A novel idea from Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Jonah Hill—that foodstuffs believe they’re taken to the “great beyond” when bought at the grocery store, rather than sliced and diced and eaten—gets stretched way too thin in this animated comedy. If the movie weren’t quite so pleased with its own raunchiness and political incorrectness (most food items correspond with a cultural stereotype), it might have been less of an extended stunt and more of an ingenious satire along the lines of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut or Team America: World Police. (Trey Parker and Matt Stone are masters of the sort of offensive enlightenment this is going for.) As is, we’re given a lot of obvious food puns and explicit double entendres, as a hot dog (voiced by Seth Rogen) learns what happens outside the store and tries to convince his girlfriend (a bun, voiced by Kristen Wiig) that the afterlife she believes in doesn’t exist. I’ll give co-directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon credit for two hilariously gory set pieces: a shopping-cart spill that plays like a Mel Gibson battle scene and a cooking sequence straight out of a horror movie. As for the theological implications, they’re amusing in concept, but aren’t given nearly the thoughtful (yet still hysterical) execution they receive in Rogen and Goldberg’s This is the End.
