Seth Rogen and company are much beloved for pushing the boundaries of comedy in cinema. Their latest, Sausage Party may be their boldest project yet. This food-centric comedy follows a grocery store of food that finds out the deadly truth of what happens to food. Due to the diverse reaction of the film, Salem Odyssey writers Ryan “Kevin Love” Feyre and Matt “Lebron James” Conway decided to team up to share their reactions.
Ryan is still scared of Kelly Olynyk
Matt Conway: I love me some Seth Rogen. He has produced some of the funniest comedies of recent memory, and has always stuck to his signature care-free style. Rogen, along with his boundless group of supporting bros (most notably Jonah Hill, James Franco, and Danny McBride) always seem to be having a great deal of fun with their projects, and that energy is infectious. Unfortunately, my thoughts on Sausage Party are fairly mixed.Ryan Feyre: Being one of my most anticipated comedies of the summer, Sausage Party was not like anything made before. Considering the fact that it contained many of comedy’s finest in the business, one could see why there was so much hype surrounding this movie. However, despite the excitement, I have to say Sausage Party wasn’t the laugh a minute experience I was expecting.
MC: Laugh-wise, I felt the movie’s jokes were fairly gimmicky. A lot of the supposed laughs were basically just the shock-value of a well-known food product dropping the f-bomb or doing course activities. The cast is a really talented bunch, but they are stuck in material that basically asks them to play simplistic character types. After the first fifteen minutes or so, the shock wears off and the jokes get fairly stale, even as Rogen and company try to up the ante with more audacious moments.
RF: Yes, the first fifteen minutes were filled with the ridiculousness of the food swearing, and calling humans gods. But then, much like a Cross Country race, the movie loses its steam and becomes a bit flat and drawn out. In my opinion, the jokes became recycled by the 45 minute mark. The movie would then start to gain some of its momentum back at the end, with a uniquely bizarre finale. Still, leaving the theater I was a bit disappointed by the dearth of humor.
MC: One of the big pushing points about Sausage Party is the themes. Everyone is talking about how the atheist sentiment is a intelligently-integrated aspect of the narrative. Much of the time however, the references to religion and diversity felt very ham-fisted and overtly-obvious. A pinch of subtly here and there would have helped in making the themes congel more effortlessly with the narrative.
RF: I happened to actually enjoy the themes. They gave the movie some depth, which has been absent from many recent comedies today. I feel like the scenes with the bagel and the tortilla were important to the concept of the movie because, it represented the fact that hating someone because of their culture is just ridiculous. I like how they tried to blend the grievances in society with comedy. It’s a risk that many comedic directors are not usually willing to take.
MC: Rogen and company are certainly socially-conscious, but they in a lot of ways feel almost too-pleased with themselves here. The concepts ultimately feel very paper-thin, just like most of the characters and situations. Sausage Party throughout felt like a fun idea for a 20 minute or so short, that was over-extended into a 90 minute feature. It is very watchable, but never compelling enough to reach the soaring heights the production sets to achieve.
RF: I think we need more socially conscious people like Seth Rogen in the business, because in my opinion, there has been a lack of risk-takers in comedy. Yes the movie seemed drawn out at points, but I respect the risk Rogen was willing to take. For that reason, I think the social awareness of the movie was a welcomed surprise, while the audacious comedy in the beginning and end of the film made up for its lackluster middle. Therefore, I enjoyed it.
MC: 5/10
RF: 7/10
TOTAL SCORE: 6/10
