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: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

When I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel last year, I had to admit it was the first Wes Anderson movie I’d seen. I remember a good few of our blogging buddies recommending Moonrise Kingdom to me, and I’m just sorry it’s taken me quite this long to give it a go! After exposing myself to more action moves than I could handle, I was ready for something quieter, and this was the perfect choice.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) is a beautiful story of young love. Sam (Jared Gilman) is a member of the Khaki Scouts, extremely skilled but liked by no one. He lost both of his parents and currently lives with foster parents, who he has difficulty with. Suzy (Cara Hayward) is a troubled young girl whose parents don’t know how to deal with her. Together, they decide to run away, which sparks a huge search party to look for them.

I now understand the skill that others have in spotting Wes Anderson’s work so quickly. The colourful characters, camera shots, fancy title opening, even the colour yellow, after watching just two of his movies these things are already standing out to me. It’s really quite fascinating. That said, I loved The Grand Budapest so much that I had really high hopes for Moonrise Kingdom, and I wasn’t let down.

We can all sympathise with Sam and Suzy. When you’re 12 years old, it’s easy to fall in love with someone, and feel like the whole world is against you. In fact, he won’t thank me for this, but when one of my brothers was younger than Sam, he proposed to his girlfriend on the school playground, and they vowed to get married when they were old enough. It didn’t happen, but they remained very good friends!

Moonrise Kingdom had a great mix of a being a heartwarming, relatable story, but with just enough exaggeration to make it exciting, like Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) leaping an impossible distance, and Sam surviving being struck by lightning. It’s like how we all tell our own stories, making certain moments more heroic or dramatic to make them more interesting.

The star studded cast just added another element to the movie. Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) is a compassionate man who just wants the best for Sam, despite barely knowing him. Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) provides most of the comedy as the bumbling leader who can’t control his scouts. Mr Bishop (Bill Murray) is the classic grumpy Dad who argues with authority. Mrs Bishop (Frances McDormand) is the perfect worrying, struggling mother, and last but not least, the Social Services lady (Tilda Swinton) is cold and heartless. Just a great cast all round!

I’m so glad I finally watched Moonrise Kingdom, and now I’m on the lookout for my next Wes Anderson movie. Can anyone recommend one for me?

Review: Birdman (2014)

Birdman had me excited when I very first heard about it, probably 5 months ago at a guess, so I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get round to watching it! I’m so determined to watch all of the Oscar nominated Best Picture films this year, but this one certainly wasn’t a chore to tick off the list.  I think we are doing pretty well on the Oscars tick list :-)  I wasn't that excited about this to be fair but I should have been, it was much better than I expected!

Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) is best known for his role of superhero Birdman, over twenty years ago. The franchise was so popular that you could perhaps say that Birdman himself is more famous than the man behind the mask. Riggan now finds himself trying to reprise his career and get his name back out there, and he does so by writing, directing and starring in a Broadway show. He faces numerous problems in the run up to the opening night, not helped by the voice of Birdman in his head and the strange super powers he seems to have.  

The mood and theme of the whole film is easily summed up in the first five minutes as we see Riggan in his room, seemingly meditating, in mid-air, in his pants. His first line is a complaint about how the room smelt like balls, and well, I’m laughing just from typing it! I find dark comedies very hit and miss at times, but this just hit the spot for me.  It felt very inadvertently funny, like it wasn't trying to be funny but that made you laugh.  Zack Galifianakis made me laugh in every scene he was in, even though I'm not sure he was supposed to.

Really early on I noticed some key similarities between Birdman and Iron Man, the poster in the dressing room was very similar to the Iron Man 3 poster and, I thought Keaton resembled an older version of Robert Downey Jr.  I wondered for the first 30 minutes or so if it was sort of based on RDJ and Iron Man but then it specifically mentioned them in a news story. Admittedly, I was a but disappointed that my theory didn't pan out!

