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September 9, 2007

Under the Peg - Half An Ounce of Plastic Is Now Cool

by Peg-Eye Nate

At the age of twelve, Randy Daytona (Brett DelBuono) was the greatest Ping-Pong player in America. He made it all the way to the 1988 international finals where he would face the East German champion, Karl Wolschtagg (Thomas Lennon). With the first volley, Karl sends the ball over the back boundary causing young Randy to trip, and hurt himself badly enough to forfeit the match. In that one serve, Randy lost his pride, his reputation, and, due to a bet made with a set of Triad thugs, his father. Nineteen years later, Randy (Dan Fogler) is a washed up, burnt out cabaret act in Vegas. On the night he loses his job an agent from the FBI approaches him, asking for help with an undercover operation to get at an underground crime lord named Feng (Christopher Walken). Feng, of course, is the man who Randy's his father. To get at Feng, Randy must prove his worth as a Ping-Pong champion, and show the world he has Balls of Fury!

It must be said that the Has-Been Star Coming Out of Retirement and Risking It All in Order to Prove Himself bit has been done before, and to be perfectly honest, the big reason I went to go see this movie was because I'm turning into a Maggie Q fan. I have no doubts she could carry a whole movie, but in this case she doesn't have to. The humor does occasionally delve into the pits of toilet gags, but the writers had the good sense not to stay there. The movie avoids milking any one particular joke to the point where it becomes annoying, but still manages to get the most out of the humor.

Overall: Mortal Kombat plus Dodgeball with a little Matrix thrown in for laughs.
Score: 9 Pegs out of 10.

Trackposted to Is It Just Me?, Rosemary's Thoughts, Big Dog's Weblog, Walls of the City, The Pet Haven Blog, Webloggin, The Pink Flamingo, Jo's Cafe, Stageleft, Adeline and Hazel, Colloquium, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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