Even Ron and Nancy Reagan were depressed -- judging by the look of clueless disbelief on their spliced-in faces -- when Randy Daytona, the 12-year-old American pingpong wizard, lost his Big Match against Karl Wolfschtagg, that repulsive Aryan Commie from East Germany, at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

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'Balls of Fury'

• Director: Ben Garant
• Starring: George Lopez, Dan Fogler, Christopher Walken, James Hong, Maggie Q
• Rating: PG-13 for crude, sex-related humor and for language
• Web site: ballsoffury.com

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Now, two decades after his life-wrecking defeat, down-and-out Randy has been reduced to wielding his '88 Def Leppard designer paddle in Reno with a pingpong novelty act for early bird lounge lizards, one of whom he pong-pummels into a heart attack. Suffice to say, Randy is ready for a career move.

But are you ready for "Balls of Fury"? The creators of Comedy Central's "Reno 911!" hope you are. They're banking on the appeal of Dan Fogler's comedy and writer-director Robert Ben Garant's parody (of "Enter the Dragon" and "Karate Kid") in this spotty, sporty-underdog send-up of table tennis.

Pingpong is, after all, a kind of martial art at which Asians particularly (and annoyingly) excel. It brought Nixon and Mao together, but that awful, unreturnable Chinese serve has brought us nothing but competitive pain, suffering and loss ever since.

In this farcical case, it brings FBI agent Ernie Rodriguez (George Lopez) to Randy with an assignment to infiltrate the underground tournament sponsored by rogue ping-kingpin Feng (Christopher Walken). Because Feng murdered Randy's father, the secret mission appeals to the son.

But Randy is out of shape and needs the spiritual guidance of blind pingpong sage-restaurateur Wong (James Hong), plus the training that only Wong's sexy niece (Maggie Q) can provide. She also provides the thoroughly unbelievable love interest; the poor thing, in one scene, actually has to kiss Randy. But mostly, she provides the absurdly manic chopsocky moves, taking on four opponents at once while simultaneously handling takeout orders on the phone.

Scene-stealer James Hong's pong-master offers inscrutable advice of no particular value, while Randy's old Olympics nemesis Karl Wolfschtagg (hilariously played by Thomas Lennon) shows up to haunt him again. But the popular favorite -- predictably -- is Walken, who keeps urns containing the ashes of his defeated pinppong rivals, and who wears a series of stupendously over-the-top outfits -- a cross between Dracula, Elvis and Maria Callas. ("He looks like he shopped at Elton John's garage sale," someone observes.)

There's a surfeit of balls-on-balls sight gags, and the spoof overall is never as funny as it (and we) want it to be, but the full-cast rendition of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" at the end is a nice touch. You wouldn't call Fogler a comic genius, but he -- like "Balls of Fury" itself -- is affable and sometimes amusing.

I guess you'd call that a backhand compliment.