I’m not one to pick up on anything technical when watching films, but I loved the camera work (and editing?) in Birdman. Sure, there are long takes which must have been a pain in the butt for the actors involved, but the entire film looked like one take. If you look for it, you can tell where the breaks are, but it’s just so clever! This is the first film I have seen that has used this technique and i absolutely loved it.  I had read beforehand that it was shot as one long scene so I was really looking out for it, however I needn't have known, it was pretty obvious.  It gave the whole film a realistic feel, you almost felt as if you were there walking through the halls of the theatre.  It was so clever.

It pains me to admit I’ve seen very little of Edward Norton. I saw him last in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and the last film I saw where he had a major role was Fight Club. He’s an absolute legend in Birdman, and I will have a strop at Jenna’s if he doesn't win Best Supporting Actor. His character, Mike, makes you hate him and then love him within minutes of each other, and he’s got such a charm about him. I’m already jotting down his filmography… I however am a huge fan of Edward Norton ever since first seeing him in American History X, his character was truly evil in that but he played perfectly.  I think i have seen a fair bit of his work so far, but a quick check of the filmography may prove me wrong.

Speaking of Oscars...can Emma Stone have one too? YES YES YES!!! You already know how much I love her, but she really packs a punch in this. She’s so expressive! Heck, you might have already seen my tweet but just throw all the Oscars at Birdman. I’m sure I’ll change my mind again once I’ve seen some of the other Best Picture nominated films, but this is going to be one of my all time favourites.  I have yet to see all the films on the Best Picture list, but this is coming up pretty high on the list so far, I personally don't think Keaton will have a look in for Best Actor with Mr Redmayne in running, sorry but we all know it's true.

I like to keep reviews spoiler free so I’ll be brief here, but that ending! Can someone please invite me for coffee (I’ll have a green tea though thanks) so we can sit and talk about it for like, an hour? I already have 3 theories floating around in my head!  I think we need to discuss this because I have NO IDEA what to think!!

Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

I saw the trailer for this a million times and my Dad told me it was brilliant but I just wasn't interested.  However, I was limited on choice on a flight so I thought I would give it a go and I am so glad I did.

I remember seeing the trailer at the cinema ages ago and my reaction being 'I HAVE to see this when it comes out!'. Then, as always, I just didn't have the time, and since then I've kept putting it off. I'm glad I finally gave it a chance!

This is the brillaint story of Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) a concierge at the famous Grand Budapest Hotel and his trusted friend and colleague Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy (Tony Revolori) through the dramas of theft (and recovery) of a priceless painting and the fight for a huge family fortune.

This is like no other film I have ever watched, although I don't think I have been a fan of Wes Anderson's work before so maybe that's why this was so unique and new to me.  The story was truly insane and crazy but it was made brilliant by Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori unique chemistry on screen, they we're really hilarious together.  In fairness, I think everything that was supposed to be serious in this film actually made me laugh, it was so deadpan!

This is the first thing I've seen of Wes Anderson's so I didn't really know what to expect, but I really loved it. The humour is brilliant in my eyes, although I can understand that others just wouldn't enjoy it at all. I may be making a silly comparison here but the film was almost a little Monty Python-esque, or at least I thought it was! 

It wasn't just Fiennes and Revolori that made this film, the ensemble cast from Jude Law to the yet again unrecognizable Tilda Swinton and too many cameos to count were all brilliant and the change of point of view kept the pace of the film up (although wouldn't be required).  The settings and set design were amazing, I found myself looking at the background in every scene to see what they had done, it looked like cartoon come to life.

I loved every member of the cast, and the cameos made me light up too. Perhaps it's a good job I didn't go to the cinema, I don't think anyone would appreciate me jumping out of my seat to shout 'BILL MURRAY' at the screen...

In all honesty, a really difficult film to review but brilliant nonetheless.  You have to see it for yourself to believe it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was clever, colourful, and so funny, but it's not for everyone!