Balls of Fury will score points with anyone who ever wished that Enter the Dragon played out in the subterranean "underbelly of ping pong" instead of the world of martial arts. Tony Award-winner Dan Fogler (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), joining the ranks of Jack Black, Seth Rogen, and Jonah Hill as a schlub (romantic?) hero, stars as Randy Daytona, a Def Leppard-loving ping-pong wizard who, as a 12-year-old, was disgraced at the 1988 Olympics. Nineteen years later and gone to seed, he is reduced to performing a novelty act in Reno until an FBI Agent (George Lopez, and yes, at one point, he will proclaim, "Say hello to my little friend" a la Al Pacino in Scarface) recruits him to infiltrate an underground ping pong tournament run by Feng (Christopher Walken), the arch villain who killed Daytona's father. Co-written by Reno 911 colleagues Robert Ben Garant (who also directed) and Thomas Lennon (who costars as Daytona's taunting East Berlin rival), Balls of Fury is hit and miss, but it fitfully kills with some ace performances, including Walken, bringing more cowbell, as Feng, resplendent in silks and red fingernails (his Christopher Walken impression, while perhaps not as uncanny as Kevin Spacey's or Jay Mohr's, is dead-on). James Hong puts a wicked spin on the clichéd role of mentor, and action babe Maggie Q rocks as his niece. Look quick for David Koechner as hopeless entertainer Rick the Birdmaster, Patton Oswalt as an obnoxious early opponent, Kerri Kenney-Silver as a showgirl, and Diedrich Bader as one of Feng's imprisoned sex slaves (don't ask). With less go-for-the-groin humour than the title might indicate, Balls of Fury brings its A-game with some subversive bits of business, such as an ominous moment that is undercut when a menacing character is forced to re-enter the scene to ask for directions back to the highway. -Donald Liebenson.

With less drama and more slapstick than its predecessor, Disney's Mulan 2 continues the animated saga of the young Chinese heroine, Fa Mulan (voiced by Ming-Na Wen, sung by Lea Salonga). The story picks up one month after Mulan has saved her country through bravery and determination. Revered by all, she now returns to her village and becomes engaged to General Li Shang. Wedding plans must wait, however, when the Emperor assigns the couple to a secret mission to escort his three princess daughters across China where their arranged marriages to waiting princes will secure an alliance with a rival kingdom and save China from invasion. Meanwhile, Mulan's wise-cracking guardian dragon, Mushu (voiced by Mark Moseley), realizes that if Mulan's marriage takes place, he is out of a job and so he undertakes his "18-phase master plan" of relationship sabotage to breakup the happy couple. Most of the film's jokes come from Moseley's Mushu (as quick-witted as Eddie Murphy's earlier performance), while a trio of prankish soldiers provide additional comic relief. While the film's overall effort is not as sensational as the original, it offers solid family entertainment, healthy female role models, and a handful of catchy songs. -Lynn Gibson.

Dad's Army is the popular BBC comedy series set in the fictional south coast seaside town of Walmington-On-Sea during World War 2. Alternating moments of gentle character comedy with broad slapstick, it recounts the misadventures of the local voluntary defence force (or 'Home Guard') consisting of men too old or 'unfit' for military service. They are led by the pompous Mainwaring, manager of the local bank, and consist of the suave, mild-mannered Sergeant Wilson , Lance-Corporal Jones, the town's butcher and an old soldier prone to hysteria, cockney spiv Walker, dour Scots undertaker Frazer, gentle, elderly and incontinent Godfrey and dim-witted mummy's boy, Pike, whose mother is 'friendly' with Wilson. They are based in the Church hall where there is much friction between Mainwaring, the effeminate Vicar, his creeping Verger and ARP Warden Hodges (the grocer) who calls Mainwaring 'Napoleon' and strongly dislikes him. The 80 episodes (the last 68 made in colour) have been frequently repeated, many are available on video and there was a 1971 cinema version. A British institution, familiar to most people throughout the country.

Airplane! The quintessential movie spoof that spawned an entire genre of parody films, the original Airplane! still holds up as one of the brightest comedic gems of the '80s, not to mention of cinema itself (it ranked in the top 5 of Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 funniest movies ever made). The humour may be low and obvious at times, but the jokes keep coming at a rapid-fire clip and its targets-primarily the lesser lights of '70s cinema, from disco films to star-studded disaster epics-are more than worthy for send-up. If you've seen even one of the overblown Airport movies then you know the plot: the crew of a filled-to-capacity jetliner is wiped out and it's up to a plucky stewardess and a shell-shocked fighter pilot to land the plane. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are the heroes who have a history that includes a meet-cute à la Saturday Night Fever, a surf scene right out of From Here to Eternity, a Peace Corps trip to Africa to teach the natives the benefits of Tupperware and basketball, a war-ravaged recovery room with a G. I. who thinks he's Ethel Merman (a hilarious cameo)-and those are just the flashbacks! The jokes gleefully skirt the boundaries of bad taste (pilot Peter Graves to a juvenile cockpit visitor: "Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), with the high (low?) point being Hagerty's intimate involvement with the blow-up automatic pilot doll, but they'll have you rolling on the floor. The film launched the careers of collaborators Jim Abrahams (Big Business), David Zucker (Ruthless People), and Jerry Zucker (Ghost), as well as revitalised such B-movie actors as Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Leslie Nielsen, who built a second career on films like this. A vital part of any video collection. -Mark Englehart Airplane 2 The 1982 sequel to Airplane! is basically more of the same class-clown ironies but with a more forced feeling to the jokes. In the first film, veterans such as Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Lloyd Bridges were feeling their way through self-parody, and the air of experimentation was part of the fun. [+]

