 

Walken brings bounce to "Balls of Fury" (Reviews) click on pics to enlarge

*The good news is that Christopher Walken, resplendent in purple silk, isn't the film's sole redeeming element. The bad news is that even his arch-villain can't save "Balls of Fury" from losing bounce as the story proceeds. But as business for box office superstar "Superbad" fades, young viewers, especially males, will flock to this martial arts action take on table tennis.Link

*Nice thing No. 2 appears, and that would be the great Christopher Walken, slumming as an international gangster named Feng with a Ping-Pong obsession so intense that he convenes a world championship death match. This is nowhere near one of Walken's great outside-the-box performances, to be treasured long after memories of the movie itself have vanished. He basically does a Fu Manchu thing here, with a pile of sleek black hair well lubricated in crankcase oil, and some froggy-eye glasses. Nothing original, nothing outrageous (given what must have been lame instructions from director Ben Garant of "Reno 911!" fame but still, it's Chris Walken and even half-asleep he's fascinating. He carries the picture along with . .Link   


*A weird Walken and likable lead make 'Balls of Fury' fun:And then there's Walken. As the pingpong-obsessed uber villain, Walken milks every line and every reaction shot that he's given, to great effect. Nobody plays over-the-top Christopher Walken better than he does, as his "Saturday Night Live" guest spots consistently prove. Link

*Having Christopher Walken drop into a comedy is like a sudden jolt of techno music at a tea dance: It changes the air. In "Balls of Fury," Walken shows up late — the movie's already half over — and casually delivers lines like "Okey-dokey artichokey," in that strangely possessed way he has; putting the acCENTs on unexpected sylLABles and generally seeming like that crazy uncle who can always be counted on to liven up Thanksgiving dinner. As the villainous Feng, he's costumed like a foppish Count Dracula, in robes with collars that stand up like they're afraid of him, and he perks up the movie whenever he's on screen. Unfortunately, he's not on screen much, and "Balls of Fury" doesn't quite work without him. Link

*Even if you don't already know it's Christopher Walken, why else would you go to this mediocre comedy if you couldn't count on watching him in a silly hairdo and silk robes, putting a unique, eccentric spin on every villainous line and move? Walken's worth the price of admission, pretty much if not quite entirely, alone. Link

*For a long time, Christopher Walken was the best secret weapon a movie could have. With his cadaverous looks and unnerving demeanor, he was never really cut out to be a leading man. Turn the show over to him for five minutes or so, however, and he'd steal it right out from under everyone else involved. Walken demonstrated that when Woody Allen gave him the role of Diane Keaton's freaky brother in Annie Hall, and he became king of the cameo with his turns in Pulp Fiction and True Romance.
In recent years, however, Walken has come dangerously close to being Shatnerized. Maybe he spent too much time hanging out with the Saturday Night Live crew or simply became over-reliant on a few stock mannerisms, but there's an element of caricature to his recent turns in lousy comedies like Joe Dirt and Kangaroo Jack. Now Walken brings his brand of canned weirdness to the role of Feng, the pingpong playing supervillain in Balls of Fury.
Walken goes through the motions as Feng, relying on his halting speech and peculiar emphasis. The funniest part of his performance is the wardrobe of garish kimonos and wigs that make him look like a cross between Dr. No and Granny Clampett. Link

*Walken's Feng, for instance, is a bizarre amalgam of early Dracula, late Elvis and a 6-year-old. And how can one fail to feel at least some affection for a film in which the archvillain's first line of dialogue is: "Okey-dokey, artichokey"? Link

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*The devil may wear Prada, but Walken's Feng, a Ping-Pong-obsessed triad kingpin, wears outfits that are three parts Fu Manchu to two parts Tammy Faye Bakker -- and, let it be said, he wears them with Vogue-worthy aplomb. It helps that when Walken's character speaks he sounds like a Jackie Mason who's taken elocution lessons. Link

*Halfway through the movie, Christopher Walken turns up as the arch-villain Feng, who overseas his own private tournament in a Central American jungle, apparently after having raided the Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado's closet. As in The Country Bears, Walken's welcome appearance actually has the odd effect of grounding the bizarre spectacle around him. Surrounded by a bunch of yahoos who would have been fixing copiers themselves had they lived in an era less contemptuous of its audience, Walken remains a consummate pro. But half a movie, in this case, is not enough. I could have used a little more cowbell. Link

