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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.
A transparent romance/sports flick whose predictability is easily trumped by the refreshingly appealing parade of well-developed, Asian-American characters who make the movie enjoyable by turning an array of common cinematic stereotypes on their heads.
Aside from the casting and the location shooting, there's not much to distinguish Ping Pong Playa from Ladybugs or The Mighty Ducks.
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.
The setup has been trotted out a million times before, and the movie’s novel SoCal Chinese-American milieu only partially excuses the familiarity.
A winning comedy that entertainingly elevates a low-profile sport.
Top CriticA good, clean, fun comedy that uses a table tennis championship to crack inside jokes about Los Angeles' Chinese-American community.
Top CriticThis thin premise can't sustain a feature, and the racial and gay jokes are jarring, but the child actors are cute.
[W]hen the characters are this charming and the dialogue is this smart, you won't mind watching a little white ball clonk its way from paddle to tabletop and back again.
Dull, predictable and unoriginal ... the main character is so annoyingly silly it's hard to put up with him for an entire movie.
Jessica Yu's film, a 180-degree tonal shift from her previous Protagonist, diligently retreads Adam Sandler and Napoleon Dynamite territory.
could be a big, watchable cable TV star, especially if you're 12 years old.
This lighter-than-air comedy couldn't be more different from director Jessica Yu's previous entry, 'Protagonist.'
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 
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