Lady Ballers (2023) User Reviews

Moronic attempt at a sports comedy by people who nothing about sports or comedy.

[sonofsoulreaver-50329 · 1/10 · 25 February 2024]

This movie felt like a fever dream. It felt like what Matt Walsh sees in his nightmares. From the very beginning, it's obvious that the writer knows absolutely nothing about sports. Which is extremely frustrating because there are a LOT of sports personalities in this. Any one of them could have pulled the director aside and said, "Hey, that's not how this sport works." For example, in the beginning, we see a basketball and the whole team is just five guys. Yes, that's how many are on the court for each team at a given time, but there than five guys on the team. Every time the main character has to coach, he doesn't actually do any coaching. I think the writer honestly thinks that the coach is a glorified cheerleader. At one point, we see the main characters hurling balls at the faces of their opponents. Again, they are playing BASKETBALL! That's a foul!

There also aren't any jokes. None. The 'comedy' in this movie feels like it was written by ChatGPT. It has the cadence of humor. The only thing even humor adjacent in this game was when one of the characters punches another one in the dick.

If you enjoyed this movie, I question your intelligence.

Very funny!

[gwsvob · 7/10 · 4 December 2023]

Solid B movie, makes fun of an absurd concept. FYI not family friendly at all. While I am a fan of daily wire, i did have some reservations about them doing a full length film. However, the film delivered plenty of laughs which is ultimately what you want out of a comedy. Has some cringey parts, which is to be expected from a new director attempting a comedy. Some of the cringe factor is just the fact that it's really on the nose of a terrible facet of reality right now. Most of it was the entire character of Gwen. I loved all the cameos from the DW cast, it was great. Overall would recommend if you've got 90 minutes to kill.

"Lady Ballers": A Misguided Dribble Down Comedy Lane

[josephcarlislem · 2/10 · 20 March 2024]

In an era where cinema is pushing boundaries and challenging audiences with innovative storytelling, "Lady Ballers" feels like a step back into a less enlightened time. The film, which attempts to satirize the world of women's sports through a farcical narrative, falls flat with its outdated jokes and predictable plot.

Director Jeremy Boreing, known more for his political commentary than cinematic prowess, delivers a comedy that lacks both subtlety and wit. The premise-a former high school basketball coach dressing his male players as women to win a championship-might have sparked some genuine laughs if handled with a deft touch. Instead, the movie trudges through a series of cringe-worthy moments that feel more like a series of disconnected skits than a cohesive story.

The performances, while earnest, are overshadowed by the film's heavy-handed approach to humor. The inclusion of Daily Wire contributors in cameo roles adds little to the film's comedic value and seems more like an inside joke that the audience is not privy to.

In conclusion, "Lady Ballers" is a movie that tries to shoot for the stars but barely makes it off the ground. It's a reminder that not all ideas deserve a full-court press, and sometimes, it's best to leave them on the bench. One can only hope that the filmmakers take this as a learning opportunity and come back with a project that better showcases their talents.

This is really bad

[alatlantic · 1/10 · 28 January 2024]

I say this as a conservative person myself, parent of a daughter, who mostly agrees with the message they are trying to convey. This movie should have never been made. It's one of the worst things I've ever forced myself to watch.

There is one joke in the entire movie. And rather than trying to evolve from that, it's just pounded into your head for the duration. It would maybe have been fine as a short or meme video, but makes a terrible full length movie.

Outside of all that, the acting is terrible. The best actor in this movie is Matt Walsh, and that should tell you something. The writing, direction, and music are equally as bad.

It's fine to agree with a message, but please let's not pretend this movie isn't utter garbage.

Pretty good

[theoutlawtexan · 7/10 · 3 December 2023]

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,

A film so badly done it can't even hit its intended target.

[somanytakennames · 1/10 · 22 December 2023]

It's a poorly produced, poorly acted film where the jokes are basically Conservative grievances communicated in a funny voice and/or with a funny face but nobody has the talent of Jim Carey to pull something like that off.

It's also tragically ironic that it targets trans people but wildly overshoots the mark and ends up being more of a denigration of women's sports in general than a film criticising the presence of trans women in sports. Perhaps that was the intention of the writers, but that would imply they had enough talent to pull off multiple intentions at the same.

Did anyone who blatantly gave this 10/10 because of the subject matter notice this? Unsurprisingly no.

