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.

Review of "Trainwreck": Drunk in Love With Amy

Amy Schumer made a name for herself with her comedy act that's "mostly sex stuff" but also her TV show on Comedy Central that says a lot about women and our perception of them. It recently scored several Emmy nominations.

But can she conquer the big screen?

That's a job that's tough for a female stand up to conquer. With the help of director Judd Apatow, and her own script that she expected some other actress to follow, Schumer has a winner with Trainwreck, about a party girl who's really thrown for a loop whe she falls for a surgeon played by Bill Hader. 

Amy plays a writer for a men's magazine who has a wild personal life. She learned early in life from her dad, Gordon (Colin Quinn), that "monogamy isn't realistic". That's why her life is mainly druken one-night stands. She has a semi-steady played by John Cena (yeah, THAT Cena). Seeing them have sex, much less seeing John showing a LOT of skin, is worth the price of admission. He's also going to be in Sisters with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, so he's got a future in movies.

She has a sister, Kim (Brie Larson), who has married and also has a stepson who Amy thinks is a bit off. They discuss putting their dad in a home because of his MS condition. He's about as brash as Amy is. 

At the magazine, she works for Dianna, who is really played by Tilda Swinton who apparantly copied her look from Alison Janney.



She assigns Amy to an interview with Aaron (Hader), a sports surgeon who works on the top athletes, even Lebron James. Amy is surprised to find herself falling for Aaron, and hopes she can put her party girl past behind. Her old demons, however, threaten this love story.

Even though Schumer is best known for her bawdy humor, she does well in quiter moments, like when she gives an interestng eulogy, and admits to sis that she's got to make some changes.

What's also surprising is LeBron's scenes with Hader. Seeing Hader try to score against the NBA all-star is very funny, but so is this scene when LeBron compares Cleveland to Miami. Even Apatow said he was impressed. Maybe LeBron ought to go back for a second stint at hosting SNL. 

As I mentioned at a Rifftrax review, Norman Lloyd, who's been in TV and movies literally forever, is also in this movie as one of the older patients at the nursing home. At the age of 100, he is as sharp as ever.

Trainwreck is much more than Inside Amy Schumer, the movie. It's a fine look at a girl was given really bad advice about men by her dad, and learns to overcome it. Some may be puzzled by the end, where there's an intervention that features people you wouldn't expect. However, the final scene was cute, and it was a given there would be a happy ending somehow.

Let's hope the success of Trainwreck gives Schumer lots of chances to show she's more than just a party gal. With this movie, she's off to a great start.

Oh, and there's a very funny spoof on pompous indie movies in general with a former boy wizard and the new Aunt May. maybe that can be expanded to a movie or at least a Funny or Die bit,

Review: Pixar Shows A Typical Girl Inside Out

It's been three years since Pixar scored a big hit with Brave, then allowed Walt Disney Animation take the lead with Wreck-it Ralph and Frozen.

Now, the innovative studio has returned in a big way with a journey into the most complicated destination of all...an eleven year old girl.

While it may be a bit much for Variety to say the movie is Pixar's best idea yet, it's a unique look at how a girl named Riley deals with a big move from Minnesota to San Francisco, from trying to find new friends at school to hoping to join a junior hockey league.
Her journey is seen through five specific emotions:  Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Fear (Bill Hader). Joy is the positive and pushy one, thinking that it's important to keep Riley happy all the time. She is upset when Sadness touches some of the memories, making them  unhappy. Anger, of course, has a temper that makes Riley act out when she learns her old friend in Minnesota don't exactly miss her.

When an accident sends Joy and Sadness into the inner mind, that means trouble, when Anger, Disgust and Fear are unable to help Riley deal with the big move. It leads to a decision that may cause even bigger problems.

What's great about the "inner mind" of Riley is that parts of her self are shown as islands, devoted to her love for family, hockey, and being goofy. Once she gives up those parts of her self, they collapse and fall into "memory dump", where they are forgotten.
Joy and Sadness also gets some help from Riley's former imaginary friend named Bing Bong, who tries to get them on the "Train of Thought" back to headquarters. One of the more unusual scenes is where they enter a section devoted to abstract thought. Seeing Joy, Sadness and Bing Bong turn into Picasso figures is really strange. There's also a bit involving two guards that guard the subconscious, and have a tough time figuring whose hat is whose.

The movie is also smart enough to see what's inside the heads of mom and dad, voiced respectively by Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan. The figures that represent their emotions look quite familiar.

