The Onion Movie (2008)

Satirical interpretations of world events and curious human behavior.

Directors:

Tom Kuntz (as James Kleiner), Mike Maguire (as James Kleiner)

Writers:

Todd Hanson, Robert Siegel

Stars:

Len Cariou, Sarah McElligott, Amir Talai

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Chacón	...	Young American / Cock Puncher
Ken Takemoto	...	Sensei
Steven Seagal	...	Cock Puncher
Don McManus	...	Dennis McCormick
Kate Fuglei	...	Dolores McCormick
Abigail Mavity	...	Roseanne McCormick
Reid Weaver	...	Dennis McCormick, Jr.
Brian Powell	...	Typical Neighbor Husband
Adele Robbins	...	Typical Neighbor Wife
Jason L. Miller	...	Sooty Firefighter
Brendon Baerg	...	Sooty Child
Len Cariou	...	Norm Archer
Larissa Laskin	...	Dana Dobbs
Scott Klace	...	Kip Kendall
Barbara Pilavin	...	Alzheimers Old Lady

Storyline

We watch the Onion News, America's Finest News Source, with Dana Dobbs, Senior Correspondent Kip Kendall, and award-winning anchor Norm Archer. In addition to watching the news, we see the program's commercials, some commentary on the film as it proceeds, and we watch some terrorists in training. Behind the scenes, Onion News's corporate owner, Global Tetrahedron, seeks synergy by promoting its other products within Norm's news broadcast. Norm doesn't like it, especially when a toy penguin (think Energizer Bunny) waddles across his desk promoting a Global Tetrahedron film starring Steven Seagal. But Norm may end up needing Steven's help.

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Plot Keywords:

racial stereotype | taffy | locksmith | nipples | hanging by one hand | 

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Taglines:

America's finest news source.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian Spanish

Release Date:

7 January 2008 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Untitled Onion Sketch Comedy Project

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

3 Arts Entertainment, Fox Searchlight Pictures, New Regency Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally filmed in late 2003, this was subsequently shelved for many years and never released theatrically (allegedly after poor test screening). Finally released directly to DVD in June 2008.

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Goofs

Liz Anne has a cut on the left side of her forehead which disappears when Armed gunman is promoted to customer advisor.

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Quotes

Norm Archer: The internet went down for three hours this morning, plunging the nation into productivity. The outage, which caused major work startages from New York to California, prevented an estimated 120 million American employees from messing around on the web at work.

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Crazy Credits

Watch after the credits as Norm Archer comes on screen sitting at his news-desk saying "For the Onion News, this is Norm Archer. Fuck you and Good Night".

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Connections

Spoofs Britney Spears: ...Baby One More Time (1998)

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Soundtracks

Down On My Knees
Written by Asche & Spencer
Performed by Lisa Marie Furth

User Reviews

Ultimately disappointing

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.