I don’t know why two of the guys behind “The State” and “Reno 911” have made so many mediocre, so-so comedies, but “Balls of Fury” continues this maddening streak. This comedy about ping pong has lots of smirk and chuckle-worthy humor, but it would never be mistaken for a comedy classic.

Dan Fogler plays Randy Daytona, a former ping pong golden boy who ends up a washed-up loser after losing in the 1988 Olympics. The FBI comes calling when Daytona hits rock bottom and recruits him to get an invitation to a very special ping pong tournament run by a crime lord named Feng (Christopher Walken, once again out Walkening his last Walken appearance). Dayton is rusty, so a blind teacher named Wong and his granddaughter set out to sharpen his skills. Soon, Randy earns his invite and goes to Feng’s compound to battle in a “sudden death” ping pong tournament.

“Balls of Fury” has fun with a lot of movie formulas. Not only do they play with the “athlete coming back to reign supreme” theme, but it also dabbles a little in the “underground tournament” movie. They don’t have enough fun though and director Robert Ben Garant and writer Thomas Lennon settle for way too many cheap jokes. I don’t mind cheap laughs because, for the most part, they work. I laughed in this movie, but not the way I felt I should have. There was a lot of fertile ground to plant some really funny, character driven jokes, but instead there were dozens of blind jokes, gay jokes and just a plethora of middle school level humor.

Fogler did a nice job as Daytona. He is a talented performer with an interesting look and good comic timing. It will be interesting to see how it holds up in other films. He has roles in the upcoming films “Good Luck Chuck” and “Fanboys.” The rest of the cast, aside from Lennon, as Daytona’s German foe, is just fair to middling.

While there are still opportunities to see “Superbad” and “Knocked Up” at local theaters, unless you aren’t old enough to see those movies, you could wait for the “Balls of Fury” DVD and not be missing much.

** 1/2

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