Don’t play with your food, it plays with each other. In a common grocery store, every single food item fantasizes about being purchased by “Gods,” humans who will whisk them away from shelves, freezers, and the like and into “The Great Beyond.” No food truly knows what happens after leaving the store, but the consensus is that a life of freedom and care by the Gods is given.
For Frank (Seth Rogen) and his hot dog (he’s a hot dog, not a sausage) friends, getting purchased means getting to slide their meat into some plump buns. He has always had eyes on Brenda (Kristen Wiig). His mission is almost achieved by getting a coveted spot in the shopping cart, but an incident from Honey Mustard (Danny McBride), begins to put doubt into Frank as to whether the Great Beyond is heaven, or more akin to hell. The better question may be, does it even exist?
Let’s call it what it is. Sausage Party, mainly from the minds of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (This is the End) is Toy Story (or any other inanimate object, for that matter) in edible form. In R-rated edible form. With that said, though, Sausage Party is rather thought-provoking, and may even be adept at leaving its mark on some viewers long after viewing. Is it funny? That depends.
Sausage Party feels most similar to Rogen and Goldberg’s 2013 comedy This is the End, albeit with a different message. Unlike that movie, which didn’t concern itself with the question of the existence of a higher power or whether a stylized Backstreet Boys-led heaven afterlife was real, Sausage Party actually does. The overall mature elements of the screenplay might just be the strongest element of the entire production written by the longtime duo, plus Jonah Hill this time around. What is also surprising is how we as the audience actually begin care for a few of these characters and their well-being, such as a deformed hot dog in Barry (Michael Cera). As far as technical quality goes, this is no high-budget Pixar offering, but it looks well enough, and ends up making some really memorable set pieces. Yes, set pieces, ones that feature action, horror, and something that would be right at home in the infamous 1979 movie Caligula.
But even with surprising and pretty well handled themes, Sausage Party is a comedy that is 100% Rogen & Goldberg through and through, full of weed love and penis appreciation. Great news for Rogen fans, bad news for non-fans. Yours truly personally falls in the middle. The premise does allow for some good comedic wittiness that didn’t always appear in their other films, but the hardcore raunch does begin to take its toll after a while. The third act may be better enjoyed under the influence of a substance. It is the 50/50 hit/miss rate towards humor that leaves this comedy a little disappointing.
And while one should assume full responsibility for stepping into a R rated comedy, it can be argued that Sausage Party does veer into the very uncomfortable territory here and there, with one character in particular as a literal douche. Voiced by Nick Kroll, Douche is rarely funny, actually disturbing in some of his actions, and doesn’t really add to any of the plot’s proceedings. Gum is pretty hilarious, however as a clear nod to Hawking.
Love Seth Rogen’s cut of comedic meat? Sausage Party is one that will absolutely be filling, along with some interesting ideas that are actually satisfying to digest. For all others, its comedy doesn’t fill all of the laugh holes on a consistent basis.
C
Photo credits go to nytimes.com, comicbook.com, and moviepilot.com.
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MMJ 
I’m completely taking your word for it. I have zero interest in this thing. I really don’t like this whole band of ‘comics’ – Rogen, Hill, Cera, etc. Their tired old brand does absolutely nothing for me.
I kind of thought about you when I composed this Keith, LOL. I know your relative disdain for Rogen and the like has always been high, you’d do best to stay away.
So this isn’t the Rogen film that changes my mind about him? LOL
Nope 🙂
I hated Nick Kroll in this. He was super annoying.
His act wore thin the moment he was on screen. And why do we need a douche in a food movie?
Well the douche was a pretty clever idea for a villain I thought.
Maybe a different voice was needed…hmmm.
I see where you’re coming from but it all worked a little more for me.
No worries Keith! People’s funny bones are tickled differently. I’m in the minority here, most I’ve heard seemed to really like or love.
Ah, really? Only a C eh? Pity; have heard some pretty good things about this…
Hey don’t take my word for it! Based on RT, this has clearly been supported by most fans and critics. I’m just in the minority 🙂
I’m on the fence about seeing this movie. It doesn’t appeal to me (that much), but everyone is talking about. Who knows…it might or not. I’ll probably give this a look…eventually.
Comedy is so different for everyone. I’d say to watch because even with it being a vulgarized Toy Story, it is fairly original.
No need to catch in theaters, though, unless you feel the comedy experience will benefit with you being around people. It sometimes works that way!
Tangentially about atheism, but really just an excuse to have cute food products say the F-word over and over and over. I grew bored. Should’ve been an 8 minute short, not an 88-minute movie.
Agreed. Did feel stretched, and not really worthy of a theater view in my opinion.
I usually like Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s offerings but this one, not so much. Totally reliant on stereotypes and bad words. The commenter above is right, this is an 8 minute short at best. Which is too bad because there was a good idea here, but it’s drowned out by all the f-words.
Yeah I don’t mind language Sean, but most times, the overuse of the word becomes overkill. The novelty got old pretty quick.