REVIEW: The Onion Movie

I have always been a fan of satirical newspaper The Onion both in print and website form, and its daily Onion Radio news podcast series, and the more recent video podcast series have had be chuckling on the train to University with it's close-to-the-bone take on current events.

It is with this in mind that I looked forward to The Onion Movie which has been released last week straight-to-DVD. The "straight-to-DVD" really should have given me a hint about the hit and miss nature of this film. The film takes the format of a series of sketches, some nicely tied into a rough storyline involving a large corporate conglomerate's take over of The Onion News Network and there attempts to commercialise news broadcasting. Some sketches go over well (The "Cockpuncher" movie really nails the summer blockbuster industry), and some bomb (some more literally than others.)

The style of the movie is very similar to the Kentucky Fried Movie, and it came as no surprise to me that it was co-produced by David Zucker ("Airplane!", "The Naked Gun" trilogy, "Scary Movie 3") and the film seems to follow a very similar format.

The main thing I disliked about the movie was that it, unlike its current video podcasts, didn't seem to have the right mix of satire - at times it was just trying to be a silly sketch comedy. It's also my understanding that the production was actually filmed back in 2003, and the release was delayed, this perhaps explains why the content and delivery of the current video podcasts seem much more developed than this first attempt into the video world.

Although a watchable length (under 90 mins) and worth watching for Steven Seagal and his cockpunching fists of fury, my suggestion is stick to the podcasts.