Sausage Party
2.5 out of 5
Sausage Party hits theaters this weekend, and it deserves every ounce of the R rating it got. Every. Last. Ounce. I’m not sure if it broke the record for most F-Bombs uttered in a movie — but it has to be close. I know Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street has held that “honor” over the last couple of years — but I’m pretty sure within the first 5 minutes of this movie the record is in jeopardy. Don’t let the cute, cartoony characters in the previews fool you — they are every bit as foul mouthed and perverted as anything you’ve ever seen or heard. This movie is definitely not for kids…But for adults looking to laugh at some low brow humor — Sausage Party will not let you down. It is funny and maybe even more than funny — shocking.
If you’ve seen any of Pixar’s movies with Disney — it’s apparent fairly quickly this movie is a jab at them and all of the success they’ve had — if you watch close enough a car even has a “Dixar” bumper sticker. The story begins with all of the products in the grocery store singing to their “gods” as the store opens on a bright, shiny morning. The “gods” in this case are human beings, as the characters in the movie believe humans take them off of their shelves and into the Promised Land, where they live forever, happily ever after. Especially on this particular day, which is red, white and blue day (July 4th). Our main characters are hot dogs and buns — the hot dogs being guys, and the buns as the ladies — remember the low brow humor I mentioned? You can imagine where they might go with hot dogs and buns. At any rate, our two main heroes Frank, the hot dog (Seth Rogen) and Brenda, the bun (Kristin Wiig) are excited for the day, as they are sure they’ll be picked together, and then they can “be with each other” for the first time ever. Meanwhile, amongst all of the jokes, cussing and yes, more cussing, a jar of honey mustard is returned to the store by a customer who was intending to buy regular mustard. After he is put back on the shelf, he does everything he can to convince everyone what they believe is a lie — since he’s been on the outside. Of course, no one wants to believe him, and the excitement continues. As they had hoped, Frank and Brenda do get picked by a god and are one their way out of the store, when the honey mustard (Danny McBride) is picked again and put in their shopping cart. Believing there is no way out, Honey Mustard kills himself by jumping out of the cart, which causes a scene to unfold reminiscent of great war movies (think Private Ryan at Omaha Beach). It is very well done and very funny. Because they are all now out of their packages, and knowing that damaged food gets thrown away, Frank and Brenda, along with several others make a run for it in order to sneak back into a package and try to get picked all over again.
The movie’s pokes at Pixar don’t end, and several more movies are spoofed along the way as the adventure unfolds (Terminator 2 and The Matrix to name a few). The cussing doesn’t stop, and the jokes just get dirtier and dirtier — with several other side splitting scenes that include a lot of other big name actors and actresses (seriously, there’s Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Salma Hayek, Craig Robinson, Edward Norton, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd and more). The end of the movie takes everything you’ve seen and “turns it up to 11,” to quote a famous line.
I know many people will find this movie disgusting and immature — but I knew that was what it was going to be going in. The red-band trailer doesn’t lie. I can’t imagine many critics stooping low enough to call this movie good — but I thought it was. Bad taste and all. It looks and sounds like the writers, cast members and everyone else involved had a good time — and that usually means a fun movie. If you’ve got some good eye and ear wash, and are ready to laugh (even when you feel you shouldn’t), go see Sausage Party.
