The Onion Movie

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.

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?

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.

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.