Review: Sausage Party (2016)

When I posted my ‘2016 Comedy Special’ mini reviews, I thought I’d seen all of the big comedy releases of this summer. Then I spotted someone’s review of Sausage Party in my blogger feed, and I let out a long sigh. There was one I had missed. When Seth Rogen and James Franco are together, they are so hit or miss for me. I’ve never seen one of their movies and thought ‘eh, that was alright’, it’s always one extreme or the other. And I really wasn’t sold by the trailer.

Of course, this animated movie is Seth Rogen’s baby that just so happens to feature James Franco, but I find Seth like that one guy in your friend group or school that's completely lovely and funny on his own, but when he’s with that particular friend, he turns into a complete ass. I sound really bitter, don’t I?

Sausage Party is like every other animated movie you’ve seen starring inanimate objects, with one difference. It’s rude. Like, extremely rude. Sexual jokes, racist jokes, down right dirty jokes, fly left right and center here. The stand out example here is in the opening scene, when a jar of german mustard announces his wishes to eliminate the juice. Say it out loud, and it’ll soon click for you. The ‘f’ in his logo is expertly designed to look like a very infamous symbol, too. That’s when you do that nervous kind of laugh where you know you shouldn’t find it funny, but it’s downright hilarious.

I actually had quite a bit of hope to begin with. If you’re not aware of the plot yet, the movie is about a bunch of groceries in a supermarket, living their lives, waiting to be chosen by the Gods to be taken to the ‘great beyond’. In this particular store, the groceries start each morning with a song all about it, and how certain they are that absolutely nothing will ge wrong should they be chosen. Sorry, but it’s still not quite as funny as Olaf the Snowman wanting to see what summer is all about!

Frank the sausage (Seth Rogen) is the star of the show, alongside his lover Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a hotdog bun. The two get chosen to leave but everything goes wrong, leaving them with the mission of getting back home to warn everyone else. It’s a simple enough story, but my biggest problem with it is that it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is this a simple, ‘fart jokes’ comedy, or is a comedy with a hidden, deeper meaning? It’s both, which is confusing as hell.

But what really ruined it for me was the scene outside, with the zombie corn. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll be shuddering right now because you’ll know exactly what I’m on about. A giant, cartoon-rendered turd on the floor being eaten by zombie corn. And it gets worse, because next on screen is a talking, used condom. I mean USED. Ugh.

I don’t know what I expected really. In some ways, Sausage Party was better than I thought it would be, but it’s still largely unfunny, and downright gross. That’s just me though, I know plenty of people will absolutely love this, because it’s the kind of humour they enjoy. At least I can now say I’ve seen all the big 2016 comedies! I think?

Review: They Came Together (2014)

I’m really riding out this Parks and Recreation obsession right now. I’ve moved onto the phase of looking up the entire cast’s filmography and consuming it as quickly as possible. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine…

They Came Together (2014) is a spoof rom com of sorts, starring Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd as a couple telling their friends over dinner one night about the story of how they met. They claim their story is just like a romantic comedy, and so the movie plays out their telling of the events. As we all like to do, many of the details are exaggerated, which is the core of the comedy in this movie.

Molly (Amy Poehler) runs her own boutique sweet store in New York City called Upper Sweet Side, and Joel (Paul Rudd) just so happens to work for a huge corporate business who are trying to shut Molly’s business down. It was hate at first sight!

So, here’s what I loved about this movie. The cast was amazing. It had so many of my favourite TV faces in (Cobie Smulders, Ed Helms, Jack McBrayer, Max Greenfield, Adam Scott, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, just to name a few) that I could have happily watched just to spot them all. The comedy style was right up my street. It almost has a Muppets feel to it, it’s so literal, which I realise will probably put a lot of people off straight away, but honestly, I love that kind of humour. 

