This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

A lot of fun.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

So, announces the DVD. But, this was a disappointing film. Not particularly bad but definitely not that good. Rather more crude and MTV video-like than the more subtle and masterful Jamon Jamon.None of the characters are likable, the lovely Penelope Cruz of Bigas Luna's first film replaced by vacuous supermodels (in comparison, maybe they are great actresses) and it all reads like a tawdry and cheap paperback that you'd pick up at motorway service station.Which, maybe is how Luna wanted it. Maybe he really is that repelled by the capitalist, nouveau-riche alpha male who believes his 'balls' not only rule his life but everybody else's, too. I know I am, and most people would be, too. Asked why Javier Bardem's lead character is sporting two gold Rolex's, he announces back "I have two balls, so I have two Rolex's".Artistically there is little merit to this film, but it is about overblown, over-macho stereotypes and how they think they can walk over everybody. There are nods to Dali (the nude with ants over her pubic region is an extreme example) and there are more phallic insinuations in Goldenballs than any other film I know of. From Gonzalez (Bardem) Towers, intended to be the tallest tower on the Med, in which Luna loosely stretches a fabric of some kind of story around, with his dodgy dealings and cost-cutting.Like, possibly his Tower, Gonzalez, and his potent sexual erections, does come a cropper, which is of some redemption, admittedly, but not enough to save the film. There's an early role for Benecio del Torro as the Miami-set gardener who happens to do more than service the sprinkler....What finally made me only award two stars was the poor DVD quality. It's of video standard, plain and simple.I bought Goldenballs as I wanted the three films in Luna's 'Iberian passion' trilogy, of which it is the middle. I'm seriously hoping that the final part, 'The Tit and the Moon' is an improvement.

HUEVOS DE ORO (Golden Balls) is a 1993 film by writer/director JJ Bigas Luna (best known for his 'Jamon, Jamon' and 'Son de Mar') that suffers from defective promo/packaging. The cover of the DVD (probably released only of late because of Javier Bardem's growing popularity in this country) suggests an edgy comedy: Bardem in a gold suit is seen grasping his crotch! Nothing could be more misrepresenting as this is a drama of lust, greed, power, and ruthlessness. Get past the promo and settle in for a drama and the result is not bad.Benito Gonzalez (Javier Bardem) is a construction worker with a dream: he is obsessed with power of building and owning the tallest building in Barcelona and of becoming the richest man who can own gold Rolex watches and have all the women he wants. He is a lustful lover, first with his best friend Mosca's (Francesco Dominedo) sister Rita (Elisa Tovati) whose body and scent are a passion for him. Yet he dreams of his tallest building (the possibility of his achieving this is not unlike the ease of getting an erection!) and he focuses his life on his greed. His co-worker Miguel (Alessandro Gassman) is to help him fulfill his dream, but when he discovers Miguel is sleeping with Rita he is incensed and leaves his lowly construction job for the promise of riches in Barcelona.Through stepping on people, using devious means to get backing and money for his 'Gonzalez Tower', Benito gradually destroys all of those who want to help him - his new girl Claudia (Maribel Verdu) with whom he has another sexual obsession then talks into sleeping with one of his money source prospects, the banker (Albert Vidal) who has slept with Claudia becomes his father-in-law when for monetary gain Benito marries daughter Marta (Maria de Medeiros), a wily but wealthy film producer 'Gil with the Chickpeas' (Ángel de Andrés López), and more.By breaking the law, abusing his 'friends', and lying in general Benito's building is nearly completed. But a series of tragedies involving Mosca's accidental death, and an auto accident with many permutations for Benito, and the ultimate loss of funding result in Benito's multiple losses of his dreams, betrayals of his pitiful sex life (this time a lowly gardener Bob (Benicio Del Toro) steals his paramour) leave Benito destroyed. The story is actually on the order of a Greek tragedy - but sadly without the impact.Though Javier Bardem is a brilliant actor and is in the company of other exceptional actors, the script by JJ Bigas Luna is weak, paying little attention to character motivation and emphasizing instead gross caricatures. But if the film is taken as a recreation of the driving, greedy, power obsession of the 1980s then the message makes its impact. And it is always good to see early work by such actors as Bardem, Del Toro, and Verdu! Grady Harp

