The Onion Movie

I had no expectations for the quality of this movie, and I was really taken all over the place.

The movie starts out GREAT! It really felt like a movie version of the onion articles and stories. I was thinking this would be the greatest skit-based movie since Kentucky Fried Movie...

...and then it just lost it. Almost in the blink of an eye, the movie goes from witty, satirical, and spot-on to low-brow, off color, and completely underwritten. It's almost as if two very different writers were at work here.

If this movie had been condensed to just the good skits and articles, I would've given it an 8 or 9. However, the amount of uninspired unfunny material present in the second half of the film really brings it down.

Still a hell of a lot better than the "Epic Movie" series.

It was made in 2004 ... but apparently was released in 2008. Not sure what is up with that. What bothers me is I don't think it could be made today, and that is a worrisome commentary on the trajectory of our culture. In order to cater to extremists, we have basically outlawed comedy in the USA. But for one brief shining moment we could make movies like Blazing Saddles, Animal House and Tropic Thunder. Alas, we are now everything we used to correctly hate.

This film was a great deal of fun to watch, however the humor is not for everyone. I have been a fan of "The Onion" website for years and find the content (on the web) varies considerably in quality and is to some extent,a function of the mood you are in at the time. I would characterize this film as falling into the same category, i.e. gut busting humor that will leave you crying and other bits that fall flat. This shows the difficulty in translating a great website with really good satirical content to film. Some of the humor is very caustic and biting satire and requires you to be fairly open minded; there are some excellent pokes at politics, PC behavior, global conflicts and popular culture that are in the news today. I really enjoyed this film and would not recommend it for those under the age of 16.

I saw the trailer for The Onion Movie on a DVD recently and I couldn't help but stop laughing, so I knew that I wanted to see this movie. I rented the movie and watched it yesterday and I don't know, I'm just getting mixed feelings about this film. Just it reminded me so much of Kentucky Fried Movie, not to mention that the film at the end, I just felt like it didn't make much sense. But strangely enough, these skits were good enough to where they'd be great on Saturday Night Live or Mad TV, just putting them into a random 80 minute movie threw me off quite a bit. Some things were a little odd, some things were random, some things were unfunny, and some things were just friggin' hilarious. I did love Norm Archer though, he was just so funny and I felt so much for his character when he saw a dancing penguin on the desk, well, you'll see what I mean.

Norm Archer is a news anchor for the Onion News, a very off beat news program that reports on: neck seat belts, Margo Cherry, the virgin sexy singer, stereotypical movie critics, neck belts for cars, geeks, missing good black socks, terrorists, a working armed gunman, and much more, including the new hit movie, well, I don't know if I could say the title, again, something you'll have to see for yourself. But Norm begins to question who he's working for and how strange it is.

The Onion Movie has it's moments, I mean, don't get me wrong, as random as it is, it has some great gags. I loved Margo Cherry, the whole interview, we of course know they're making fun of Britney Spears, only I think it was more blunt. But this was over all a silly clever movie, just how it was put together, it's more of a Saturday Night Live skit vs. an actual movie. But I would recommend this if you need a few laughs, as a movie, it's below average, as for the skits, it makes it more worth your while.

6/10

This movie isn't so much a movie as it is a collection of skits. There is no real story what so ever. That being said viewers who enjoy plot and a rich story may not enjoy this movie. That aside this is a very funny movie. I found myself laughing quite a bit. The skits aren't over the top silly or cheesy but more stereotypical humor playing on pop-culture. It's basically a spoof of the evening news. If you enjoy movies like "Scary Movie" or "Anchorman" and TV programing such as "MADtv", satirical news shows such as "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show (with Jon Stewart)". Chances are you will really enjoy this movie. Don't be fooled by my vote of 7. For what it's worth it was a great film.