SummaryDown-and-out former professional Ping-Pong phenom Randy Daytona is sucked into this maelstrom when FBI Agent Rodriguez recruits him for a secret mission. Randy is determined to bounce back and recapture his former glory, and to smoke out his father's killer - one of the FBI's Most Wanted, arch-fiend Feng. (Rogue Pictures)
SummaryDown-and-out former professional Ping-Pong phenom Randy Daytona is sucked into this maelstrom when FBI Agent Rodriguez recruits him for a secret mission. Randy is determined to bounce back and recapture his former glory, and to smoke out his father's killer - one of the FBI's Most Wanted, arch-fiend Feng. (Rogue Pictures)
Good comedy movie unlike others users I thought the acting was good. Christopher Walken was great, Dan Fogler did well also, Maggie Q also delivered a good performance. And James Hong was hysterical! You should definitely watch for some laughs.
Why so many bad reviews? I found this movie awesome. It's not meant to be some sort of artistically brilliant take on the form of ping pong. It's about a fat guy beating other weird people at ping pong while being threatened by Christopher Walken. The point of the movie was to make me laugh, and I did.
In the grand tradition of "Beerfest" and "Bladels of Glory," this insistently ludicrous -- and not entirely unfunny -- two-joke comedy satirizes an old Hollywood standby: the big-comeback sports movie.
Intended as nothing more than a here-today, gone-tomorrow zany entertainment, and at the very least, it has a good-natured, slightly raunchy spirit about it. But ultimately, it's a hollow enterprise, all ping and no pong. It doesn't bounce; it splats.
This movie is basically (as my review title indicates) one massive long parody or p-take on movies such as the Karate Kid, whereby a (fairly) young and out of shape guy (Randy) is taken under an old, wise Asian mans wing and somehow is miraculously trained so that he can compete well and stand up for himself against much more competent looking people. Of course there's the token attractive lady, Maggie, who Randy wants to impress but who initially has no interest in him whatsoever and yes, I'd say if I continue you can probably guess the majority of the movies plot by yourself, its hardly rocket science.
There's little point in being very serious as far as reviewing this movie is concerned because the movie is so silly, I think silly is about the best way to describe it generally. Its basically scene after scene of corny visual jokes, similar to the Police Academy movies and other such spoof movies. In this movie, the jokes/comedy are all pretty basic, their not particularly clever or original really. That's not to say that you can't laugh at any of it, just its rather over the top I feel. Of course with Christopher Walken in it, you should expect it to be rather over the top and indeed he does play the most extravagent character, the evil villain Feng but its not just him thats over the top and silly, just about all of the characters are in their own way. In fact, I'd compare the movie to a comic book, in that I could imagine kids reading the story in a comic book format, that would probably work quite well.
To be honest, it depends on what you enjoy, what kind of comedy you like and what you expect from the movie, as to whether or not you'd like it or find it entertaining. I knew roughly what it was about from the outset, having enjoyed a similar movie called Blades of Glory, so I wasn't too disappointed because I knew what to expect and I hadn't paid anything to see it anyway (it was recently shown on TV). Partly because of that, I did actually enjoy it - I wouldn't say I found it really hilarious, its pretty corny but I still thought some scenes were amusing and laughed a few times out of the absurdity of the story, I suppose. Of course its not believable but some of the characters are so silly, I guess I did feel a bit attached to them and I thought it was entertaining enough to see how they reacted to the different, over the top situations they found themselves in, so it kept me watching. I can't deny that I watched it right through to the end and I thought overall it was fairly amusing in parts and entertaining enough to pass the time. Basically it was what I expected of it, a zany, over the top parody with some funny characters and some laughs but thats about it. If it weren't for Walkens portrayal of the token bad guy, I don't think this would be anything like as memorable as it is - which isn't greatly memorable to start with but his character stands out most for the fancy costumes he wears.
Its all just a bit too silly I'd imagine and plenty of people who may sit down and watch the first half hour should it appear again on TV would roll their eyes and want to switch over but I'll guess that the target market, presumably teenage boys, would get a few laughs and find it entertaining enough for them, if it interests them - its good to pass the time if its the sort of thing you like and you know what to expect, otherwise don't bother.
All in all, no I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to purchase this, although as I say if you're interested in it, you know what to expect and its on TV again then by all means, catch it as you may get a few laughs from it and find it entertaining enough to pass the time (its a fairly short movie at an hour and a half long).
Given the kind of movie it is and how its marketed etc., its not awful, its just perhaps a bit too basic for some, yet I still felt I enjoyed watching it, so its up to you to decide whether or not to bother catching this or not. I don't feel its a really poor movie, it doesn't claim to be anything other than a spoof/parody comedy movie, which is what it is, so fair enough, if you know what I mean, so I'll go with a 5 out of 10 rating for this movie.
This movie is dumb fun but not as good as other dumb movies, despite that it is pretty watchable unlike other movies that take themselves too serious or are plain bad.
While not exactly "Some Like it Hot", this flick has some funny moments, though it's extremely 'forced' humor. I myself like how it follows (vaguely) the plot of "Enter the Dragon", and draws upon many of the martial arts cliches. Still, it's not rolling-on-the-floor funny. And the silly backstory, substituting ping-pong for martial arts had to have been thought up during some booze or drug-related party. Part of me is saying "No more than 4.0", but it IS one of my several guilty pleasures, thus the extra 1.0.
I watched it because someone bought it for me as a gift. What a pity i cant ask for my money back. I'm currently searching through my DVD to find the worst movie in my collection. I plan to return the favour and waste 2 hours of his life.