Bigas Luna has the interesting distinction of having, since his breakthrough movie LAS EDADES DE LULU, a storyteller of erotic tales of sex and power with that particular Spanish spice. Starting in 1992, he began a loosely-based trilogy of sorts with JAMON JAMON which starred the rising young actor Javier Bardem in a co-starring role. However, in this movie Bardem gets the main role: that of an extremely ruthless Lothario who is undeniably a Spanish machista and wants to construct building so tall he can see his own house sitting on top of it from the ocean, who winds up getting in a huge amount of trouble once his sexual escapades and his shady dealings come to an awful head.Bardem, being the lead with the "huevos de oro" which he proudly fondles, plays Benito Gonzalez, a young officer of humble beginnings who is on military service in Melilla and has high hopes as well as a taste of young love in Rita. However Rita eventually leaves Benito for his studly friend, breaks his heart, and mashes his spirit, to which we cut to some time in the future. Benito has apparently moved quite a bit in the construction business and is enjoying an early success. However, his morals have become corrupted and he can only see women as objectified harbingers of lust and a means for him to get ahead as well as mirror images of his feminine ideal.He first encounters Claudia (Maribel Verdu), an aspiring dancer whom he is quick to flash out his jewelry while at the same time mocking her needs to please. She's "a little past" his ideal weight of 47 kilos, but she's sultry enough to capture his attention. However, such attention comes with warning signals that this won't be an easy road -- he draws abstract ideograms that depict etchings closer to that of a plastic surgeon's mappings that will dictate how a client will look after body reconstruction. They quickly fall into a relationship, but since he needs sponsors for his ambitions, he pimps her out to an older man whom she initially loathes because she wants to be faithful to him.Benito, however, has no intentions of staying where he's at. Ana (Maria de Medeiros), the daughter of the banker backing him up, becomes his wife, and now Claudia becomes his mistress. Things threaten to get out of hand, and reach an anticlimactic head when Benito brings Claudia home and shocks Ana, but left alone, both females bond in recognizing how objectified they've become for the love of this man (who sings his favorite song, Julio Iglesias' 1970s hit "Por el amor de una mujer/For the Love of a Woman". They even recognize Benito's etchings on their body... and fall into a threesome.Some events take place that bring Benito's inconsiderate hedonism down like the tower of Babel. Once that happens, his life spirals totally out of control: he loses everything, including Claudia to a car crash, and Ana due to an affair with a prostitute that takes her over the edge. Interesting, Bigas Luna has an epilogue that is fitting to such an antihero -- bringing him into unfamiliar land, with a woman who is his equal in every sense (and who refuses to conform to his needs of the ideal), and robbing him even of his own masculinity with the help of a young Benicio del Toro in a sinister yet equally erotic performance. Bigas Luna widens his erotic tale into a morality play that exposes the negative, ugly side of Spanish machismo (also inherent in Latin American countries), and Javier Bardem, oozing an overwhelming masculine presence, is perfectly cast as the stud who becomes a dud.

Either you like Bigas Luna, or you don't. Huevos de Oro is the middle picture in his trilogy of weird romance films, the other two being the more noted Jamon Jamon and the truly bizarre La Teta y La Luna. All films have breast-obsessed Spanish macho men, sexy young women, love starved 40-ish women, love triangles wrapped around the oddest plots, and the most eyebrow raising sex conversations. All of these films seem to parody the Javier Bardem Spanish macho man character and how he is ultimately ruled by his libido. (The same can be said for most males).Luna as a director introduced to me to three spectacular, stunning actresses in his films, namely Maria de Mederios, the now famous Penelope Cruz and Mathilda May. He also uses recent Oscar nominee Javier Bardem with great frequency.In this film, there is a loose plot of a man (Bardem) who wishes to obtain financing for his construction business, and marries a woman he does not love (the wide-eyed Maria de Medieros) in the process. He maintains his passionate relationship with his first and true love, and ultimately gets entangled in his own romantic web. He never gives up his juggling act, until the three main characters come face to face.What Luna does as a director is take these simple plots and wrap wonderfully strange characters with bizarre obsessions and mannerisms.This movie has lots of passion, sex, conversation, and twisted romance, all bundled into an enjoyable and unique film. Many will be offended by Luna's unabashed approach to film-making, but this is still a fresh and unique picture. I recommend the three in this series highly. I can not guarantee you will like them, but I can guarantee that you will remember them. ***1/2out of ****.