Balls Of Fury (HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)
Picture:
B+/B- Sound: B+/B- Extras: C- Film: C-
Set it
the style of a teen comedy combined with a martial arts film, Robert Ben
Garant’s Balls Of Fury (2007) tells
the very fictitious story of the rise, fall and who knows of table tennis
prodigy Randy Daytona after failing as a child to win a match that lands to an
injury that lands him up in the hospital and out of the game for years.
The
cutesy, skinny, in-shape kid has grown up to be a fat teen and tries to make a
comeback. However, making things
wackier, an FBI agent (George Lopez) recruits him to break the secret world of
illegal extreme table tennis. A one-joke
film, we have seen worse, but also much better.
By adding Christopher Walken, Robert Patrick, Diedrich Bader,
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Jason Scott Lee and Maggie Q, the film has a better cast
than expected, but the script comes up short.
There is only so much you can do with this idea, but they try. Now, you’ll decide whether you should risk
your time and money to see it.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 VC-1 digital High Definition image is not bad and I’ll give Director
of Photography Thomas E. Ackerman, A.S.C., credit for pushing the HDCAM
(2K/2,000 lines progressive) shoot in its use of colors and detail. The consistent color can still have somewhat
of a plugged look, like maroon reds, but it is not bad. Film would have looked better, but this is a
low budget comedy. The anamorphically
enhanced DVD side is not bad either. The
Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 on the HD side is better than the standard Dolby
Digital 5.1 on the DVD side, with surrounds used well enough for such a comedy
on both, but nothing extraordinary.
Randy Edelman’s score can be amusing at times. Extras include deleted scenes, alternate
ending, making of featurette and gag piece on a “ball wrangler” who looks more
like a Playmate.
- Nicholas Sheffo
