‘Balls Up’ movie review: Mark Wahlberg and Sacha Baron Cohen cannot save this dour exercise

So, post-vacation, one always wishes to be gently eased into work. If Nic Cage is not riding a motorcycle with his skull on fire, then something equally fun would have been the way to clap on the reviewer’s hat and get going.

And Balls Up seemed to be that movie. Directed by one half of the Farrelly Brothers (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, and Shallow Hal) and starring Mark Wahlberg, a film about an odd couple getting into all sorts of trouble in exotic locations seemed fine on paper, but the result is so unfunny that it leaves one with a permanent case of existential despair.