Saying that I enjoy a Seth Rogen movie is like saying the Jews enjoyed their trip to Auschwitz. Ah, but I’m Jewish, so I can make that joke and it’s not anti-Semitic… right?
That’s the exact logic Seth Rogen seems to operate under. It feels like a lifetime ago that This Is the End came out, and I actually loved that movie. A bunch of arrogant, self-absorbed celebrities playing exaggerated versions of themselves during the apocalypse was a genuinely fun and original idea. Even then, though, I could see the warning signs that Rogen was turning into a one-trick pony. As the years went on, my tolerance for his particular brand of comedy steadily dropped. When you throw Evan Goldberg into the mix, you are almost guaranteed to fly completely off the rails of anything resembling actual humor. I still don’t fully understand why so many people continue to give him a free pass.
When I first saw the trailer for Sausage Party, I groaned out loud because I knew exactly what I was in for. The film may be animated, but the script might as well have been copy-and-pasted from every other Rogen project. If you’ve seen one of his movies, you’ve essentially seen them all. Let me explain why.Sausage Party is set inside a Shopwell’s supermarket, where the groceries spend their days dreaming of being chosen by the “Gods” (the human customers) and taken to a greater place. You can already see exactly where this is headed. Before watching the movie I made a mental checklist of classic Seth Rogen tropes and decided to track how often they appeared: gay jokes, dick jokes, weed jokes, racist jokes, sex jokes, religion jokes, characters doing drugs, characters smoking weed, Nazi references, and someone showing their dick and/or balls. After the first five minutes I literally stopped counting.
They hit nearly every single item on the list in the opening act alone. To be fair, no one actually showed their penis on screen—small mercies.If I had to break down the joke structure of this film, it would look something like this: 75% sex jokes, 15% racist or ethnic stereotype jokes, 5% gross-out gags, and maybe 5% that are actually funny. This movie is aggressively offensive. I’m not a prude about foul language or politically incorrect humor, but there is a clear line between being edgy and just being lazy and racist. Some people will give Rogen and company a pass because they are perceived as left-leaning, but I won’t. The film takes aim at essentially every group you can imagine—Black people, Asians, Mexicans, white people, Jews, Muslims, Christians. Everyone is fair game, and some groups get it worse than others.
The filmmakers try to shield themselves with the usual “we got a Mexican/Black/Jewish actor to say the line, so it can’t be racist” defense. The problem is that these aren’t clever jokes. They aren’t subversive or insightful. They’re just the most obvious, tired stereotypes delivered for a cheap laugh.Examples are everywhere. The Muslim character (a piece of flatbread with big angry eyebrows) constantly rages against the Jewish characters and talks about going to the “great beyond” so he can get his 72 virgin oils. The Black character curses nonstop and complains about white people. The Asian character is drawn and voiced like a cartoonish Mr. Yunioshi figure. Animated groceries scream “shit” and “fuck” every thirty seconds because… it’s an adult cartoon, so that must be inherently hilarious.
There’s no real dialogue or character work—just a constant stream of cursing, dick puns, and ethnic caricatures. “Hey look, this hot dog is referencing his dick!” “Hey look, this German product is a Nazi because it’s German!” The very first word spoken in the movie is “shit.” There appears to have been almost no thought, structure, or genuine cleverness put into any of it. We’ve seen this exact approach before, and it wasn’t funny then either. I suppose we should talk about the plot, for whatever that’s worth. Seth Rogen voices Frank the sausage (the name itself is already a joke), who discovers that everything the groceries have been told about the “afterlife” is a lie. He sets out to prove to the others that their beliefs are false. Just in case you thought ethnic stereotypes were the only running gag, the central story is also a blunt, repeated attack on religion. Don’t worry, Christians—you’re not the only ones being mocked. Once the Muslim characters get their big gay sex scene with the Jewish bagel, I’m sure plenty of other groups will feel equally targeted.
The film culminates in the food items deciding to hold a massive, extended orgy that lasts a couple of minutes. For anyone who thinks I’m being too hard on this movie, ask yourself a simple question: Did you give Adam Sandler the same pass? Every time Sandler releases another broad, vulgar comedy, large parts of the media and critical establishment tear him apart. They complain that his shtick is tired, that his films are mean-spirited, tasteless, and offensive. If those are legitimate criticisms of Sandler, why does Seth Rogen get a free ride for doing essentially the same thing? The only real differences are their voting records and the fact that Sandler has been working this particular vein for longer. They even share the same studio home at Sony/Columbia. Do we really need another twenty years of mediocre-to-bad Rogen films before people are willing to admit there’s a problem?“Condescending” is the single best word I can use to describe Sausage Party.
The movie seems to revel in talking down to its audience. Seth Rogen is simply the wrong person to attempt any kind of meaningful message, no matter what that message is supposed to be. I usually feel some sympathy for the talented actors who end up in projects like this—Kristen Wiig, Salma Hayek, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, Michael Cera (okay, Cera is probably just happy to be working)—but everyone involved here seems perfectly fine with the material. I am mentally and comedically exhausted by the Rogen/Goldberg machine.I was ready to give this movie my first negative-five-star rating, but that almost felt like letting it off too easy. So I adjusted my scale to match how I actually felt. If you still haven’t caught on to Rogen’s limited range, if you have the maturity of a toddler, or if you’re simply high out of your mind, you might find this entertaining.
For me, it is one of the worst films of the year—and would probably take the top spot in a world that didn’t also contain Sacha Baron Cohen. I’ve said everything I need to say about it. All that remains is the rating.
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