Sunday, August 21, 2016

Sausage Party (2016)

WARNING: THE LINK TO THE TRAILER OF 'SAUSAGE PARTY' CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR. THIS REVIEW WILL ALSO INVOLVE VULGAR COMMENTS AND MENTION SENSITIVE TOPICS LIKE RELIGION AND SEXUAL ASSAULT. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

A sausage strives to discover the truth about his existence (Source: Imdb.com)

Sausage Party Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBdeE7mzED4



Sausage Party was highly anticipated by many due to the trailer's clear message that it would be unlike a usual kid-friendly cartoon.

The animated comedy was directed by Greg Tierman and Conrad Vernon, and written by several people, most notable being Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill. Sausage Party is a story about food finally discovering the horrid truth behind what happens when food goes to 'The Great Beyond.' It was a bizarre but funny concept that grabbed my attention right away and I knew that I would have to see this movie, no matter if the result was good or bad.

With that being said, was Sausage Party a film that can become a staple in adult animation history or did it just cut the cheese on itself and destroy the potential to a great comedy?

The story turned out to be different than what the trailer presented, in my opinion. Judging from the trailer, I safely assumed that the film will mostly take place in the home of a human and the food items will attempt to escape the home before they are brutally murdered. The real main plot differs from my assumption and for me, it felt like a downgrade in comparison. 

Sausage Party also surprised me with its addition of religious symbolism, addressing topics such as how followers of a religion may believe things that are not proven by fact and trying to control our sexual urges to be pure. The latter is apparent in a side plot with main characters Frank (Seth Rogan) and Brenda (Kristen Wiig) resisting the urge to engage in intercourse before they are chosen by a human, in fear that they will become dirty and unwanted.

That part specifically reminds me of the story of Adam and Eve, and the message of holding oneself back because of their beliefs could provide major insight to the minds of the audience. Despite the main characters being food, we may have been able to place ourselves in the shoes of Frank and Brenda and think of when we were forbidden to do something that goes against our religion. This  could have encouraged better development within the characters; having them slowly but surely learn to release their inhibitions after their eyes are opened to the truth of the outside world...


But no, from the beginning Frank and Brenda are extremely racy, always making vulgar comments, mostly about how amazing it would be to have sex. 

This ruins any religious similarities the writers may have been hoping for. If you want a movie to be impactful, let the characters change. Frank and Brenda (aside from discovering the truth) are the same person by the time this movie is finished. 

When the characters are constantly obsessing over how they plan to sleep with each other, it drowns any chance that they are trying to stay pure-minded for the humans-their 'Gods.'

If the characters appeared more innocent, like blushing at the mere thought of sex, forcing themselves not to confess to their sexual fantasies and oblivious as to how they can preform sex with their potential lovers, then once the moment finally arises when they do make love and we see how  intense they are during it, it would make the scene that much more hilarious. 

Excluding Frank and Brenda, most of the characters are stereotypes of religious and ethnic people as well as also being used as devices so the writers can keep repeating the same naughty jokes we possibly heard in high school (e.g a boy having a small penis, a girl having a very tight vagina, etc) If there are going to be jokes like that, it should be few and far between so it doesn't get stale fast.


The humans are also terrible because they are just as vulgar as the food; so there is no contrast. There is no one who is calm and collected, no one who is sane enough to have a funny back and forth with. 

Going back to main characters: Frank and Brenda, I do not think that the focus should have been on them. They felt very distasteful, leaving you with not much to like about them. They were either very cruel or just plain boring. 

To its credit, Sausage party does have a few positives. Along with its innovative plot, it nonchalantly drives itself into morbid territory as it reaches the end of the film, doing things that even for an r-rated production was pretty shocking. 

This is referring to the big fight scene between the food and the humans, it left me tilting my head at and wondering, "Did that just happen?" The sheer surprise to it all made Sausage Party a little more bearable, because it felt so ludicrous that my attention was glued to the screen.

The deaths of the food was also impressively creative in a sense that they die because of how we normally cook them, but it's presented in a way that looks like medieval torture. You really feel the pain that these poor food items go through, but is it wrong of me to say that I genuinely enjoyed see ing the imagination put into their demise?

