The Onion Movie

This movie possesses that rarest of combinations: utter brilliance and unbridled stupidity. Obviously, nothing can compare to Monty Python's Flying Circus, but The Onion Movie's creators were plainly big fans of that show, and succeeded in delivering "something completely different".

While this movie is chock full of current-societal satire (which Python never was), it uses the clever segues to new scenes, the reappearance of characters you'd just about forgotten, and the absolute Absurdity (it has to be capitalized!) that those wonderful Brits mastered decades ago.

The Onion Movie is not a regular movie. If you insist on plot, and/or are easily offended, this movie is not for you. But if you're in the mood for laughing about cultural stereotypes, or people with enough humor to parody themselves (you rock Steven Seagal!), or just enjoying the ride through countless ridiculously silly situations (God bless you, Armed Gunman), you might want to take a peek at The Onion Movie.

Do you have the balls?

The Onion network is famous for the impartial nature of its news coverage as well as the quality of its delivery and journalists. Anchorman Norm Archer in particular prides himself on keeping the standard high and serving Americans the real stories without dumbing down. However when the network is purchased by a new parent company (who have a major new Steven Seagal film to promote) and Archer starts to notice significant slippage in his beloved network.

The name "The Onion" was enough to attract me to this film given that I frequently dip into the satirical newspaper for a few easy chuckles; however even as I was pressing play I wondered how a newspaper can be adapted into a film – maybe a TV show in the mould of "The Day Today" or "The Daily Show" but a film? Well the answer to my wonderings turns out to be "not that well" because The Onion Movie is a mess of hits and misses that works when it hits but rapidly annoys when it is missing. It will depend on sense of humour but it is undeniable that there are misses in a film that is essentially a sketch show with a bit of a plot that satirises the commercial nature of news networks. You can see the intelligence behind it but yet it doesn't really work as well as it should. The fragmented nature of it prevents a flow but this wouldn't matter one bit if the laughs were consistent.

Sadly this doesn't happen. There are some really great moments that had me laughing out loud but there are also plenty of sketches that either just don't work or simply extend the joke for much longer than it can actually sustain or, in the case of the film's ending, both. Fans of this style of humour will just about find enough to make it worth watching but even I (who does) found parts of it to just be poor. The cast are hard to judge in strict acting terms but mostly they work well to support the material, which is what counts. As with his recent Orange cinema adverts, Seagal is better at spoofing his career than he is at making proper films and he is enjoyable (even if this is one joke really over-extended).

I can understand why the Onion Movie sat in release limbo for so long because it never really convinced me that it suited or deserved to be a film. The sketches throw up as many hits as misses – which will suffice for some but was not good enough for me even if it did produce a handful of good laughs. Worth a look for Onion fans but not good enough to tickle a mass audience.

I have just watched this movie and it was one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I believe this film got bad reviews in America. It has often been said that the UK doesn't understand the US humour and vice versa. I would just like to point out that this movie has hit the spot where UK humour is. This is a seriously great movie and if it was marketed well in the UK it would be a triumph. Well done ONION.

We gave you 'The Office' and you are finally understanding that kind of understated comedy. The Onion Movie has made me more determined to look out for more American comedy like this.

Never mind what all those stuffy critics say (as parodied)... this is a great watch.

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

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.