Most Popular
-
Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
-
Mescaline on the Mexican Border
Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally. Really.
-
A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
-
Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
-
Ghost Town CFS: Carriage House Cafe
Step back in time to a spooky old carriage barn with a monster chicken-fried steak
-
Barack Obama and Me (246)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
-
Save Lobo: A Siberian Husky Mix is Sentenced to Die (28)
Why? Because he's big and intimidating and because one family complained about him over and over again
-
A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (13)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
-
Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (6)
All This Useless Beauty
-
Rotten to the Corps: A Question of Justice at Texas A&M (140)
Thanks to A& M and a district attorney, two cadets escape punishment for beating in a student's face
-
Sister Act: The Other Boleyn Girl
Sibling rivalry in all its royal glory
-
The Spiderwick Chronicles is Both a Smart Children's Fantasy and a CGI-dependent Weepie
Tangled Web
-
Romero and his zombies are back with "Diary of the Dead"
Status Update: Vlogged to Death
-
Charlie Bartlett Could Use a Dose of Mean
Kids These Days
-
Definitely, Maybe is Absolutely, Positively Rewarding
Can't get enough of Bill Clinton? Have we got a movie for you.
-
Geraldo Rivera Is Stupid: A Review of His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.
06:06AM 03/09/08 -
Weekend Music: Help Save the Houston Music Scene
03:54PM 03/07/08 -
To Do: Hockey and Roller Derby
04:12PM 03/07/08 -
Sausage Fest: Bangers and Mash at Red Lion Pub
11:40AM 03/08/08
What we are writing about
- American Gangster
- Amy Sillman: Suitors...
- birth defects
- Bob Dylan
- Christmas Tree-O
- Continental Club
- Houston art
- Houston local music
- Houston music stores
- Houston Rockets
- Houston theater
- I'm Not There
- illegal immigrants
- Main Street Theater
- McGonigel's Mucky Duck
- Meridian
- Perspectives 158:...
- players' scoring averages
- Proletariat
- Rudyard's
- Rumors
- Sig's Lagoon
- Somerville
- Sound Exchange
- toxic industrial...
- Toyota Center
- Turkeys of the Year
- Verizon Wireless Theater
- Warehouse Live
- Wii
Recent Articles By Nathan Lee
-
The Super Fun of It
-
The Bourne Ultimatum
Amnesiac-spy trilogy culminates in a thrilling Ultimatum
-
Sunshine
Racing to reignite the sun -- and our souls -- in Danny Boyle's sci-fi collage
-
Transformers
As giant robots transform all around us (!), it's good to know Michael Bay won't ever change
-
Day Watch
Let's call the follow-up to cult fave Night Watch what it is: just another drawn-out sequel
National Features
-
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Balls of Fury
Answer all correctly and win a Def Leppard album
By Nathan Lee
Published: August 30, 2007
1. Balls of Fury is a movie about:
a. A former table tennis prodigy (Dan Fogler as Randy Daytona) enlisted by the FBI to infiltrate the underground ping-pong tournament of a legendary Chinese criminal (Christopher Walken).
b. Suppository jokes.
c. Little worth discussing and even less worth seeing.
d. All of the above.
2. In his first leading role for the big screen, Fogler, a Tony Award-winning actor (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), can best be described as:
a. A comedic genius.
b. Killing time until his agent gets a call from Judd Apatow.
c. A cross between Jack Black and Richard Simmons.
3. Because the FBI agent who approaches Randy is played by a Latino (George Lopez), he will be made to say:
a. "Maricón!"
b. "¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!"
c. "Nigga, pleez!"
d. "Say hello to my little friend!"
4. When Randy undergoes intensive ping-pong training at the Happy Mu Shu Palace ("If Mu Shu fits, wear it!"), his guru, Wong (James Hong), offers the following inscrutable advice:
a. "Be as the cricket."
b. "The cheeks cannot hold the smoke. That is what it is."
c. "Ping Pong is not the Macarena."
d. "I miss you, Victor Wong."
5. Are Chinese people funny?
a. Yes.
b. No.
c. Totally, like with those weird little sticks they use to eat and everything!
6. As Feng, the criminal mastermind/ping-pong enthusiast, Walken can best be described as:
a. A comedic genius.
b. Killing time until his agent gets a call from Judd Apatow.
c. Ka-ching, bitches!
7. When Feng's Amazonian henchwoman offers the services of sex slaves to Randy, it's funny because:
a. They're dudes!
b. They're dudes who scream like little girls.
c. Oh I get it: sarcasm. Lighten up, homo.
8. Maggie Q costars as:
a. A pair of breasts.
b. A pair of breasts that know kung-fu.
c. Who's Maggie Q?
9. Balls of Fury is best viewed:
a. At the multiplex.
b. On an airplane.
c. Loaded.
d. Never.
10. Balls of Fury is to The Sound and the Fury as:
a. Freddy Got Fingered is to Finnegans Wake
b. Borat is to Austerlitz
c. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is to The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
d. Superbad is to Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
11. Balls of Fury belongs in the tradition of:
a. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Blades of Glory
b. Enter the Dragon, Fists of Fury
c. The Karate Kid, Big Trouble in Little China
d. Wu Tang Forever
e. Ka-ching, bitches!
12. Balls of Fury was written by:
a. Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant.
b. A racist monkey.
13. Balls of Fury should have been directed by:
a. Don't hate. Mr. Garant did a lovely job.
b. Stephen Chow.
c. Jacques Rivette
14. This review is:
a. As lazy as the movie under consideration.
b. Lazier than the movie under consideration.
Bonus Question: Which insufferable, waddle-ass "film critic" sitting behind me evidently found Balls of Fury endlessly hilarious?
The first reader to answer each question correctly will receive a CD of Def Leppard's Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection, plus a gift certificate worth $40 good toward a table tennis club or male escort of your choice. Email answersto nlee@villagevoice.com. The correct answers and winning entry will be announced on our Web site September 5.