Just a really quick example off the top of my head: Mollie is chatting with her colleague at the sweet store and her colleague warns her that Joel is right outside. Mollie gaps in horror and exclaims “But I look like a chimney sweep!” and then we see Mollie, literally dressed as a chimney sweep, with soot on her face and everything. It just tickles me!

I think the humour more than makes up for the predictable plot, but I don’t even think that needs to be apologised for. There’s a line Mollie says very early on in the movie that clearly indicates where the plot is going, so it was deliberate anyway.

My one gripe with They Came Together, and it pains me to say, is that some of the jokes fall so flat they’re quite painful. One minute I was actually crying from laughing so hard, and the next, a joke would fall so flat I winced and kind of wanted to pretend the moment never happened.

I imagine this movie really splits opinions, but my score will rest somewhere in the middle.

Bonus screenshot:

Mini Reviews: Goosebumps (2015), The Perfect Guy (2015) and Trainwreck (2015)

I had been looking forward to seeing this ever since I heard the rumours that Jack Black would play R.L Stine.  Goosebumps were some of my favourite books as a kid and I couldn’t wait to see some of the more interesting characters coming to life on screen.  I was right to be excited, it was a great film with a really clever idea that the original books are looked to keep the monsters inside but about Zack (Dylan Minnette) from next door opens one (or two) all hell breaks loose in Madison.  Someone who didn’t have a love for the books may find it a little confusing and probably not very good but the sense of nostalgia for me sold it.  I’m desperate to watch it again now so I can look out for the little details that I missed the first time around, there is so much going on it will most definitely take more than one viewing to get the most from it.

This is the perfect (excuse the pun) film to watch with someone who is willing to listen to your predictions and disappointment when they are wrong while the film is on.  Me and my best friend Claire spend the whole film ‘guessing’ what was going to happen next and shouting at Leah (Sanaa Lathan) for doing ridiculous things like being home alone when being stalked by a crazed psychopath (genius move!).  The film was pretty average but the shear entertainment of the predictions and shouting at the screen made it totally worthwhile, it was reminiscent of the first time I watched Scream or I know what you did last summer.

I’ve never been Amy Schumer’s biggest fan, I don’t really find her humour that funny to be honest, however people seem to love her and find her hilarious so I thought I would give Trainwreck a go in the hopes that it wouldn’t be just another rom-com.  I was wrong….it was just another rom-com, they tried to make it different by having the female lead, Amy (Amy Schumer) be the one scared to commit, sleeping around and generally being a not so nice person and Aaron (Bill Hader) the one who falls to quickly for the wrong person.  I don’t even need to go into the rest as its as predictable as it is unfunny, there were a couple of chuckle moments but not enough to make it any different from any other comedy.  Here’s the kicker, I usually like the ‘bad guy’ in a rom com and I will them to change for the ‘good guy’ and become a better person, but in this I disliked Amy so much that I just wanted Aaron to run screaming for the hills and find someone…anyone better.  Predictable story, unlikeable characters and they forgot to put the com in rom-com!

Review: Inside out (2015) TAKE TWO!!

How have I not written a review for this yet, I actually thought I had included my thoughts on Allie’s review but it seems not.  Being 30 sucks, my memory is shot!! I feel bad repeated a post that we have just done but I couldn't not review this.  However, I am finally putting together my thoughts on this, at the moment they feel like they are going to be a mass mess of mushy feels….

Pixars’s latest offering follows characters that are effectively emotions in peoples head Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Fear (Bill Hader) and Anger (Lewis Black).  It’s mainly focused on Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) and the way she copes with moving house, a new school and growing up and how the emotions in her head are effected.  The changes lead Joy and Sadness on an adventure through Riley’s subconscious to get back to ‘HQ’ to stop her from running away from home.

