The Onion Movie
Len Cariou, Steven Segal, Alonzo Bodden
Ahmed Ahmed,
Fox Home Video 2008
80 minutes
The Onion Movie does what very, very few sketch comedy movies do: make you laugh. It does this with one very simple trick: none of the skits run too long: A minute or so per clip and The Onion movie moves on to the next joke. It is even better than the yardstick for this kind of comedy, Joe Dante’s Amazon Women On The Moon.
Much like the internet paper, The Onion DVD is a collection of fake news and other tabloid moments that offend, make you laugh, or both. Its take on pop culture such as the Britney Spears spoof Melissa Cherry (played wonderfully by Sarah McElligot) is so dead on it is viciously funny. In fact the soundtrack for The Onion Movie with tunes like Down on my Knees, Take Me From Behind, or Shoot Your Love All Over Me is already a three time Granny Award winner.
Len Cariou is excellent as the Onion News anchorman who holds this movie together. The sketch with the guy who buys the latest computer only to always find out a second later it is the old model is also great -though the joke is a bit old– and features computer guru Gill Bates finally getting what he deserves.
The preview clips for Cockpuncher, what is probably the best Steven Seagal movie in the last ten years, are a bit repetitive but still funny.
The only joke that does not work is the Brendan Laroux story, an armless and legless guy who becomes a professional hockey player. It is not believable because he is not shown playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
What is surprising about The Onion Movie DVD is this project sat on the shelves for some five years before finally being released. That it is still fresh and does not feature too many too old to get the joke references (aside from the guy from Baywatch and his rehab thing) is proof the humor is still fresh.
What is really stunning and extremely funny is this comedy manages to tie everything, and I mean everything together in the end.
The Onion Movie, waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy coooooooooooooooolllllllllllll
Special features include a really funny bit about those blow-in cards in magazines.
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