Sausage Party (2016), R, ★★1/2

Ah...they've been chosen. 

I have never heard of a concept like this ever before and that was refreshing because Seth Rogen's and Evan Goldberg's spoof of a Pixar/Disney or maybe Dreamworks animated movie pushes the boundaries in terms of content and storytelling. When watching the first red band trailer for the first time, I laughed so hard unlike any other comedy trailer in a while. When coming into this movie, I had high hopes and expectations as to what Seth Rogen and the team will bring onto the table besides food saying profanity and puns. I was ultimately a bit disappointed by the result because every joke relies on the profane language, the puns and also the raunchiness that sometimes the comedy does not go anywhere. However, because of its brilliant concept, even though it derailed my expectations, it did not derail my experience like a train wreck because there are a lot of big laughs mixed with some surprisingly religious beliefs into the picture.

At a supermarket called Shopwell's, a song about "The Great Beyond" is greeting the food each morning about how the "gods" or the shoppers take the food to their ultimate destiny. During the 4th of July weekend, the sausages which are weiners are placed besides the hot dog buns for marketing purposes. Frank (Seth Rogen) is a sausage that wants to be with a hot dog bun named, Brenda (Kristen Wiig). Frank shares the pack with buddies, Carl (Jonah Hill) and Barry (Michael Cera). Barry is the small sausage of the bunch that Troy (Anders Holm) is mocking him for. All the sausages and buns are excited to get into "The Great Beyond", as for now, Frank and Brenda can only touch each other's tips.

While the sausages and buns and the rest of the food are in the shopping cart, Honey Mustard (Danny McBride) stands up and tells the food what he has seen regarding "The Great Beyond" and that everything is a lie regarding that. He tells Frank to go see Firewater (Bill Hader) to learn the answers he seeks. After a collision with another cart and observing all of the food "dying", Frank and Brenda escape. They run into a jerk named Douche (Nick Kroll), who's angry that his nozzle is bent. Frank encounters Firewater later talking with the Non-Perishables including Mr. Grits (Craig Robinson) and Twink (Scott Underwood) and he discovers that food will get killed in "The Great Beyond".

"It feels amazing." 

I was so pumped for this movie because this was one of most anticipated movies of the summer and expected it to be the funniest comedy of the year. It does not reach the levels of This is the End, Superbad and The 40-Year Old Virgin in terms of quality and laughs because again, the writers think it is funny to have a statement with an f-word to propel laughs out of the audience. It is funny at first but gets cheap. And, also with combining the laughs with their usual raunchy jokes, they put the topic of religion into the mix and place it as "religious satire" and it is funny at times but the aspect brought me more interest than laughs.

I applaud the cast for their efforts but also for tackling on the animation genre or an R-rated animation genre, a rarity. Obviously from the comic minds of Rogen, Hill, Wiig, Cera, Paul Rudd, James Franco, etc., you expect raunch but even though there is so much crass and profanity onto their dialogue and they just rely the laughs on the dialogue, I felt like that there are more hits than misses onto the situation and concept than in its dialogue. I thought most of its physical food violence was still hilarious, which is witnessed in the trailer and we'll get to the main physical gag in a moment. But, the scene in the customer's kitchen is still hilarious. Edward Norton as a bagel who imitates Woody Allen is funny and Salma Hayek playing a taco is pretty good.

This is one of the filthiest, raunchiest and somehow insightful movies I have ever seen because they want to push the envelope on animation which brings me to the main scene in which will get the meaning of an R-RATED film. (Before going into this, please don't bring children to this movie. Otherwise, you're a bad adult.) Towards the end of the movie, there is an orgy scene that made me cringe a bit but made me laugh so hard and it is the most ambitious sequence this year. I will say, at times, that the humor gets a bit offensive towards certain stereotypes which was safe. The pacing becomes a bit languid in the middle of the movie and the humor sags but the bookends are the hilarious parts of the movie and I wished that most of the movie were outside of the supermarket and the ending would be a bit more clever. However, I enjoyed this movie to a degree but unfortunately, not as much as I wanted to. I cannot quite recommend it. The question is: Will Sausage Party be a memorable comedy? Time will tell.

**1/2