It's also hard to only view this as a silly comedy when it was clearly made with hateful intent. It was made with the same attitude a bully has when telling jokes at the expense of their victims and if that's not a problem for you, well that says it all. Just an unpleasant experience all round.

As an all access member

[isaacnewton · 2/10 · 6 December 2023]

I wanted to like it. I get what they were going for, and it's worthy of praise coming from such a small studio with such a low budget. I hope this isn't the last in this genre from DW.

That said - wow. Not up to par of the classics it was marketed as. Airplane, Dodgeball, Blazing Saddles, Topic Thunder: it's none of those things. I think it could've been with some extra elbow grease and less confirmation bias in the studio.

The criticism that many Christian movies get is that they focus too much on the message and not on the core story and quality of the film. Same issue here. I get they had some quality limitations, but I wish they would've waited to really hone in the story and make sure the lines packed a punch.

Best parts are all the cameos. These are genuinely good and appreciated.

Not sure why we needed the subtle dominatrix thing. Just another example of something that made me cock my head sideways and ask, "Really? Necessary?"

Overall, I know I'll make some people mad for not absolutely loving it, but it is what it is. They want quality content? I'm happy to be the critic for the next future success. I'm aware I'm not the man in the arena, but I don't care.

Edgy (could've been more), Brave (could've been more) and Fun (could've been more)

[makavelix5 · 6/10 · 4 December 2023]

It could've been way better but wow.

I can't believe we got so many BAD ABSURD COMEDIES over a decade and this one came out of nowhere and hit so many the right buttons. Some dialog exchanges and some actings (especially the wife) are way too cheap but i ACTUALLY HAD FUN with the movie.

Kudos to everyone involved. Just like the SP Pander episode, THIS should've been DONE. Not because of social message, JUST BECAUSE IT IS FUNNY.

I also wanted to thank the makers for not putting unnecessary nudity and putting headphones on little girls ear when they use bad words. There were also some unseeable details like, it was something like ''The climate is about to burn you all any day''. I really hope we get more of these.

Some Movies are disaster movies, some are just disasters...

[imccullo · 1/10 · 30 January 2024]

I was initially loathe to go in too hard on a movie that has so many cameos from unwitting conservatives I encounter on a daily basis but Michael J Knowles, Andrew Klavan, Candace Owens, Ted Cruz, and Ben Shapiro just don't deserve to be associated with this catastrophic drivel. The creators must have wished in retrospect they had adopted the documentary style that succeeded so brilliantly for 'What is a Woman?' from 2022 for this Daily Wire project. Casting the glacially mordant Matt Walsh as a new age hippie guru is about as wise as having your CEO and founder Jeremy Boreing, write, star and Direct the whole fiasco as a hapless cuckold behind on his mortgage repayments. The basic premise for a comedy is ripe i.e. Should transgender women (read: biological men) be allowed to compete against biological women at sports? Unfortunately this never delivers on it's promise and the reasons are not hard to deduce. To satirise or lampoon a subject effectively, considerable comedic exaggeration is normally required to make the target look suitably ridiculous. In this instance however, very little suspension of belief is required from a transgender lobby that is invariably humorless, intolerant and resistant to any form of reciprocal dialogue with its opponents. To be fair, the Daily WIre's Matt Walsh has acknowledged this in a recent interview. Let's cut to the chase: Apart from Coach Gibson's daughter Winnie regurgitating (for the benefit of the bogus 'female' basketball team) the gender ideology she is assailed with by her school teachers there is not a single funny joke in the way too overlong 1 hour and 52 stamina sapping minutes. Avoid.

As a Conservative Leaning Female This was Idiotic

[tdwillis-26273 · 3/10 · 7 December 2023]

I lean conservative, I'd like to think too that I'm a realist. This movie, realistically does not deserve the high ratings.

The acting, on the whole, is just a titch above high school play level. The story was low IQ level. The jokes not fresh or funny. The pace veeeery slow.

Camera and cinematography was perhaps the best part of the movie.

I just did not find this entertaining.

The whole thing kinda reminds me of when a bunch of guys get together and laugh at farts or when one of their buddies accidently hurts themselves.

Moronic. Boring. Idiotic. Slow.

But then again I'm not a guy, or stuck in high school brain zone.

Entertaining in it's own way

[justair · 7/10 · 8 December 2023]

I am reminded of comedies that used to go to unsafe and non politically correct places just to get you to smile and for the most part this delivers on that... granted in a tongue and cheek lower budget sort of way but even so.

