Balls Up (2026)

Movie · 2026 · Comedy, Action, Adventure · 1h 44m · R · English

Curator score: 0.3/10 (46.8K ratings)

Their survival takes a big pair.

Overview

Two marketing executives go "balls out" and pitch a bold full‑coverage condom sponsorship with the World Cup. After their drunken celebration in Brazil sparks a global scandal, they must outrun furious fans, criminals, and power-hungry officials to salvage their careers and make it home alive.

Ratings

Director

Peter Farrelly

Production

Skydance Media, Reese Wernick Productions, Amazon MGM Studios

Cast

Mark Wahlberg, Paul Walter Hauser, Sacha Baron Cohen, Benjamin Bratt, Luciano Szafir, Eva De Dominici, Daniela Melchior, Molly Shannon, Chelsey Crisp, Eric André, Jackson Tozer, Henrietta Amevor, Abe Farrelly, Ryan Shelton, Nathalie Oliveira, Thiago Moraes, Sloan Fischer, Gianni Deguara, Juliana Castro, Ian Adamson

Where to watch

Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads

Curator Review

Verdict

A loud, crude globe-trotting buddy comedy with a few committed bits, but the reviews and premise point to a thin joke stretched over a long runtime. If you enjoy aggressively dumb raunch and don’t mind a very low hit rate, it may land as disposable background chaos; otherwise it sounds more exhausting than funny.

Best for

  • Viewers who like broad, old-school raunch comedies
  • Fans of chaotic road-trip or chase movies
  • People who can tolerate very lowbrow sex jokes and gross-out humor

Skip if

  • You want sharp writing or sustained comic momentum
  • You’re tired of early-2000s-style bro comedy energy
  • You dislike crude, repetitive body-humor gags or mean-spirited chaos

Overview

Balls Up is built on a high-concept premise that sounds like a studio pitch from another era: marketing executives, a World Cup condom sponsorship, and a drunken disaster that turns into an international chase. That setup should promise escalating absurdity, but the reaction suggests the movie mostly leans on the same blunt joke until the air goes out of it.

Worth noting

There are flashes of the kind of stupid-comedy chemistry that can make a raunchy movie work, and a few viewers clearly found isolated bits genuinely funny. But the dominant impression is of a film that mistakes volume for wit, with a lot of crude improvisation energy and not enough invention to keep the premise alive.

Bottom line

If you miss the era when major comedies were willing to be shamelessly vulgar and a little stupid, this may scratch that itch in spots. For most viewers, though, it sounds like a case of a promising setup getting lost in its own noise.

Top Letterboxd reviews

Joe A (1★) · 723 likes

Fully convinced Peter Farrelly’s brain is stuck in the early 2000s because he’s making the same dick and balls joke and still finds them funny.

veik (1.5★) · 699 likes

what am i even doing with my life at this point

Kylo (2.5★) · 482 likes

How did this director once make Greenbook?

Alucard (2.5★) · 405 likes

Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter singing “somebody that I used to know” Wasn’t on my bingo card but hey it was the most perfect, funniest thing ever

Mister Cap (0.5★) · 282 likes

Balls Down. This film is the reason why aliens don't contact us. Somewhere in the middle of this movie, my balls retreated into my body. I hope they come back out someday.🥺 Balls Down. FOREVER!!

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Topics

raunchy comedy, buddy adventure, gross-out humor, chase movie, corporate satire, World Cup, culture clash, road trip, lowbrow, 2000s-style comedy

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