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?

Mini Reviews: Dear John (2010), Enchanted (2007) & The Interview (2014)

Rom-coms used to be all I would watch, but since starting this blog and widening my horizon, it’s left a whole ton of films like Dear John sat around just waiting to be watched. I get the TV all to myself on Tuesday nights whilst the other half is away, so I got to tick Dear John off my list not too long ago. It stars Channing Tatum as John, a US Army soldier, who meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) whilst on summer leave.

It’s exactly what you’d expect, and it’s fairly predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and I can’t speak for the rest of my fellow ladies out there, but I’ll happily watch Channing Tatum shirtless on the beach any day! Not a film I feel the need to re-watch any time soon, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of comments I received on the Thursday Movie Picks: Fairy Tale Adaptations post I did which featured Enchanted. It felt like I was the only one in the world who had never seen it! Needless to say, I made sure I watched it very soon after. If you’ve been hiding under a rock like me for the last 8 years, Enchanted is a real-life, Disney musical about the princess Giselle (Amy Adams) who gets sent to real-world New York city.

It was just the right kind of cheesy, with songs that are catchy and easy to recall (as my 20 year old brother can prove!) and it was so full of charm from beginning to end that I just couldn’t stop smiling. The CGI work is a little off, but that can be forgiven. Glad to say that I’ve finally watched it!

Why do I keep doing this to myself?! I can’t stand James Franco, I really, really just can’t bear him, and yet I just can’t help myself and keep giving him chances. I guess I’m still trying to find another This Is The End. I’m not sure how much of the ‘The Interview has been banned/Oh no it hasn’t’ scandal I believe, but it was enough to get me to watch it one weekend. So, in this, Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) run a celebrity chat show, and are tasked with interviewing North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un. Um, and kill him.

Honestly? I thought James Franco was alright in this. He surprised me. However, the film itself fell flat. The first half was decent, just the right kind of silly, but it wasn’t the un-believable factor that killed it for me. It just wasn’t very interesting! I got bored halfway through and caught up with Twitter instead. Sorry!