An entry into an already rather overcrowded market, Dude, Where's My Car? is a very dumb but exuberant comedy aimed fairly and squarely at the teen market. An attempt to recreate the classic feel of certain movies from the late 80s and early 90s, it centres around two hopeless individuals (Jesse and Chester) and their efforts to piece together the night before and, more importantly, find Jesse's car. The plot-such as it is, takes in many a convoluted turn with the introduction of transsexual strippers and aliens but still finds itself stretched thin over the course of the meagre 79 minutes. The film's aspirations are clear. With it's central duo and infuriating use of catchphrases it is almost a direct steal from Wayne's World and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, both of which are leagues ahead in terms of writing, performance and general style. The humour here is base and far too obvious, concentrating on the old standbys of sex and toilets, plus a small dig at blind children along the way. For a better example of such humour head for the genuinely funny American Pie or, for a teen comedy with actual intelligence and panache, the peerless 10 Things I Hate About You. On The DVD: The extensive range of extra features are in keeping with the overall style of the project. The audio commentary from director Danny Leiner and his two main stars is simply a succession of in-jokes and childish hysterics, while the behind the scenes documentary is equally banal. There is a selection of extended scenes, trailers and TV spots plus a music video from Grand Theft Auto, the best thing about the whole package. [+]

After Elvis Presley got out of the army in 1960, he was instantly ushered into G. I. Blues, a Paramount movie about an Oklahoma singer who (surprise) gets out of the army and wants to open a club. Making a potentially lucrative bet that he can seduce a cabaret singer (Juliet Prowse), Elvis instead falls in love. Leaving behind his rockabilly roots for a slicker image better suited to early 60s pop, the Elvis of this movie is the one who made almost 30 more just like it. The songs include "G. I. Blues", "It's Not Good Enough for You," "Tonight Is So Right for Love" and "Wooden Heart". It's directed by Norman Taurog, a studio veteran who made his first film in 1928 and worked many times with Presley. -Tom Keogh.

After gaining fame as ladies man Jack Tripper on the 1970s sitcom Three's Company, John Ritter steals the show as a father of three-including two nubile teenage girls-on 8 Simple Rules. for Dating My Teenage Daughter. The first season introduces viewers to Paul (Ritter) and Cate Hennessy (Katey Sagal) and their precocious children Bridget (Kaley Cuoco), Kerry (Amy Davidson), and Rory (Martin Spanjers). When former stay-at-home mom Cate returns to the work force as a nurse, it's up to Paul to write his newspaper column at home and mind the kids. The first season deals with that uneasy transition. It's actually refreshing to see a family depicted where the parents don't always like the kids. Paul often jokes with Cate that he's mad she ever suggested they start a family. He also notes, "What's it called if you're damned if you do and damned if you don't? Oh yes, fatherhood". [+]

Transplanted from England to the not-so-mean streets of Chicago, the screen adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult-classic novel High Fidelity emerges unscathed from its Americanisation, idiosyncrasies intact, thanks to John Cusack's inimitable charm and a nimble, nifty screenplay (co-written by Cusack). Early-thirtysomething Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a slacker who owns a vintage record shop, a massive collection of LPs, and innumerable top-five lists in his head. At the opening of the film, Rob recounts directly to the audience his all-time top-five breakups- which doesn't include his recent falling out with his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), who has just moved out of their apartment. Thunderstruck and obsessed with Laura's desertion (but loath to admit it), Rob begins a quest to confront the women who instigated the aforementioned top-five breakups to find out just what he did wrong. Low on plot and high on self-discovery, High Fidelity takes a good 30 minutes or so to find its groove (not unlike Cusack's Grosse Pointe Blank), but once it does, it settles into it comfortably and builds a surprisingly touching momentum. Rob is basically a grown-up version of Cusack's character in Say Anything (who was told "Don't be a guy-be a man!"), and if you like Cusack's brand of smart-alecky romanticism, you'll automatically be won over (if you can handle Cusack's almost non-stop talking to the camera). Still, it's hard not to be moved by Rob's plight. At the beginning of the film he and his coworkers at the record store (played hilariously by Jack Black and Todd Louiso) seem like overgrown boys in their secret clubhouse; by the end, they've grown up considerably, with a clear-eyed view of life. Ably directed by Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons), High Fidelity features a notable supporting cast of the women in Rob's life, including the striking, Danish-born Hjejle, Lisa Bonet as a sultry singer/songwriter, and the triumphant triumvirate of Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, and Catherine Zeta Jones as Rob's ex-girlfriends. With brief cameos by Tim Robbins as Laura's new, New Age boyfriend and Bruce Springsteen as himself. [+]