Directors: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Writers: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir
Producers: Megan Ellison, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Conrad Vernon
Year: 2016
Starring: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek
Genre: Comedy; Animated
Format: Big-Screen
There are three different lenses through which this movie can be seen: 1.) The Pervert Lens, 2.) The Woke Lens, and 3.) The I Am Easily Offended and Have No Sense of Humor Lens.
Let me explain what I mean by that. A movie is a piece of art that is released to the public, and how you interpret and react to this art is going to be different to each person, but people will tend to fall into a few categories. When I explain this concept, I typically jump right to “Shrek”. “Shrek” is a movie that parents and their kids can watch together, both highly enjoy it, and both walk away from it with completely different conversations, because they focused on different aspects of the movie. A 7 year old kid will not point out the funny parts that a 30 year old will. This is because they are taking in the movie with different lenses.
“Sausage Party” can be viewed from the Pervert Lens, which would focus on on the jokes referring to orgies, reproductive organs, and used condoms. There’s nothing wrong with this lens, but it is definitely low brow humor.
Now, I’m the type of person who has an 8:30 bedtime and wakes up at what I would deem a “reasonable” hour in the morning, so, as you might imagine, my slang vocabulary is rusty. But in an attempt to be hip and cool, I’m calling the second lens the Woke Lens. What I mean by this is, aware of society’s flaws.
[Perhaps this is not the correct movie review to be using the term “woke,” seeing as how apparently “Social Justice Warriors” (doesn’t that just invoke a vision of knights in shining armor?) are getting angry at this movie for its “racism,” but we’ll get to that later.]
Using the Woke Lens, the viewer catches all of the references to anti-Semitism, the destruction of the Native Americans, and peace in the Middle East.
Lastly, applying lens number three, The I Am Easily Offended and Have No Sense of Humor Lens, you skip watching the movie all together. I mean, who has time to go see a movie before judging it? Their time is much better spent behind a crusty keyboard in a dimly lit basement which reeks of body odor, making sure everyone is aware of how offended they are. Besides, all that money they save on rent (because they live in their mother’s basement, in case that wasn’t clear) won’t cover the price of a movie ticket because they’ve already spent that money on buying a second desk chair because one chair is not wide enough for them to sit in.
Now that we’ve addressed the gigantic troll in the room, we can get into the substance.
“Sausage Party” is fun and raunchy, and sometimes it goes a tad too far, just like you’d expect from a movie that has Seth Rogen’s name attached to it. Granted, I am not one for perverted humor, but this movie was definitely more than a mindlessly perverted film. It was a film with a good, original premise, that had frequent sex-related jokes, and a crazy long (no pun intended) orgy.
If you’re looking at the movie through the Pervert Lens, that’s what you’ll see.
If you’re watching through The I Am Easily Offended and Have No Sense of Humor Lens, you will see the “racist” (hater’s words, not mine) aspects of the film. These “Social Justice Warriors” argue that it is racist to have a taco who speaks Spanish, a potato with an Irish accent, German mustard with, you guessed it, a German accent. I would tear this argument apart, but it would be like arguing with a wall — walls have no brains and will not change their mind.
If you’re watching through The Woke Lens, though, you can appreciate all of the very subtle and non-spoken jokes. This is a movie where I am sure you can watch it two or three times and still not get all the jokes. For instance, in one scene a human character has a box of Chinese food, which is from a restaurant called “Pu Ping”. If you don’t get it, whisper it out loud, but make sure nobody hears you or they’ll think you’re weird. Actually, go ahead and say it out loud. I’ll wait.
If you’re watching through The Woke Lens you’ll see the homage to “Saving Private Ryan” and be amazed at how clever the whole movie is. I really thought the Hitler joke in the main song was hilarious, but when the “Saving Private Ryan” part came along, I knew I was in for a very funny movie, not a mind-numbingly dumb one.
Speaking of the song, it was created by Alan Menken. You may or may not recognize his name, but he’s done the music for tons of things, not limited to “Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “Hercules”. The song for this movie was funny and really helped to set up your understanding for the plot.
For as much crap as this movie is getting from people with a stick in an uncomfortable place, I definitely liked how Salma Hayek’s lesbian character was not the butt of jokes. It seems like gay jokes are go-to easy shots, but this movie didn’t do that. They also referred to the fruits as…you guessed it, “fruits,” and they were supposed to be gay. That was hilarious, but it was not making fun of them for that reason. If people actually watched the movie, perhaps they would see that it is far from offensive.
The ending was definitely interesting, when it went particularly meta. Again, stupid humor does not do this. By default, meta humor has to be clever.
And just wait until you see the end of the big fight scene in the super market. No spoilers here, but dang did I not see that one coming.
If you want to see a movie that is funny, clever, and includes an orgy, then this is the movie for you.
Verdict: Cinema