Aside from the casting and the location shooting, there's not much to distinguish Ping Pong Playa from Ladybugs or The Mighty Ducks.
Comment
09/04/08
Ping Pong Playa (2007)
66
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:21
Rotten:11
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: A gentle, light, kid friendly comedy about a Chinese-American hoopster turned ping pong pro, Playa is a charming but considerable digression from director Jessica Yu's previous works.
Reviews for Ping Pong Playa
Very broad humor and sloppy storytelling pave the way to a requisite Rocky ending.
09/05/08
This thin premise can't sustain a feature, and the racial and gay jokes are jarring, but the child actors are cute.
09/03/08
Charming despite requisite training sequences and a cartoonishly evil opponent.
10/18/08
If you go into Ping Pong Playa' expecting a light, predictable comedy, it would be hard to come out unsatisfied.
09/29/08
A fleet-footed, featherweight comedy riddled with cliches, but nonetheless charming and winning.
09/04/08
Dull, predictable and unoriginal ... the main character is so annoyingly silly it's hard to put up with him for an entire movie.
09/02/08
This lighter-than-air comedy couldn't be more different from director Jessica Yu's previous entry, 'Protagonist.'
07/24/08
To be perfectly blunt, Ping Pong Playa is third-rate crap. Unfunny crap. Unnecessary crap. This little entertainment is also unintentionally racist, misogynistic, homophobic, poorly acted, and shapeless.
09/04/08
An endless stream of near-misses.
01/16/09
Interest in Playa lies in the fact that director Jessica Yu is a documentarian with a daring taste in subjects. Yet in her first non-doc feature, she plays it safe; even the championship showdown feels polite.
09/05/08
Overall the movie was enjoyable but not amazing.
11/04/08
Gently pokes fun at model minority and athletic stereotypes, but gets repetitive and wears thin before the engaging plot finally kicks into gear.
11/01/08
could be a big, watchable cable TV star, especially if you're 12 years old.
09/01/08
One way to break down cultural walls is assimilation, and that's where Ping Pong Playa has its dubious triumph: it's just about as generic as the next 'loser makes good by coaching kids' comedy...[Blu-ray]
02/15/09
A winning comedy that entertainingly elevates a low-profile sport.
09/03/08
Top CriticMostly a little shrewder about stereotypes than your typical slacker comedy, deriving its edge from Yu and Tsai's mining of the cultural specificity of Asian-America for laughs
08/08/09
There's no resisting the movie's antic affability or its irreverence, even with Chris's unavoidable progression toward the mature appreciation of his roots.
09/11/08
Ace documentarian Jessica Yu's fictional feature debut ... is mostly funny and often cute, but it suffers a bit in comparison to the very similar Foot Fist Way ...
11/12/08
The movie doesn't take its broad, jokey premise terribly far, but it manages to sustain a goofy-sweet comic energy and offers sly observations about assimilation, sibling rivalry and the art of competitive maternal bragging.
09/05/08
Top CriticLatest News for Ping Pong Playa
September 04, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Cage Offers One Night in Bangkok
Multiplexes will be filled this weekend...with tumbleweeds. The frame after the Labor Day holiday is often the worst-performing session of the whole year at the box office and... More...
September 03, 2008:
RT Exclusive: Ping Pong Playa featurette!
Ping pong. Has its time come at last? The sport's been getting more and more attention from the movies, the latest arriving in the form of Ping Pong Playa. Rotten Tomatoes has... More...
July 20, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds