You really know you're getting on when you spend more time talking and thinking about old films than you do new ones - it's the cinematic equivalent of your parents and grandparents saying food tasted better way back when. How apt, then, that this movie has 'sausage' in the title.
Now, when it comes to loss of flavour, the two big screen genres that have suffered the most in the last two decades are horrors and comedies, to the extent that you feel like you're in miracle territory when you find one that satisfies from start to finish and are still savouring it a few hours later.
This year, hipster squealing about the Sausage Party trailer was audible on the International Space Station, while the trumpeting of its 'R' rating in US - the first animated movie to get that cert - was put forward as pre-release proof that we were about to be served up something very special.
But the reality is that the latest offering from the Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg kitchen is just like a lot of grub these days - a couple of nice bits but fairly bland overall and you're hungry again a half-hour later.
The duo and their team deserve credit for a good idea. In an allegory about faith, waste, religion and consumerism as its very own church, the products and produce on the supermarket shelves discover that "the Gods" who put them in the trollies aren't bringing them to paradise in "The Great Beyond" but are eating and drinking them. Prophet-in-his-own-aisle sausage Frank (natch) learns the truth but will others believe him?
The first word in Sausage Party is an expletive and, sure enough, Rogen, Goldberg and co start as they mean to go on. But familiarity breeds contempt and the device has lost its shock and humour value before the half-hour mark. It's the equivalent of the pal who blanket F-bombs every single anecdote: your attention drifts so much that you really have to focus to find the funny bits.
And there are some here. Tackling the Arab-Israeli conflict via a bagel and lavash is inspired; Meat Loaf becoming his stage name for a song-driven montage is delicious and some one-liners ("I believe in bunogamy", "You've got girth - that's way more important than length", "Just act happy and ignore your feelings") provide the chuckles. Too often, however, Sausage Party is just crude for the sake of it without the standout gags needed to back that approach up. The family-friendly Finding Dory, The Secret Life of Pets and Zootopia all had stronger material.
They also had more fulfilling finales. The ending here is suitably bonkers but you may have put down the knife and fork in your head long before it arrives.
Really, there's no need for seconds.
Harry Guerin
