Balls of Fury HD DVD/DVD Combo (Robert Ben Garant, 2007)

Universal (USA)
1.85:1 1080p
91 minutes
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, DD+ 5.1 English, DD+ 5.1 French
Subtitles: Optional English SDH and French
Extras: deleted scenes (HD); alternate ending (HD); Balls Out: The Making of Balls of Fury (HD); Under the Balls: The Life of a Ball Wrangler; “Bridge Stunt” Internet featurette; “Bamboo Fight” Internet featurette; Internet connectivity features

Released: 18 December 2007
HD DVD case
20 chapters

Balls of Fury is a goofy send-up of movies as disparate as Enter the Dragon, The Karate Kid, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and any number of martial-arts brawlers or inspirational-sports dramas. Christopher Walken is a hoot, and it’s clear that the yellow-face casting ridicules yellow-face casting of the past. Maggie Q acts too seriously, as if she were still in Mission: Impossible 3 or Live Free or Die Hard, but maybe her earnestness is part of the movie’s charm. Tell you what--I was in the mood for some silly laughs, and this movie gave me what I wanted. Have fun with this one, guys.

Video:
Much of this movie is set indoors in gymnasiums and Christopher Walken’s ping-pong palace, so the 1.85:1 1080p image frequently varies between dim and dark. However, yellows and reds are very vibrant. Outdoors shots look a tad blown out and grainy, but on the whole, the picture looks like what one would expect of something from the past year.

Audio:
Once again, we get a new release with lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English. However, this isn’t the kind of movie that takes full advantage of the technology. As this is not an out-and-out action fest, the audio is center-channel heavy. As such, you get always intelligible dialogue and smooth, crisp delivery of music cues. Occasionally, there are some rear-channel effects, but deep ends appear very sporadically (such as during the title credits sequence with fake fire).

You can also watch the movie with a DD+ 5.1 English track or a DD+ 5.1 French dub. Optional English SDH and French subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
This is a slight movie, so the extras are suitably slight, too. You get deleted scenes and an alternate ending, and “Balls Out: The Making of Balls of Fury” is a fluffy promo piece. “Under the Balls: The Life of a Ball Wrangler” is a mockumentary piece about the girl who takes care of the balls used for this movie, but we’ve already seen this kind of shtick elsewhere.

Upon connecting to Universal’s HD DVD Internet portal, you can watch the “Bridge Stunt” and “Bamboo Fight” featurettes. You can also access downloadable video clips.

--Miscellaneous--
The DVD side of this combo disc is identical to the stand-alone widescreen DVD. The DVD specs are 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen video; DD 5.1 English & French audio; English SDH, Spanish, & French subtitles; the extras on the HD DVD side minus Internet connectivity; and previews for other movies.