The animation was okay, although I obviously knew that food like Brenda was meant to have a body shaped like a voluptuous woman with bread boobs. I'll let that pass though since it's r-rated and the hilarity behind the exaggerate body parts doesn't do harm. What does harm to this movie entirely and what holds it back from being a good movie is definitely the humor. 

I watched this on my laptop and watched a link to the movie where someone who did see this in theaters posted it online for free. While watching the video, I only heard at most 3 chuckles at this movie, 3!

I sure am thankful I didn't pay to watch this, and I'm even more thankful I watched this alone because not only was the humor inappropriate, I must warn you that there is a short but unsettling rape scene involving a villain and also an explicit sex scene at the end of the movie that lasts long enough to scar a person's perception of food for a month. 


This is not a kid's movie in the slightest, even if your child or a young cousin or friend is very mature or they've heard the F word a thousands times in a day, this is not a film for them.

In the end, Sausage Party felt like a flop. The religious metaphors, gruesome food death scenes, and shocking fight scene were clever, but the story at times did feel predictable and the characters were one dimensional stereotypes who just said stupid stuff to prove that, "We're not a kid's movie! We're not a kid's movie!" 

If you're interested in watching Sausage Party, I would recommend seeing it with friends only. This is not a movie to watch for family movie night, it is an insanely wild movie. I'd rate this a two and a half out of 5 stars. 


SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
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This is a comment about the movie poster I placed at the very top. So if Frank the wiener is placed between Brenda's buns, does that mean he's inside of her sexually? Or did he put just the tip in?

I already had a question in my head before I watched the movie, "How would the food possibly eradicate all humans from eating them if they are an essential source to the human's survival?" and the more I watched, the more questions I had in my head. I think Sausage Party would probably leave a bunch of unanswered questions to the audience. Here were mine:

-When does the food start to live? Is it alive within the animal they come from? (if they are a meat product)

-Why are inanimate objects also alive if this is a movie about food? Does that mean every thing is living? The toilet, the bong, the computer?

-Why is it the food's main objective to get laid? Do they even know what that means? Who told them they would have sex when they get out of there? How do they know it feels good? 

-How come they didn't used the spoiled food and garbage bin as a bigger plot device? They could have shown spoiled food alive and well without ever meeting the humans and in a sanctuary. 


Why would the lady who picked out Frank and Brenda still pay for the hot dog wieners and buns? Frank and Brenda left their packaging, she should know that the food is now damaged.

The scene with Douche and the Grape box, that was very disturbing for me. I honestly didn't realize that it was a rape scene until Douche told Frank that he sucked a grape box's privates. The fact that the grape box died from that makes it even more unsettling.

They should have focused on the food that went to the house and have them escape and try to warn the food in the supermarket instead of spending most of the time in the supermarket. 

If it was 'Red, white and blue day' (4th of July), why would the lady start cooking the food at night?
There were no guests and the food she bought could easily be prepared in an hour or two. 

The writers could have prepared to release this movie near the 4th of July instead and change the script so the movie centered more on the food trying not to be killed and eaten for a 4th of July party.

When Brenda was stuck between the shelves and the others had to pull her out to get away from Douche, she should have broken apart. A bread bun is not that durable that it can be pulled like she was and still be perfectly fine.

Those poor humans, they were just doing their job...

The guy who died with mentos and soda, isn't everything sentient? So the soda is alive and so are the mentos. Basically they sacrificed themselves to blow up that man.

I knew there was going to be a sex scene between Frank and Brenda, but did they have to include...everyone? 

So the Twinkie is getting a lot of action from everyone during the sex scene. I get it. He's a *twink...

I wonder how the people watching this in theaters felt, eating food while watching a movie about food being killed and having orgies.

The ending to this with them going into a portal kind of justifies how they'll manage not to get eaten by new humans who come into the shop.

I'm glad I watched this, but at the same time I'm not....It's a complicated feeling.

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DEFINITION

Twink- A gay slang term used to describe young men in their late teens to early twenties. Usage of the term varies, but traits attributed to twinks can include attractiveness, having little or no body or facial hair, a slim to average build, or appearing to be younger than their chronological age. (soruce- wikipedia.com)


2 comments:

  1. Great review , movie sucked no matter how much we tried and wanted to like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much! I tried the same tactic, and strangely enough some film critics on Youtube absolutely loved this movie. I'm hoping to find one that shares my opinion so I don't feel too much like a prude, haha.

      Delete

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