Sausage Party

I know that I can't remember every single film that I've seen in the last decade or so. Hell, I can't even remember every film that I've seen since I started this almost five years ago. 

But I'm pretty sure that if I went back through the annals of Rath's Reviews and movies before it, Sausage Party would still rank very near the top as the most preposterous, outrageous, and ridiculous movie I've ever seen. 

And I mean that as about a high of a compliment as you can possibly imagine. 

I knew Sausage Party would be funny, but dear God is this one a treat. It's a F-bomb laden, sexual innuendo driven, stoner tweakin, politically incorrect raunch-fest, sure. But a treat all the same. 

Unless you're the world's most oblivious or the world's worst parent, you should NOT, I repeat NOT be taking your child to see this film. Don't let the cute less-than-Pixar quality animation fool you, this is the most R-rated film of the year and I highly doubt it gets topped by anything else. At one point it almost all begins to wear you down, and I'm sure that for some more casual film-goes that will certainly be the case. Pretty much from the opening scenes you know that this is a whole different level of ridiculousness and Sausage Party never lets up on the gas. 

In fact, it pretty much just says "Screw it!" and presses the metaphorical pedal further.

See? It's not soooo vulgar!

But what's this?
Horror on our characters' faces?

If you were to take out all the insanity, Sausage Party plays out almost exactly like a G-rated counterpart would and at the end of the day, that may be it's biggest flaw -- though I'd hardly say it detracts from the experience. What you see in the commercials is what you get here. Food believes that beyond their supermarket lies a heavenly place that the "gods" (aka humans) take them to. They soon realize that rather than a heaven, they're being led to their hellish, and often hilarious, deaths. Right from the get-go, one of the things I have to praise Sausage Party for the most is not placing it's funniest bits in the trailers. To be fair, I'm not sure what profanity-laced scenes could have made a green-band trailer other than the few they selected, but I digress. If you were worried about this being a one trick pony of a joke or somehow completely blowing all of it's potential in the trailer (*cough Suicide Squad cough cough*) then worry not. There are plenty other outrageously laughable moments and surprises to be had. A few of which I'm surprised even withstood the R-rating. Yeah, it pushes the limits that much.

Even as the case with R-rated animated films, the characters matter and there's another instantly memorable collection of them here, all complete with some hilarious (and hilariously offensive) voice talent. Rogen is the titular sausage, Frank, while his girlfriend, Brenda, is voiced by Kristen Wiig. They both bring a lot of life to these characters and are good anchors. The remainder of the cast is stellar too with funny additions from Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Salma Hayek, and James Franco, among others. 

You may be assuming too that, with the aforementioned gang on board, the jokes are witless and crude and rude. Well, you'd be absolutely right. This is certainly not as witty or well orchestrated as last week's phenomenal Hunt for the Wilderpeople, but that doesn't mean at all that it isn't just as funny. As we've continuously seen in most comedies this year, the hit rate for jokes is high with Sausage Party and it's clear that a lot of time and effort were put into thinking this world and many of its possibilities out (8 years to be exact if reports serve right...). The script is one of the better ones that Rogen and Co. have put together, probably the best since This is the End, but it's really the play on the world and characters here that gets the heartiest laughs. If I even told you of half of the raucous stuff that goes on in this film you'd probably not only not believe me, but think I'm crazy for thinking it's funny. But it is. It so, so, so very much is funny. And the best part? It's smart. Normally you wouldn't put a Rogen-driven comedy and "smart" together, but there is really no denying; Sausage Party is utterly brilliant. It pokes fun at basically everyone, but then has a message to provide about it all. It's done in an incredibly on-the-nose manner, but it's still a worthwhile and well executed message. Couple that with just the insane originality of this idea and the immensely satisfying execution and you've got a comedy that I sincerely believe will stand the test of time and remain funny for many years and many viewings. To me, that's the quality mark of a wonderful and memorable comedy. 

Dear Christ Almighty, what is wrong with this world?!

As is the case with most R-rated films, Sausage Party isn't for everyone. If you're easily offended, highly-religious, or just really set in your ways, you'd probably be pissed after seeing this one. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

For the rest of us however, and I'm sorry, but I must do this, Sausage Party is a real wiener.

CONS: 

• Somewhat generic story if you were to strip away all the R-rated stuff
• Profanity laden script almost gets to be too much. For me, it teetered on that edge of dulling the effectiveness of certain curses, thus hurting the laughs. I'm sure for others that will happen a lot sooner
• Small amount of jokes that fall flat or are overused
• Overall moral of the story is blatantly stated

PROS:

• Great voice cast all around with some funny performances throughout. Rogen and Wiig do a good job holding down the film
• Right from the start, it's off to the races and the film doesn't let up for the entire 89 minutes
• Trailers hardly reveal any of the best jokes/bits
• Brilliant and original
• Fully utilizes this world and many of the different avenues it could explore. Almost Pixar-esque in that sense
• Memorable cast of characters
• Absolutely hilarious in many different ways. Some scenes are so shocking it's unbelievable, but I was hard-pressed to not find something in every scene to laugh at
• Worthwhile and well-executed message that makes this a much smarter film than I'm guessing many were anticpating
• One of the year's best, most crude, and inappropriate surprises

Rath's Review Score: 9/10