SAUSAGE PARTY (7.5 out of 10); Directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon; Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir; Starring Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, Salma Hayek and Bill Hader; Running time 88 min; Rated R for “for strong crude sexual content, pervasive language, and drug use”; In wide release August 12, 2016.
Raunchy, “R” rated comedies are a cinematic staple and many have gone on to become some of the most well-loved movies of their genre. “Sausage Party” takes the familiar antics seen in those films, throws in Pixar-style animation and raises the bar to 11. And it mostly pays off in spades, although the funny does get stretched a bit thin by the time the credits roll.
Frank (Seth Rogen) is a happy-go-lucky sausage who, along with the rest of the food at Shopwell market, is waiting for the gods – humans – to pick him and his sausage buddies (voiced by Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Anders Holm) and take them out of the store to the “Great Beyond.” Not only that, but his hot dog bun girlfriend Brenda (Kristen Wiig) and he are looking to finally be unpackaged and take their relationship to a more intimate level. The problem comes when the two of them fall out of their packages and desperately try to get back to their home aisle before someone notices and they are tossed in the garbage. To make things even worse, Frank learns that there is no “Great Beyond” and that the gods only choose them in order to brutally kill and eat them. Brenda refuses to listen, so Frank must do whatever it takes to save his friends and family at Shopwell from being eaten alive by us vicious humans.
First off, this is one of the hardest “R” movies I’ve ever seen, and even though the characters are all anthropomorphic food items doesn’t change the fact that this is dirty as hell. The goal here is to offend and shock, and there are no holy grails that they will not assail to get a laugh. If you are easily offended, stay away.
Now for everyone else, yes, this movie is funny – laugh-out-loud, nearly start crying and pee your pants funny. Not since “Team America: World Police” has a film made me laugh this hard. Ethnic and sexuality stereotypes abound, and it’s nearly impossible to count the number of sexual jokes and references made throughout. I’m no prude, but there were even moments that had me blushing, which is no mean feat. The violence is over-the-top which is an accomplishment in and of itself because there are no blood and guts since nearly all of the characters are food. Still, the moment when a chicken noodle soup can is trying to shove its noodles back into its cracked and dented body match perfectly with the “Saving Private Ryan” tone the movie is trying to parody.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems is that while it is hilarious, the funny is brought much too sparsely. There are long stretches where the plot gets in the way of the story or the jokes fall flat. Maybe the writers were a bit too “inspired” by some herbal supplements during these parts, but it’s a shame that the the humorous mountaintops have such low and deep valleys.
I also could have done without the addition of a throwaway villain, Douche (Nick Kroll) who was funny in his first appearance but then dragged the movie down every other second he was on screen. The gods were a big enough problem. There was no need for this add-on.
There is also a valiant attempt to add meaning to the film via a discussion of existentialism and dogmatic, religious belief that is sprinkled throughout, but the sex and dirty jokes are too overbearing for those points to hit home. If you want to enjoy that kind of comedy, just revisit “The Invention of Lying.”
“Sausage Party” is gross, irreverent, juvenile, offensive and makes “Deadpool” look like “Masterpiece Theater”, but it’s a ton of fun and will have people laughing their heads off. More so if the audience has imbibed a few drinks or drags before going in. This is the movie the 16-year-old kid inside all of us has been waiting for. It’s just too bad that the jokes are a bit too sporadic to keep us laughing as much as we should be.