The Critical Frog: Sausage Party

The poet Shel Silverstein once wrote in his short piece "Point of View" about a young man who realized the thankless aspects of food once he began to look at it from his meal's perspective. This can make one wonder what exactly it is your food sees before it enters the cavernous regions of your mouth. Sausage Party, the first R-Rated animated feature in over a decade, takes the time to show us, and the results are ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING.

Sausage Party is so over-the-top in its sexualization, language and brutality to food that it's no wonder some critics have hailed it a hallmark of adult animation. But does it really pull it's weight, or is it the shock and reintroduction of R-rated animation that sparks such glowing reviews? It's a bit of both, actually.

Our star character is a sausage named Frank, who lives in a supermarket with his pack of hot dogs and has a mutual affection for Brenda the hot dog bun. They dream of being chosen together by the gods who prowl the supermarket aisles and whisked away to the Great Beyond, where supposedly nothing bad will ever happen to the food products at all. After a traumatic event wherein a pot of honey mustard commits suicide to avoid being sent back to the Great Beyond, Frank and Brenda are separated from their packages and shopping cart and must hurry to find their way back to packaging before the day the hot dogs and buns are chosen together for the Fourth of July. But Frank is tormented by the dead condiment's last words, and so goes on his own mission to discover the truth of the great beyond, while Brenda races back to her aisle while evading the nefarious feminine hygiene product that pursues her and Frank on a quest for vengeance. She's joined by a kosher bagel and a piece of Lavash bread that can't get along as well on a journey to return to their feuding aisles (guess what this is a metaphor for?). Meanwhile Frank's pack discovers the horror of what happens once they leave the store, and one little hot dog attempts to escape.

The film can be funny at times, but other scenes take the profanity and sexualized content too far. There's an admittedly thin line between too much and just enough, that very few shows can walk effectively (South Park, Bojack Horseman) that separates the good and the bad of adult animation. If South Park is a ten on the understanding scale and Family Guy is a negative twenty seven, than Sausage Party  would be roughly a six. There are quite a few moments where the profanity fits (such as when a sentient potato is peeled alive, or when a character has an epiphany), and the sexuality works to the film's advantage, but most times it ends up looking too overdone.

OVERALL RATING: 6/10

The Critical Frog: Suicide Squad

While the focus on every superhero film is intended to be the superhero, with a little time and effort put into the character, the focus can just as easily be shifted to a well-developed villain. Remember Christian Bale's Batman from The Dark Knight? Of course you don't, because you were too busy thinking about how good Heath Ledger was as The Joker. How about Thor? Nope, we wanted more of Tom Hiddleston's surprisingly attractive Loki. And with such a massive roster of villains in both the Marvel and DC universes, there was bound to be a villainous team-up eventually. And while the Legion of Doom may not be around anymore, we do have a group that challenges the Guardians of the Galaxy in terms of misfit antiheroes. Enter: the Suicide Squad.

The Suicide Squad originates from DC comics, and works in a way similar to the Avengers: Following the 'death' of Superman in the trainwreck that was Batman Vs. Superman, agent of the US Government Amanda Waller recruits several of the most dangerous villains in captivity into a makeshift task force to save the planet when planet-smashing heroes aren't nearby. With a combination of ace shots, nutjobs, and superhumans, can she pull the group together in time to stop any major threat? Or will the villains be too busy fighting with each other?

Suicide Squad provides us with a strong roster of villains to grow attached to: in addition to the acrobatic and ditzy Harley Quinn (who Frog may or may not have a serious crush on), we have the seasoned marksman Deadshot (Will Smith), fire-shooting Diablo, amphibious Killer Croc, and Captain Boomerang (for some reason). The squad is advised and ordered around by Waller thanks to explosive chips implanted in their necks, which will blow their heads off should they disobey her orders. But when one of the previously drafted villains goes rouge with a plot to destroy the modern world (Enchantress, who has the powers of whatever the writers need her to have at the moment), it's up to the rest of the Suicide Squad to put a stop to the evil Mary Sue. And what will happen once Harley's boyfriend gets involved?

Well, here we go. The big thing that needs to be talked about in this film: the new Joker, played by actor Jared Leto. It's been talked about and debated for a long time before the release of the film, and with his unveiling, people have compared it with the Jokers of the past. But my thoughts? Well, it's...alright. Not the best, but bearable.

He has some good bits. He has some good lines. But following the brilliant portrayal from Heath Ledger (may he clown in peace), Jared Leto certainly has big shoes to fill. But while Ledger's character was more calm and unpredictable, Leto's performance is far more manic and wild. It's not just a differing opinion: this is specifically designed to be more true to the comic than The Dark Knight. And, as the owner of several Harley Quinn comics (I am not ashamed), I can say that it is more true to the comics. Although, to be fair, once you've seen Heath Ledger in the makeup, it's tough to picture anyone else in it. Leto isn't bad, but he's no Dark Knight. But with a decent cast and a fun setup, how can this go wrong? Two Words: Zack Snyder.

I'm just going to flat-out say it. Zack Snyder is not allowed to be in the same room as a superhero film script anymore, alright? We saw how that went with his last few experiences. They've all had the same issues, particularly his lack of pacing. Much like in Batman V. Superman, scenes either rush or draw out with little flow between one scene and the next, and characters that bear no real reason for appearing in the story (The Flash is here again, for about two seconds again), typical tropes for Snyder, have returned from Batman V. Superman much to our chagrin. My personal favorite tropes come from the trailers, where lines appear that are not actually said in the film and scenes that have entirely different dialogue (Jared Leto has said that some of the film was never used).

DC has not had as much luck with the film industry as Marvel has, and for one simple reason: Marvel understands the roots of it's characters, DC isn't quite sure where to put them. Marvel understands that we don't want to watch the Hulk have an emotional breakdown. We want to watch him smash things, and so Marvel only uses him in situations where things needed to be smashed. We want to see Captain America in more serious situations, and so they only use him when serious topics arise. DC, on the other hand, DC feels the need to insert every character into every situation, and nowhere is this more sure than at the end of the film (which is a bit of a cop-out).

OVERALL RATING: 5/10
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I want to love Suicide Squad. I do. The idea of villains banding together to do justice with their own goals is a fun one, and with a little practice, could become something like Guardians of the Galaxy. But, with Zack Snyder's "magic" touch, it falls flat in the water again, despite all the good aspects. The characters are interesting and diverse (Deadshot works to protect his daughter, Diablo has sworn to never light up again, and Harley is driven by a quest to reunite with her Puddin'), Harley in particular is very well-written (I don't care if she has a thing for crazy clowns, she WILL BE MINE), but the good just gets buried under all the mediocre. It's worth a look to see the new versions of some old characters, but aside from that, there's not much special here.