Poehler has the toughest job in the movie because she has to portray Joy as always positive, but also add some doubt when Joy realizes it's not possible to keep Riley happy all the time.

The movie should do well, although it may not earn as much as Jurassic World in its second week. At least one article is predicting Inside Out will win next year's Best Animated Film at the Academy Awards. That could come to pass because it's so unique, but let's hear from the Minions from Despicable Me, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang, and a Good Dinosaur before we make a final decision.

By the way, I also saw Mad Max:  Fury Road because I was in no mood to see the one dinosaur that shouldn't be in Jurassic World: Claire the cold corporate girl who learns maternal feelings and throws away her heels thanks to Star Lord. If Bryce Dallas  Howard was in any other role in that movie, like maybe someone interested in sending raptors to war and soon figuring out it wouldn't work, it would have been a lot better.
As far as I'm concerned, there's one person tougher than the Indominus Rex..and that's her:

Also, for those upset that Furiosa was talking back at Max, just remember he hasn't recovered from his last two movies. It takes him a while to show Furiosa where the "green place" she seeks really exists.

Coming of Age On Film

Lost among the big robots and superheroes that are part of every movie summer season are small films that express more about life that wrecking stuff.

This year, two movies looked at how two teenagers spent their summer: a boy who would rather be somewhere else, and a girl who wants to know what sex is before heading off to college.

The Way Way Back started its run a couple of weeks back after some positive buzz from critics. It has a good cast, and the writers of The Descendants, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, directed and wrote this film about a 14 year old kid named Duncan (Liam James) who heads to a summer home with his mom (Toni Collette) and her new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carrell) who is a bit of a jerk. Located next door to the house are Betty, a brassy divorcee and her two kids. It's not long before Duncan feels like a fifth wheel while the adults have fun. Trent is trying to bond with Duncan, but it's not going well, especially when he calls Duncan a "three" on a scale of ten.

Duncan decides to head to a nearby water park run by Owen (Sam Rockwell). He's also a jerk but a lovable one who sees something in Duncan. The summer becomes more bareable, especially when he gets to know Susannah (Annasophia Robb), Betty's daughter. Things take a dark turn when Trent does something that lowers his grade way below three.

James may be familiar to those who watched The Killing, and he does very well as a kid who trying to deal with a potential stepfather, and a summer love. Carrell is also good in a role that's much different than his nice-guy roles in previous movies. Janney also keeps things lively in her role as a mom who should know better.

On the other end of the spectrum is The To-Do List, about Brandy Klark (Aubrey Plaza), a grade-A

student from Boise who decides her summer project will be losing her virginity. That was after her friends take her to a wild party, and she gets one look at Rusty (Scott Porter), a very handsome guy.
The best thing about this movie is Plaza as the nerd who decides, to quote Spike Lee, she's gotta have it. Sure she's 29 (which surprises me, actually), but she's very funny as a brainy girl who approaches the "first time" from a clinical approach. She lists all the sexual acts she has to approach before the ultimate goal of Rusty. It's not long before she finds out real feelings are also part of the process, since she uses her study pal Cameron (Johnny Simmons) to perform some of them. As she did in Safety Not Guaranteed, she proves she's much more than April on Parts and Recreation.

In the meantime, she works as a lifeguard (and can rock a red, one-piece Speedo) at a local pool...where Rusty works. I did like her relationship with Willy (Bill Hader), the manager, especially when she finds out a big secret that could threaten his job.

Her relationship with her pals Fiona (Alia Shawkat, who has changed a LOT since her first season on Arrested Development) and Wendy (Sarah Steele) is also funny. It's amazing how much they think they know about sex, mainly from Penthouse or Cosmo.. It's too bad the movie does haven more scenes with Brandy's family. Sure, we know big sis Amber (Rachel Bilson) and her first time, but there should have been a couple more scenes with Connie Britton and Clark Gregg as her parents. Britton does do well in her scenes to prove she's racier than most wives. Gregg does get in some good scenes towards the end.

The movie also brings back the 90s very well, from VCRs to ancient video games. Andy Samberg is also a riot as a faux Eddie Vedder who helps Brandy check off something in her list.

The movie hasn't pleased everyone, maybe because it's a sex comedy with no nudity, but Plaza is the best reason to see the movie. Considering the film was made for one point five million bucks, and it's a chance to show female-centered teen sex romps can work, it's a good film, and may inspire more teen sex films from s girl's viewpoint.