'Balls Up' (2026): A Frustratingly Dull Misstep in Raunchy Comedy
A promising comedic duo can't rescue Peter Farrelly's latest from terrible visual effects, hit-or-miss humor, and cringeworthy linguistic attempts.
I knew what to expect from a Peter Farrelly (Green Book) comedy: a certain level of unhinged, silly fun I'm always ready for. But when a movie relies so heavily on a singular, absurd concept, the humor has to land with absolute precision to keep the whole machine from falling apart. Sadly, Balls Up is a frustratingly dull, truly "estúpida" experience that struggles to justify its own runtime. Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) and Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya) certainly do their absolute best with the material they are handed, trying desperately to infuse some life into the chaotic odd-couple dynamic, but the screenplay leaves them completely stranded in an episodic narrative that lacks any real momentum or purpose.
Beyond the narrative aimlessness, Balls Up suffers from a severe lack of technical care that also breaks any sense of immersion. The VFX are particularly bad, forcing the audience to sit through an overreliance on glaring green screens and digital backgrounds that look incredibly artificial. To make matters worse, as someone who speaks Portuguese, watching American actors miserably attempt Brazilian accents and butcher Portuguese words was an excruciatingly cringeworthy experience that pulled me out of the story entirely. While the film tries to touch on themes of corporate identity and finding vulnerability through shared chaos, these ideas are completely smothered by the heavy, impactful flaws of a raunchy comedy that simply fails to deliver the laughs.
Cinema has the power to find joy in the absurd, but this one ultimately collapses under the weight of its own messy execution.
Rating: D
