Review of Sausage Party: We Eat What We Are

So far this year, we have seen a world where animals live together in harmony (more or less), what pets do when their masters are at work, and an absent-minded fish look for her family. It's been a typical year for animation, and there's still Animal American Idol, a kid with two strings and another Disney movie yet to premiere.

Yet this year may be remembered for Seth Rogen deciding to produce a movie that has one of the most bizarre premises ever: what do food think before we eat them?

Well, they have pretty strange ideas about what life is all about..and maybe their sex drives, too.
But first things first.

Sausage Party had a successful sneak preview at Comic-Con last month, and scored 34 million dollars last weekend, just behind Suicide Squad. It's an interesting try at making animation for adults. It was more strange than hilarious, but you can't help but think the edible characters are pretty much like us.

As the meat, bread and produce at the supermarket see it, the customers are gods, and they take the food to "The Great Beyond". Somehow, they don't know what the "Gods" do after that.
The story features Frank, a hot dog voiced by Rogen, who hopes the fill the bun of Brenda, voiced by Kristen Wiig. The way she's baked, she is the Jessica Rabbit of baked goods. A short weiner named Barry (Michael Cera) is worried that he'll be able to fill a bun.

Anyway, they're hoping to reach the Great Beyond when a crazy jar of honey mustard (Danny McBride) who was returned claims the Great Beyond is a lie. After a crash between two shopping carts, Frank and Brenda get separated from their friends. They do meet a bagel (Edward Norton) and and a lavash (David Krumholtz), who complain about shelf space in a familiar way, They also have to deal with a douche (Nick Kroll) who's mad that he lost his chance to reach the Great Beyond (or at least the woman who wanted to buy him).

As for the grocery items who do make the Great Beyond, they find out the hard way what the Gods really do. Barry tries to escape and winds up crossing paths with a guy that enjoys "bath salts" (James Franco).

Frank wants to know the truth about the Great Beyond, and learns it from Firewater (Bill Hader) and couple of non-perishable items (Craig Robinson and Scott Underwood). Brenda doesn't want to know because she thinks she's being punished for just touching Frank by the tips. She does get attention from Teresa (Selma Hayek), a lesbian taco shell.

So how can the food fight back against the Gods who buy them? There is a solution, but it's rather drastic. That's followed by an all-out orgy you can't unsee, and a pretty weird ending.

Seeing the secret lives of food is an unusual idea, and the movie pulls it off by making some comments about religion, and what we believe is the Great Beyond for us. The ending was weak, though. There were also too many stereotypes, especially how the Chinese and Mexican foods were portrayed. Then again, how can you come up with a happy ending for those whose destiny is being in our stomachs?

It's safe to say someone will come up with a better animated movie with lots of sex and profanities, but Sausage Party is a decent attempt at making Pixar After Dark.

Seeing Some Jerks At The End of the World

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning
                                           ..."Los Angeles is Burning", Bad Religion

Six years ago, Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel made a short film, actually a movie trailer, on what would happen if the world suddenly ended. From there, they decided to expand this to a full-fledged movie. But who would want to see a bunch of actors play themselves, battling the Apocalypse..and who'd want to be in it?

Answer to both: a LOT of people. Rogen got together with Evan Goldberg to write and direct this wild end-of-the-world comedy where you see some familiar faces do unusual things. Just remember it's not quite the real Seth Rogen, James Franco, etc. in this movie. After they see what they do, they'll make sure they're not like how they act here.

It starts with Seth and Jay meeting each other at LAX, with Seth filming the moment for some reality show or whatever. They both go to James Franco's house for a party, where we such surprising things like Michael Cera as a coke addict slapping Rihanna's butt..and doing a few other things he never did on Arrested Development. We also see Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Kevin Hart and even Emma Watson there, too. Jay feels uncomfortable, and decides to go to a convenience store. Seth follows him...
...and then the Ancient Gods from The Cabin in the Woods decide this movie's getting tedious, and jazz things up by setting up the Apocalypse. You know, fire, brimstone, sinkholes swallowing Aziz Ansari, Rihanna, and a few other people. What follows is seeing very familiar movie stars acting like most of us would trapped in the apocalypse. Add Danny McBride as the most unthinking jerk around, even worse than his character in Eastbound and Down, and you got a very funny situation. Oh, and Emma pops up alive with an axe. Between this and The Bling Ring, she'll leave her Harry Potter days way behind. There's also a cameo at the end that will stun a lot of people.

If you want a raunchy comedy in a sea of imperfect blockbusters, This Is The End is just the location. It'll conquer the comedy roster until The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy arrives, and also GrownUps 2.
Oh, and look closely at the end credits. There's a name you may recognize if you saw Much Ado About Nothing recently

Meanwhile, there's a trailer for a new Vince Vaughn movie called Delivery Man, where a sperm bank accidentally uses his sperm hundreds of times..and now he's being sued as if it's his fault. I know Law and Order did an episode with a plot that is strangely similar to this. So, it's Dick Wolf's fault if you don't like this movie.
Also, I saw a trailer for RIPD, which is the undead version of Men in Black. I can buy Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges pretending to be Yosemite Sam as police partners, but not if they're disguised as an old Asian man with a banana and a Victoria's Secret model. RIPD only makes us appreciate Man of Steel...or GrownUps 2...even more, and that's cheating.