Punchlines below the belt and characters that are as dumb as possible were the trademarks of Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly for a long time. And that was well received by audiences for years: their joint directorial debut “Dumm & Dümmer” (1994) grossed many times its manageable production costs of 17 million US dollars – and thus not only paved the way to 20 million dollar fees for Jim Carrey, but also for many other collaborations between the brothers in the following 20 years. “Crazy for Mary” (1998) is the Farrelly brothers’ biggest hit to date, with the sperm gel in Cameron Diaz’s hair and Ben Stiller’s balls stuck in his fly being burned into the collective cinematic memory.
A similar anatomical fate now also occurs in the Football World Cup comedy “Balls Up”, which was filmed for Amazon Prime Video, when a little fish stuck in the glans is likely to trigger terrible phantom pains, especially in the male part of the audience. Peter Farrelly, who has been pursuing his own career path without his brother for several years and even won the Oscar for the best film of the year with the tragicomedy “Green Book”, has at least not lost his shame-free carefree attitude when staging such moments. Still, the scene – like the rest of the silly, brutal comedy filmed entirely in Australia – simply lacks the anarchic chutzpah of his earlier hits.
Elijah (Paul Walter Hauser) and Brad (Mark Wahlberg) become public enemies number one in an instant!
The product developer and germophobe Elijah (Paul Walter Hauser) has invented a supposedly particularly safe condom that is not only pulled over the penis, but also over the testicles. A world first with which the tough salesman Brad (Mark Wahlberg) even convinces the head of the Brazilian football association Santos (Benjamin Bratt). But after a night of drinking and an embarrassing video on social media, Elijah and Brad lose their jobs – and another manufacturer is awarded the contract for the official condom of the World Cup in Brazil.
Three months later, the two chaotics accidentally receive an invitation to the World Cup final – and through a stupid act of retaliation against the competition’s mascot, they thwart the host’s late equalizer against arch-rivals Argentina. From now on, an entire football nation and the drug lord Pavio Curto (Sacha Baron Cohen) are targeting the two “enemies of the state”…
Stream “Balls Up” on Amazon Prime Video*
The “Deadpool” scripts by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick shone not only with vulgar nonsense but also with a self-deprecating reckoning with superhero clichés. Despite a handful of pointed gags, their script for “Balls Up” never reaches the subtlety of their meta-Marvel blockbusters. Instead of dealing with the diverse Brazilian culture with a wink – in addition to the football obsession, Christianity, carnival and samba could also be used for gags – crude South American clichés of corruption and drug mafia are simply lumped together. These culminate in the funny character Pavio Curto, a jovial cartel boss with long, wavy hair and particularly bad (fantasy) English with a clear Portuguese accent. After the staccato stereotypes in “Borat” and “The Dictator”, Sacha Baron Cohen once again proves to be the ideal choice.
Despite his completely silly character, he has a lot more to offer in terms of acting than the largely pale Mark Wahlberg (“Artur the Great”) and Paul Walter Hauser (“The Naked Gun”). The fateful duo is annoying as they flee through the rainforest with exhausting constant bickering, while the two protagonists – for whatever reason – carry around a year’s supply of “Balls Up” bags (hence the ambiguous ball “title” of the film). At least here the authors show a certain creativity when the condoms are used in a variety of ways as headgear or water wings.
Sacha Baron Cohen (“Bruno”) is clearly the highlight of the film.
Coke condoms have to be devoured like in a blowjob training – and then the little fish mentioned at the beginning also stops by while urinating: The humor level in “Balls Up” is certainly not too high. But even if Peter Farrelly still knows how to draw out the embarrassment of such scenes, there is a lack of original ideas or an anarchic joke that really hits home.
Instead, the clumsily constructed plot (keyword: sent away lawyer) only becomes more negatively noticeable. Visually, the clumsy comedy doesn’t add much either: During the color grading, the color saturation was massively reduced, which makes the faces appear grey-brown in many shots and the colors appear muted – a technical gimmick with no discernible added value, especially when a Sugarloaf comedy actually calls for particularly bright colors.
Conclusion: A handful of successful gags and the really funny Sacha Baron Cohen are offset by a lot of clumsy silliness. After the flat comedy “Ricky Stanicky”, the two-time Oscar winner Peter Farrelly cannot build on previous genre successes with “Balls Up”.