Lady Ballers

Watched Lady Ballers this morning. It's available only on Daily Wire+. The movie reminds me of comedies from the 80's or 90's; silly and irreverent. No nudity, but there are some racy jokes about body parts and bedroom acts.

Jeremy Boreing plays the head coach of a men's basketball team who all decide to identify as female to win a women's tournament. The jokes practically write themselves. To be honest, some land and some don't. Enough land, however, to rank LB at 7/10.

Matt Walsh playing against type as "Kris" the hippie was delightful. Couldn't stop laughing whenever he was on screen. And, the actress who plays coach's daughter is very sweet. She steals the opening scene.

What I didn't expect to be so wow-ed by was the musical score and beautiful drone shots of Nashville. The opening theme song is earnest and oh-so cheesy; a la American Flyers. Love it! There were lots of musical changes of pace, too, like the switch to an old-worldy accordion tune for the scene where coach is getting roughly handled by the dominatrix reporter. "Furnace burn!"

I've also got some quibbles. For example, the final, fade-to-black image was totally unrelated to the rest the movie. Just oddly edited. Also, the players were too often either fighting or high fiving. That got old quick; as if dudes can't just sit and chill without punching each other.

Overall, it was fun.

DW promised a goofy, early 2000s comedy with a message and I believe, overall, in landed. I enjoyed it and laughed at the slapstick goofiness and appreciated the meaningful bits. I can see and understand where it fails a little too.

As a stand alone comedy, it's a popcorn movie and doesn't overstay it's welcome with it's pacing, comedy, and plot. The general movie goer (who isn't wildly liberal) would still have a good enough time if one likes movies such as the The Hot Chick, White Chicks, Scary Movie, Wayne's World, and other such on-the-nose, wacky, dumb movies that would have a difficult time being made today. It is true that a DW fan would find the movie more enjoyable due to the cameos - which were extra hysterical if you're "in the know."

If I could only change one thing as someone who loves the idea of this comedy shedding light on an important issue, I would have either removed the ending cameo entirely, or shifted it to after credits.

The general public would also enjoy it even more if they are aware of the western nations' culture war; if the viewer is unaware, the hopeful goal of the movie would be to make people aware of conservative concerns.

That said, the movie does not ride on the backs of DW and conservative cast members; it scratches the old comedy itch millennials have, makes gen x roll their eyes, and can show gen z what comedy used to be.

Ladyballers exceeded expectations. I expected a very pointed message with some weak comedy and production flaws.

The Daily Wire probably can't get many Hollywood actors onto a project b/c the actors would be afraid of backlash, even if the film had no political leanings--but still, they managed to find some good talent. Jeremy Boreing and Billie Rae Brandt both have star-quality. Fischer and Cone also great, but really the whole team worked. I was looking for weak links in the cast and didn't find any.

The cameos were okay, not bad. The best being B. Cooper and M. Knowles as the news anchors. Their arc was hilarious and their delivery was perfect. And quite fearless with the costumes, I love that.

The humor landed pretty well, some parts better than others. Most comedies are like this. I didn't find the "how much" guy very funny. I loved the badger stuff, that made me laugh pretty hard. I also enjoyed all the shots they're taking at the journalist class. That's long overdue. The Jeremy's razor commercial in the middle of the movie was very funny, pulled off in just the right way.

And obviously the satire's message is spot on. Everybody knows these things are true, everybody knows the emperor is naked, but everyone's afraid to speak up.

Satire isn't just preaching. There are definitely some preachy moments in the movie (and I didn't mind them probably b/c I agree with the sentiments), but this still works as satire b/c the ideas are embodied well by the story on the whole.

It also had better production value than I was expecting. They definitely dropped some money on all the extras in the last game. The score/soundtrack was a highlight, very good music, which is important. The tone was consistent. The cinematic elements were all competent. Lighting was good. I'm not a fan of the murky "realistic" lighting movies are obsessed with now. Just make it look good.

And the end delivered. It was perfect to see the lady ballers get their comeuppance and get a taste of their own medicine. I loved how they worked in the coach giving "inspirational" speech trope and played with it in various ways.

And I liked how genuinely heartwarming the ending was with the little girls team. The old comedies usually try to pull some heart-strings in the end and typically fail, but here it definitely worked. The father-daughter relationship was very lovely.

I expected a movie I would be a little amused with and probably have to endure, but we ended up enjoying it thoroughly and we didn't interrupt watching it once.

I'd give the humor a B+. The heart/feeling an A-.

And the satire an A.

I'm a DW supporter, and I want them to produce great content. This is only OK.

Run hide fight was good, not great.

Terror on the prairie was ok, Shut in was rough What is a woman was great doc Convicting a murderer was great doc

First of all. 1h52m is way too long for a comedy, unless it is absolutely amazing. Should have been 80 minutes. We found ourselves struggling to get to the end. It's a comedy, get in there, make the jokes, get out on a high point, fill it with a story with a remotely plausible plot.

I like them using DW folks for some of the actors, but Boreing as a lead fell pretty short. Some parts of his acting was fine, most was not. Didn't seem natural. Probably keep him to cameos only going forward.

The plot was weak on the whole. The idea was great, but execution is tough I guess. Comedies are not supposed to be the most cerebral of genres, but if all you're standing on is the jokes, they better bring the heat.

The writing/dialogue was fine for the most part.

Jokes were okay without being excessively mean spirited.

They are a new studio, so I am hopeful they will improve.

Look, I'm not gonna come in and give it a 10/10. It's no Baseketball or Dodgeball, but it's got some genuinely funny jokes. More than a few times I had genuine hardy laughs. There's a few times it gets sincere and those parts are great. The ending is a little weak, but there's not a lot they could do with it and still is wrapped up pretty well. My least favorite part is a shameless ad thrown in which got a smile, but moreover a deep rolling of my eyes. They hit the audience with a lot of very true statistics, (just because you don't like what you hear doesn't make it propaganda). For their first attempt at a comedy this was pretty good, and makes me look forward to more from the DW. In a world where Hollywood is too afraid to make a decent comedy for fear of offending even one person this was refreshing. Like a glass of water in the desert. Maybe not an ice cold glass of water, but still very refreshing,