*Congratulations are in order for Christopher Walken, who—as Balls of Fury's evil crime lord, ping-pong whiz, and fan of Ming the Merciless-style Chinese garb—finally delivers a performance that's a parody of a parody of himself. "Okey-dokey artichokey," says Walken in an exaggeration of the peculiar voice and verbal cadence that have endeared him to legions of impressionists, the sense being that the actor finally wants in on some of that fun Walken mimicry. To hear him say, "I bid you toodles," is to observe an actor far too aware of his own eccentricity, though his embarrassingly self-conscious comedic turn is still the "best" thing about this lazy farce, which concerns former table tennis wunderkind Randy Daytona's (Dan Fogler) efforts to help an FBI agent (George Lopez) bust Walken's Master Feng by infiltrating the villain's deadly ping-pong tournament. Written by Reno 911's Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant (the latter also directing), the film mashes up kung-fu movies, inspirational sports dramas, and '80s kitsch, a stew that might have wrung laughs from absurd contrasts were it not so shoddily put together. Balls of Fury doesn't seem carelessly constructed simply because of its preponderance of scenes that begin and end abruptly, or because its two main weapons of humor are monotonous crotch shots and jokes about the blind, or because the entire film seems severely, amateurishly underlit. Rather, it's because Lennon and Garant operate under the erroneous impression that their basic premise—it's a ping-pong version of The Karate Kid!—is so knock-down, laugh-out-loud funny that it needs no further development save for a few non sequiturs and easy ironic nods to Def Leppard. To put this miscalculation in terms the filmmakers will understand, they don't Armageddon it. Link

*Remember when Christopher Walken wasn't "Christopher Walken?" When he was a serious dramatic actor in movies like The Deer Hunter and The Dead Zone? His odd looks — the gaunt, sad-eyed face that make him look like a basset hound after a hunger strike — and tremulous voice made him hard to cast, but he seemed able to do interesting things with nearly everything he was given.
But then, at some point something shifted. He became a go-to guy for quirky supporting roles, someone who could provide a spark of life where the script itself offered nothing. And so we got Walken in stuff like Poolhall Junkies, Envy, The Country Bears, Gigli, Click — a deadpan breath of fresh air in otherwise irrelevant crap.
In Balls of Fury, Walken takes on the role of an obviously-not-Chinese Chinese gangster named Feng — and he becomes the walking incarnation of the film's hit-and-miss understanding of what's actually funny versus what's funny only in theory. The story's hero, Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler), was once a 12-year-old table tennis prodigy on the verge of international stardom. But one public disgrace changed his life and cost his father his life at Feng's hands. Nineteen years later he's a Reno novelty act bouncing ping-pong balls off of patrons' heads. His chance for redemption comes when an FBI agent (George Lopez) invites Daytona to infiltrate Feng's legendary underground ping-pong tournament — which will require re-learning the sport from the great blind Master Wong (James Hong).
If you're familiar with the work of writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant from either Reno 911! or their 2006 film Let's Go to Prison, you're probably acquainted with their unique combination of low-brow gags, improbably weird gay-panic humor and surreal touches. Sometimes they nail it. Sometimes they don't. And sometimes they're just unlucky — and in this case it's in their timing. The idea of subverting sports-movie clichés through an absurdist competition was already nailed by Broken Lizard in last year's Beerfest.
But mostly, the creative team seems to be aiming for no more ambitious audience response than good will. While Fogler's a funny find as the gone-to-seed Randy, mostly Balls of Fury cruises on his chubby, scraggly look and leaves many of its set-ups hanging.
That notion applies to Walken's presence as the film's nominal villain. From the moment he appears — hair slicked back and shiny, adorned in silk robes — Walken brings the promise of some unexpected weirdness. Except that at this point, the weirdness is expected. We're just waiting to hear what odd bit of dialogue will be given a twist by his halting delivery — and even when it's something as funky as, "I bid you toodles," it's still not quite as amusing as it seems it should be. Balls of Fury is a decent enough diversion as such comedies go, but it just feels a little bit lazy, as though no one got much farther than how funny it might be to cast Christopher Walken as a Chinese gangster.
Walken needs to be careful with his career. Where once there was discovery in him playing his droll comic timing against his looks, he's coming dangerously close to what happened to Leslie Nielsen after a similar late-career shift. There's a big difference between being funny and being "funny." Link

 

