Two marketers pitch a bold new condom World Cup sponsorship. After a booze-fueled scandal, they must outrun chaos to survive.
Chuck says:
There are some films you can’t defend and Peter Farrelly’s “Balls Up” is one of them. Revolving around ever evolving, inventive uses for a revolutionary prophylactic, the movie is pitched towards men whose inner teenager is never too far away. Sophomoric and crude, the script by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese revels in its ribald nature. I wouldn’t be surprised if each writer was trying to top the other where concocting disgusting sight gags are concerned.
As with all comedies, there’s a “your-mileage-will-vary” quality to it. Some will embrace its audacious nature; others will be repelled by it. Certain viewers will bust a gut watching Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser trying to swallow large, densely packed condoms of a very particular shape, while others will lament the devolution of American film comedy and fear those who laugh at such low-hanging comedic fruit.
As all comedy is subjective, none of these opinions are necessarily right or wrong, and while I personally am not a fan of low-brow humor, if I’m in the right mood, I find a fart joke just as funny as the next guy. I must have been in such a state while watching “Balls” as I laughed far more than I’d care to admit and found Wernick and Reese’s script to be inventive. But that’s just me…
The fate of the Regal Blue Condom Company relies on the World Cup soccer tournament. Apparently, more of these economical rubber barriers are sold over the course of this sporting event than at any other time, so it’s essential they capitalize on this. Elijah (Hauser), of the research and development department, has come up with a better mousetrap where the company’s product is concerned. He’s invented an extra-long prophylactic that covers the traditional real estate as well as the extras alluded to in the film’s title. And while everyone at Regal Blue acknowledges Elijah’s genius, it’s a given he’s no salesman, so he’s paired up with Brad (Wahlberg), a hot shot from sales who could sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo.
The odd couple set out to present their pitch to the Brazilian Travel Ministry and while it’s a success, a night of excessive celebratory partying leads to a series of increasingly ridiculous misadventures. Before all is said and done, the pair affect the outcome of the World Cup Championship game, are hunted by the entire populace of Brazil, abducted by a drug lord (Sascha Baron Cohen), attempt to outrun the country’s Ministry of Defense, abscond with a cache of cocaine, accidentally kill an alligator, fall in with a group of eco-terrorists and belt out a duet of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” for the ages.
You have to give the cast members credit as each of them is fully committed to their characters. Benjamin Bratt has never been funnier as Santos, a nine-years sober, Brazilian executive who Brad and Elijah push off the wagon with a vengeance, while Molly Shannon as their foul-mouthed boss delivers the funny in each of her short scenes. As for Wahlberg and Hauser, their antagonistic chemistry produces one genuinely funny moment after another, the pair equally adept at witty banter and wordplay as physical comedy.
I’m not proud that I laughed at the numerous jokes relating to private parts, the obvious gags related to Human Resource violations, a bit involving a urethra-invading fish or the numerous inappropriate one-liners “Balls” contains. But I’m not going to apologize either. With the world in the state of turmoil as it is, I’ll take some laughs wherever I can find them.
3 Stars