It was certainly pushed as a bit of a political statement and to poke fun at media, the entertainment industry, and it's multitude of sponsors but i came away from it smiling as it has a nice ending that they put some thought into. The cameo's by dailywire personalities made me chuckle as well.

Definitely worth the overall watch and a good effort that pokes fun at our culture and direction in ways that average everyday people will be able to identify with.

A poorly implemented mess of ideas

[jess353225533 · 1/10 · 23 March 2024]

For a basketball movie they don't seem to know how to actually play. The editing, acting, camera work, effects and pacing are all off. No one really seems to know what they're doing or how to put a movie together. The whole movie feels cheap despite the fact that they are clearly using expensive gear. It feels like a room of people in management decided to make and act in a movie despite having no training or idea of how to put together a good movie.

I wish I could get my time back because that was not with the time it stole from me. What a terrible movie. Maybe if you took an acting course or went to film school the movie would be palatable.

Trying too hard

[ajstuck · 1/10 · 1 January 2024]

They tried to mock trans athletes but it's only mocking how clueless the writers are of trans athletes and sports in general. Airbud had a better storyline than this trash. When a movie tries too hard to be offensive and less time being funny, it just looks like a straight to stream type of movie. I will not be shocked when Daily Wire's movie production department goes bankrupt from making bad movie after bad movie. If they want to succeed, hire actual writers to make their movies instead of letting hacks who couldn't write a Hollywood movie script. Unless they're just using ChatGPT, which would make sense.

Good example of why picking on the powerless isn't very funny

[amazon-51127 · 24 March 2024]

This is a "Daily Wire" attempt at comedy. Forgettable, but as you can see by the outsized ratings they have an army of upvoters at the ready. And/or a cultish following that prefers to watch a movie-length "punching down" red meat fest over anything resembling clever and amusing writing and acting. Though there were a couple things that induced a mild chuckle, guess that's pretty good for this movie.

Although DW is full of unintentional comedians like the hilarious propagandist Ben Shapiro and the "change my mind" guy, this film is such a strange, strange beast at how hard it works to NOT be funny. It's a meandering storyline built around what just seem like right wing meme gripes and talking points. It's supposed to be about basketball, as you can see from the cover, but it gets so distracted by trying to get through a list of things that scare them that they don't even get around to playing basketball until about halfway through the movie. It's a messy slog.

Rather than continue, "Some More News" on YouTube produced an excellent, well researched review of LadyBallers that is actually way funnier than this "comedy." SMN's writing and acting and timing is top level, and they have managed to critique it on the merits of what the "change my mind" guy asked them to, non-politically and on technical merits. Learned a bit about filmmaking 101 too. It would be awesome if right wingers could relay their perspectives in a way that is honestly funny, but unfortunately this movie just falls dead on the floor and feels like trying to watch my grandfather poop for a couple hours.

Two stars for giving a chuckle twice. It's not a good movie by any means, but any "leftie" would have to allow them a participation trophy for making an effort.

Exactly What Was Promised

[lanierys · 7/10 · 14 December 2023]

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.

Embarrassing and not triggering

[VillainousVi · 1/10 · 31 December 2023]

Pretty bad, the pacing is terrible and the movie is incredibly bloated, it is nearly two hours long. Not funny or triggering, something about trying too hard to make something triggering or offensive makes it the opposite for me. This movie also has some of the most obvious and explicit editing/audio mistakes I have ever seen in a film.

I want to point out that Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing themselves admitted that the original plan for this movie was to be a documentary. They said they tried to get men to play in women's sports and failed. It turns out the fake world they have built isn't real and women's sports have rules and standards when it comes to transgender players.

If you have no sense of humor and like 2000s comedies, or you are middle-aged and can't stop thinking about trans people, this movie might be for you.

The main problem with this movies isn't political, it's that it's not funny

[coleben-04266 · 1/10 · 7 December 2023]

As in the title, the main problem with this movie is that it's just not funny, regardless of your political feelings. Those who rate this highly are forcing themselves to laugh because they align with it politically and don't like trans people, not because they care to look into how the law actually works. The acting was obviously very bad, and most of the jokes were too. Those who are rating it poorly are both people who don't align with it politically, but also 100% of honest reviewers who look past the childish point of the movie and try to judge it honestly. It's just bad at the end of the day, period. I guess it does make for a good detection mechanism for a certain kind of person - just look who rates this over a 4/10 and you will know something about that person with absolute certainty.