Pixar tried something new and managed to absolutely knock it out of the park.  One of the key things my Dad has always said he loved about Disney/Pixar movies is that they don’t dumb down emotions for children.  In watching a Pixar and even some of the latest Dreamworks movies, the lead characters are actually dealing with real emotions.  This is something I know I said in my Toy Story 3 review and this film has just reiterated it so well.  The film is based on the emotions that Pixar isn’t afraid to shy away from.  There are some really clever ideas in the film that may be a little advanced for the younger audience but great for the parents and big kids like myself.  The idea that the short term memories are sent to ‘long term storage’ when Riley goes to sleep is in keeping with the theory that that is exactly what our brains do when we sleep. 

I thought there was a lot of feels in Toy Story 3 that made me well up and hide my face from my nieces and nephews every time I watched it but this was a whole new level.  I cried like a baby, it was genuinely heart-breaking and moving and you could easily forget you were watching an animation, I was just so caught up in it all.

Finally, I can’t post this review without mentioning the attention to detail.  The full scenes being played out within the memory balls (some of which I have since found out were Easter Eggs) plus how much of the way the brain works has been considered and accounted for inside Riley’s brain!  It’s far too complicated for any small child to understand but the bright colours and engaging characters will certainly keep them entertained, while the adults can ponder the deep and meaningfuls that continuously crop up (is it ok to be sad sometimes?).

Great for kids, even better for adults. Is anyone else a little bit concerned now about The Good Dinosaur between trying to follow this and the two How to Train your Dragon's we've already had, is it dead before it's even out?!

Review: Inside Out (2015) & Lava (2015)

It’s taken me a long time to get my thoughts on Inside Out into words. Let’s just say I hold this film in a very special regard! It’s extremely rare for me to see a film in the cinema twice, but I saw this once with a close friend of mine on the day I found out that my very poorly Granny was terminal, and then again with my family just a few days after she died. 

From the original trailer, it was difficult to determine a plot for Inside Out, but it made the film a complete surprise which rarely happens now. Too often a trailer gives away so much of the plot it’s barely worth even investing the time at the cinema. So, the plot is simple in theory, a young girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) moves to San Francisco with her parents when her Dad gets a new job. Her emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Fear (Bill Hader) struggle to cope with the move, a new school, new friends, and a difficult life at home.

To begin with, let me quickly mention the short played before Inside Out, Lava. As a Disney fan, I get just as excited for the short as I do for the feature film, and although nothing will be able to top Feast for me, Lava was beautiful. Told in song, Lava is about a volcano in Hawaii who is lonely, and wishes he has someone to love just like everything else around him. This song is absolutely making it onto the wedding playlist somewhere my fiance won’t notice, ha.

Back to Inside Out, and one thing I can’t get over is how complex the whole thing is, but also how simple it is at the same time. I mean, any small child would love this. It’s bright, it’s colourful, it has plenty of funny moments, but as a grown up going through some stuff, this film really spoke to me. Riley has ‘personality islands’ which represent her core beliefs and loves, and I spent the car ride home trying to work out what my own islands would be. I’d have a blogging island, for sure!

Everything to do with your mind and thoughts are in this film. There’s a thought train, which is literally a train, and subconsciousness which is scary as hell. Down in long term memory are little workers who dispose of all the memories that have been disused for so long, they’re deemed no longer needed. That’s why I’ve forgotten nearly everything I was taught in Math class I reckon!

The casting for the main emotions was perfect, too. I know Amy Poehler from Parks & Recreation and she just buzzes with Joy. Phyllis Smith as Sadness was a great choice, too. If you’ve seen her in anything else you’ll know that she doesn’t put on any other kind of voice for Inside Out, that’s just her and she portrays it perfectly.

It was the lesson of the film that hit me the hardest. The fact that sometimes, we need to feel sadness to become happy again was something I’d forgotten all about, and it’s so true. Going to see this with my family whilst we all felt so sad was difficult, but we all said we couldn’t remember the last time we all went to see a film together. In fact, we weren’t even sure it had ever happened, and so that night will be a happy memory of mine forever.