Ball of Wax (2003) User Reviews

Ugly drama about narcissism at its worst and baseball is just an afterthought.

[Burntout · 4/10 · 18 October 2010]

A baseball movie about a sociopath....but it can't be both at the same time, so which path does it take? It takes the sociopath path which is not a bad path to take in movies...but it's not a very strong path to take when you're limited with your budget (it's a B-movie, period) and you decide to take only 90 minutes of viewing pleasures for your audience. Sociopaths are very complex creatures that none of us (even the best of psychologists and psychiatrists) can figure out completely. The main character is played with a convincing menace and laissez-faire attitude by Mark Mench that you can't help but be drawn in to his struggle to bring everyone else around him down to his level of pure hatred and narcissism. Too bad it's full of dialog that is unreal and too theatrical. Too bad that it does not concentrate moreso on the baseball aspect than the staged settings. Too bad it just doesn't work overall. It's a very dark and brooding film about a very disturbed individual who is determined to bring everyone else around him (including a fictional baseball team of which he is one of the best baseball players of all time) down to a level that is beyond the seven levels of hell imagined by Dante. It's an okay movie, but the ending especially ruined it with its liaise-faire attitude of "fuck the viewer, I'm tired and I'm just gonna end this movie with a cliché ending that ties into a previous moment halfway through this movie...yeah it's supposed to be significant, but only on a superficial level." And for that attitude and ending that the director, Daniel Kraus, gives to us...well, I have to give to you a big "fuck you." Look elsewhere for any type of baseball or sociopath movie, unless you're bored and completely full of narcissism of the deepest levels. So much promise, too much self-pleasure by Kraus.

Stranger things have happened

[LeonardKniffel · 6/10 · 19 June 2018]

I am generally uninterested in watching movies about sociopaths and narcissists, but I found Ball of Wax compelling. I have little interest in horror films with slasher lunatics in the lead role, but this movie defies category and is much more a psychological drama than a horror film, the main character more like Ray Milland in Dial M for Murder than Jack Nicholson in The Shining. What is so unusual about the movie is the way it draws you in to the main character's sick little world, like a warning to be aware that such people are out there. I also found the production values astonishing, given the low budget, and it is a wonder to me that it did not reach more of an audience than The Blair Witch Project, which to my way of thinking was a lesser film in every sense yet enormously popular.

Strangely compelling

[bjacob · 8/10 · 18 January 2007]

Ball of Wax is a very-low-budget little claustrophobic movie about a baseball star that becomes mean and cruel out of boredom.

A loose essay on acquired situational narcissism but one that is strangely intense. It's not very realistic but somehow you are hooked and want to know what happens after. It's a bit of pity for the ending, not strong as the rest of the movie.

It's shot in digital but the images are visually interesting.

Ball of Wax remembers me some French movies of the Sixties and I loved it. Worthy of mention is the Eric Bachmann score; I found it so beautiful that I bought the cd.

Satan gets drafted to the Majors...

[manos_1 · 9/10 · 11 March 2005]

This movie made me squirm. It a movie you may not want to watch with your parents or girlfriend. The bad guy (portrayed by Mark Mench) does things to his team members and friends (and babysitter, even!) that are too awful to believe. And then he smiles like he's done them a favor.

The closest thing I can compare this to is the Oscar-nominated "Closer" except much meaner: this movie gets inside your head and screws around with your brain. This film is poison in pinstripes. If that sounds appealing, go rent it.

My only complaint is with soundtrack issues. Oftentimes I could not hear dialog. And be warned. There's a ton of it!