Meh

[ticklershpickler · 6/10 · 4 December 2023]

There are a couple of laughs and the ending was cute, but it felt short and repetitive at the same time. Nothing was particularly well done. It's messaging actually came off preachy and ununderstanding of the social issue it's commenting on, but I could live with the latter as it's an absurdist film. Some of the acting (mainly the reporter lady) was pretty awful, but not in a charming way. It's definitely not mainstream, but it doesn't have the substance to become a cult classic. It suffers from the same symptom that the other works of this company have. All of Daily Wire's movies are completely unrefined despite having solid premises. They could be great films if they were given another couple pass-overs in the writer's room. Jeremy Boering is a business man churning out products, not an artist.

Missed the mark

[jaszmyne88 · 2/10 · 5 December 2023]

Most of the comedic scenes were in the trailer. Which why watch the movie if you can watch the trailer? Subject content is interesting. Not quite sure how much is satire or real views. Not sure to laugh or be shocked or both. This movie reminds of of "Juwanna Man" so we have already been there and done that. That movie was over 20 years ago and geared towards Black audiences so interesting to see it get repackaged for white conservatives and then do so well amongst viewers. (But Juwanna Man was hilarious). Now as for acting, it is mediocre at best. Feels like everyone is trying too hard. The material is there for jokes, it's just predicable with poor execution. Way too long and I wasted my time on this movie.

The perfect movie to make fun of conservatives with.

[erikacacchione · 1/10 · 6 January 2024]

This movie is a decent watch. If you are absolutely zooted out of your mind. Everything about this film is garbage. ""Acting"" done by a bunch of people who aren't actors. Originally this was going to be a documentary, but turns out none of the Daily Wire actually wanted to go through with HRT long enough. Hmm.

Weird how these people say that the left is spreading information to our children and yet they fed lines to a child about how kids absolutely show their genitalia to each other in the restroom all the time. Weird. Incredibly weird.

That kid is the best actor in this movie.

Please go watch an early 2000 happy Madison film instead of this.

Some Honest Laughs

[jcbinok · 7/10 · 2 December 2023]

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.

Entertaining Once

[aylalyla · 6/10 · 3 December 2023]

Watched this and was entertained, but it's not great movie by any means. I do not think that the Daily Wire has hit the mark with this film. They're always talking about Politics being downstream of Culture and that their hoping to get involved with the culture and change it. This film has too much over politicization to be smartly funny and effect the Culture.

I enjoyed it once and will probably never watch it again. I would not say it was especially funny and I think this movie is really just for conservatives.

Like Matt Walsh's "kids" book I think it overall is a missed opportunity of doing something that could have wider cultural weight.

This is supposed to be comedy?

[lcplchess-1 · 1/10 · 29 April 2024]

Painfully cringy to watch. This seems like a movie that was rejected by every studio that it was pitched to so out of desperation the writer pulled a Tommy Wiseau and funded/directed/starred in it himself. The only difference is The Room had rewatchability and a following, this was just sad. The movie takes itself very seriously thinking it's tackling the fear mongering issue of trans-athletes but the reality is no one really cares. More importantly for the movie, it's so poorly written and executed that any points it may have been trying to make are lost in the sheer astonishment of how bad the acting is and the stunningly bad attempts at comedy.

I could go all day picking the movie apart from its awful script to the poor acting, but the real question is who is this movie for? Maybe leave movies for Hollywood and go bad to using these scare tactics to grift your online audience?

I wanted to love it

[dan-dubya · 7/10 · 11 December 2023]

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.

The only thing "triggering" about this film is how unfunny and uncreative it is.

[alexoconnor-96583 · 1/10 · 4 May 2024]

The director of this film claimed to want to make a "triggering" film, what a creative aspiration, what a vision! I can think of no more noble cause than making a movie for no other reason than to make an imaginary subset of the population angry. Truly breathtaking.

The problem, it's not "triggering." So they even failed to live up to their own low bar.

This film is not funny, it's not triggering. There are no jokes, the entire thing is pointless and meandering. I'd compare it to a film like "Freddy Got Fingered" but I'd say FgF actually managed to do what it set out to do, this film did not. I even laughed at FgF, this movie only makes me sad.

This is what filmmaking is coming to. This is what "art" looks like in the 21st century. Pointless drivel to pander to a paranoid and out of touch generation who constantly complain about "politics in movies!" Meanwhile their own movies are nothing but politics.

I beg the writers of this film to never pick up a pen again. Please spare us all of your input.