By now most people know if they like Seth Rogan comedies. He’s been doing films with the same creative team for many, many years. His style of R-rated comedy is firmly targeted at college students and “dude bros” and Sausage Party falls right in line with that concept. If we look at just Seth Rogan comedies, Sausage Party is far from the best. As an R-rated Toy Story with food coming to life instead of toys, the idea is sound but the execution misses the mark in many ways.
Defining what makes a good comedy is more a matter of personal opinion than almost any other genre in film. For reference, I enjoyed This Is the End and The Night Before, but I thought Neighbors was average and I’m not a big fan of Pineapple Express. I would say Sausage Party was about on par with Neighbors, although I’d probably place Neighbors slightly above it.
If you’ve seen the trailers for Sausage Party, you’ve seem a vast majority of the good jokes. The trailers make the film seem as though it starts in a grocery store, then moves to the kitchen of someone’s home. That’s not how the film actually plays out. While it does start in a grocery store, almost the entire film takes place there. You get a few scenes outside of the store, but most of those you see in the trailer, so the trailer is a little deceptive. That’s not a big deal, but it may not be exactly the movie you’re expecting based on the trailers.
Sausage Party stars a wide variety of Seth Rogan regulars, and a few surprise stars voicing these food items that have come to life. The entire movie is a play on food puns. The bagel is Jewish, the grits are African-American, and the taco is Hispanic. That’s the running joke throughout the entire movie, and while some of it is fairly witty, there are other times when it’s just a tad annoying and too try-hard. It’s not hard to understand why Seth Rogan has been trying to convince movie studios to let him make this film for over a decade. Sony finally bit and the results are certainly mixed.
In Toy Story there’s a lot of humor and fun moments with the toys interacting with one another and the environment. Sausage Party basically tries to make the raunchiest version of Toy Story you have ever seen. Everything about it is an attempt to appeal to the sex-crazed youth of today. Some of the jokes are funny, but you saw most of those in the trailer. If you’ve already seen the red-band trailer, there isn’t much more to laugh at in the film, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
With a voice cast that includes Seth Rogan, Michael Cera, James Franco, Bill Hader, Salma Hayek, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd and many more, the acting is solid and the voices are fitting. In fact, many of the voice actors play multiple roles within the film, but you wouldn’t know it unless you checked the credits at the end. If you can suspend belief for 90 minutes, the actors are very convincing in their roles. Unfortunately, the script and overall plot fall flat.
Sausage Party isn’t the worst Seth Rogan film you’ll see, but it tries to go too far over the top instead of keeping things more grounded and fun. The Night Before or This Is the End aren’t exactly grounded in reality, but aside from a few big cameos, the plot of both movies is more about fun instead trying to be as far over the top as they can get. It’s almost as if this film was created by a frat boy who was completed baked in the middle of a big college party. That may work for some people, but most will find Sausage Party a disappointing mess.
Sausage Party:[usr 2.5]
About Sausage Party
Synopsis: In a supermarket called “Shopwell’s”, the food who live there see the humans as gods, who reside in their homes nicknamed “The Great Beyond”. Among these is a sausage named Frank, packed in with the bisexual Carl and deformed Barry, who is infatuated with Brenda, a hot dog bun whose pack is near his.
Director: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Writers: Seth Rogan, Evan Goldberg, Jonah Hill, Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir
Stars: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
Bryan Dawson has been writing professionally since the age of 13. He started his career as a video game writer and has since worked for Random House, Prima Games, DirecTV, IGN, AOL, the British Government, and various other organizations. For GNN, Bryan taps into his passion for movies.