*This attempt to capture the fun and humor of “Dodgeball” – with pingpong as the substitute obscure sport – is rather lame. It would probably be nothing more than a straight-to-DVD throwaway if not for another offbeat performance by Christopher Walken, who once again shows that he can inject life into any project.
(...) But the real star of “Fury” is Walken, who takes what could have been an uninteresting villain and creates a character who seems to understand he is slumming in a Z-level film. Whenever Walken is on the screen, “Fury” has some snap and sizzle. Unfortunately, the character doesn’t arrive until about the halfway point and has to take a back seat to other characters for too much time in the second half.
I wish they had refocused during filming and made the movie about Feng, because that is a comedy with some promise. Instead, we are stuck with a below average film that Walken almost single-handedly carries to mediocrity – a feat that is appreciated, but not enough to forgive “Balls of Fury” for its many faults. Link

*And then there is Christopher Walken, who only shows up for the second half of the film and effectively hijacks the remaining running time with another one of his patented bizarro comedic turns. The material that he has been given is, like the rest of the film, hardly inspired but he knows how to deliver a line with the kind of off-kilter gusto that magically transforms lines as routine and uninspired as “How’s my cowl?” and “I bid you toodles” into laugh-getters. Of course, we all know by this point that Walken could do a role like this in his sleep (and for all I know, he did) and knock it out of the park and that begs the question of why he would bother to waste his time, talent and energy on something so fundamentally silly. My guess is that 27 years ago, Walken tried out for the role of Ming the Merciless in the Dino De Laurentiis remake of “Flash Gordon” and when he lost it to Max Von Sydow, it caused a hurt that no amount of wealth, fame, power or cowbell could hope to heal. When he received this script, I suspect that he realized that the role of Feng would offer him the closest opportunity to show the world his conception of Ming and decided that he would take it for that very reason. Well, either that or he wanted to show that his appearances in the likes of “Joe Dirt” and “Kangaroo Jack” were no flukes and that he really will appear in virtually anything as long as the check clears. (Peter Sobczynski) Link

Walken was casting coup in 'Balls of Fury'

Signing Christopher Walken to play the villain in "Balls of Fury" may have been the filmmakers' best move in their spoof of martial-arts films.
"After he signed up, it [was] like a light switch," says director Robert Ben Garant, who penned the script with longtime writing partner Thomas Lennon. "Suddenly people started returning our calls.
"We started to get to hire the ideal person for each role, like James Hong and Cary Tagawa, like Jason Scott Lee. I'm a very big fan of Hong Kong movies, and so to get Jason Scott Lee and Maggie Q -- they're the real deal."
Garant and Lennon, who with Kerri Kenney created Comedy Central's "Reno 911!" and brought that off-kilter world to the big screen earlier this year with "Reno 911!: Miami," also use a lot of their Comedy Central pals in "Balls of Fury," now in theaters.
"We had, like, 17 people from 'Reno 911!' in the movie," says Garant.
But Walken was special. And unsettling.
"He looks evil," says Garant. "Like he looks like evil incarnate. He looks like they buried evil and killed it but then it clawed its way out of the ground, and here it is, and it's Christopher Walken.
"When you get to know him -- he was on set for four weeks -- you get to realize he's just really shy. 'Cause then when he finally comes over and starts talking, he's cracking jokes, like Borscht Belt jokes and stuff. He's just very, very shy."

The DVD

Extras:

"Balls of Fury" comes packed with a handful of "Balls" features. The first three supplements are presented in high definition. The seven Deleted Scenes (6:36) can be played collectively or individually. Some of the scenes flesh out subplots in the film that were not fully explained, such as the location of the sex-slave prison. There was a great Walken moment on a bridge and some more scenes with Maggie Q´s legs. Robert Patrick has a number of additional scenes as "Ghost Dad." In my opinion, these scenes deserved to be in the film. The Alternate Ending (1:50) is provided separately. This new ending finds Ernie offering a new assignment to Randy. I enjoyed it. Balls Out: The Making of Balls of Fury (13:57) is your typical EPK-styled making of feature, but I enjoyed hearing the filmmakers talk about the ´serious kung-fu nature´ of the film and the ´uplifting´ qualities. It was fun and worth spending fifteen minutes with. After all, it has Walken. The only supplement without high definition is the Under the Ball: The Life of a Ball Wrangler (5:17). This was a cheap method of showing a hot blonde who is responsible for handling all the balls in the film. Funny, but cheesy and Irena is a knockout.

                                                                 Deleted scenes with Chris

Feng's presentation of polymer guns:

Feng and Randy on rope bridge:

Video

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